FALMOUTH – Alex Bernier didn’t notice the cold Thursday at Falmouth High. No long-sleeve shirt or leggings under the white, blue and gold home uniform. No padded gloves to ease the chill of that aluminum shaft on her lacrosse stick.

Turns out Yarmouth couldn’t take the heat.

Bernier scored eight goals and added two assists to lead the Yachtsmen to a 16-7 win over Yarmouth in a cold, raw Western Maine Conference girls’ lacrosse opener.

Molly Ryan and Angie Mallis each scored three goals for Falmouth. Geneva Waite and Mikey Richards added two assists apiece.

“We’ve been a little slow in preseason games so I’m very pleased with how we performed overall,” Falmouth Coach Robin Haley said. “This just gives us that baseline of what we’re doing well and what we need to work on.”

Mallis got the Yachtsmen going on the first shot of the game, snapping in a goal from the right side after just 44 seconds. About seven minutes later, Falmouth opened it up with three goals in 2:04 as Bernier scored twice around one by Waite for a 4-0 lead.

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“We wanted to come out hard and get the lead,” Bernier said. “And winning the draw was big, too, so we could maintain possession throughout the game.”

“We did a nice job,” Haley said. “For the most part we moved the ball well. A couple people scored a lot of goals but that doesn’t really reflect how well other people were moving to the open spots.”

Bernier was causing havoc all game, drawing penalties that resulted in four goals from free positions.

Nearly half of her goals came off an unconventional sidearm shot into a top corner.

“When she gets her shot going, like that,” Ryan said, “no one can stop her.”

“The nice thing about Alex,” Haley said, “is even though she can go score eight goals, she also looks to see that her teammates are having similar successes. She doesn’t hesitate to dish that ball off.”

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Despite Falmouth’s fast start, Yarmouth refused to fold. The Clippers outscored the Yachtsmen 3-2 over the next nine minutes to cut the lead to 6-3. Mallis scored her second and Bernier had two more to counter goals by Olivia Conrad (5:23) and Alex Lucas (2:40) for a 9-5 Falmouth lead at halftime.

“We just a have a lot to work on,” Yarmouth Coach Dorothy Holt said.

With five juniors and five sophomores, “we’re young. I have nearly all new defenders and we’re just learning. What we missed was the 50-50 balls.”

The Clippers also ran into a confident goalie in freshman Sarah Hutcheon, who made seven saves.

“The girls should not hang their heads,” Holt said. “We played hard until the end and that’s all I can ask.”

Julie Kameisha scored two second-half goals and had three assists for the Clippers. Conrad finished with two goals.

Yarmouth goalie Jordan Brown made 13 saves.

 


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