Every high school sports season has high points and low points. And every high school sports team hopes they’re hitting a high point – otherwise known as peaking – just as the playoffs roll around. The Westbrook High field hockey team is definitely one of those teams that are peaking at the right time with the Western Maine Class A tournament set to get underway on Saturday with several prelim contests.

Although the final Heal Points are not scheduled to be released until Friday, Oct. 12, it appears Westbrook is destined for a likely No. 8 seed following their 8-5-1 regular season. And unless there is a big shift in the most recent Heal Point standings, it looks like the Blazes will host the No. 9 seed for a chance to face top-seeded and unbeaten Sanford on Wednesday in a regional quarterfinal.

“We’ll take whatever spot we’ve got. I don’t think it matters who we play,” said Westbrook coach Beth Murphy. “It’s up for grabs and this is a good group of kids. It’s a new season for us. We’ll go in with an open mind and just do the best we can.”

Westbrook finished their regular season with a 7-1 win at home on Monday afternoon against Massabesic. The Mustangs attacked in the Westbrook end in the game’s opening moments, but the Blazes answered and they took advantage of their scoring chances with Erin Murphy setting up the first three goals.

Alyssa McCarthy was on the receiving end of two nice assists from Murphy as the Blazes took a 2-0 lead with 21:49 left in the first half. They added to that total less than a minute later when Ashley Clifford found the back of the net for a 3-0 advantage.

Murphy scored a goal of her own (from Christina Pettis) and then Clifford rang up her second score of the game off an assist from Stephanie Pettis with just under 12 minutes to play before the half.

“We were aggressive going to the ball,” said Murphy. “It was a total team effort today. Everybody did what they were supposed to do.”

It was more of the same after the break as Westbrook controlled play and created opportunities for themselves in the offensive end of the field.

Ashlyn Bourgeois set up Murphy for another score giving the Blazes a 6-0 lead. The Mustangs then scored their only goal of the game to spoil the shutout bid by Westbrook goalie Elizabeth Wescott (seven saves). Westbrook’s Kathryn Bois then completed the scoring (with an assist from Olivia Hebert) for the 7-1 final.

The Blazes ended the regular season with three straight wins and a 4-1-1 record in the last six games. They’re playing some of their best field hockey of the season and they know what it’ll take to be successful in the postseason.

“We need to come out with a lot of intensity,” said Westbrook junior Erin Murphy, looking ahead to the upcoming playoffs.

“We’ve been kind of up and down this season,” said Coach Murphy. “We’ve had some overtimes where things didn’t quite go our way, but now we’d like to go as far as we can (in the playoffs). It’s all up to the kids and how bad they want it.”