BIDDEFORD — Like many lacrosse coaches, Craig Agreste likes when his Thornton Academy girls score by committee.
So Agreste was a happy camper on Thursday afternoon, when 10 different Golden Trojans scored in a convincing 15-6 victory over rivals Biddeford at Waterhouse Field.
Carly McKenna had four goals and Courtney O’Brien and Lauren Wells each added two goals apiece for Thornton (1-1), which used a feisty ride along with a dominant performance in the faceoff circle to control possession and tempo throughout.
“If you’re going to be good you can’t just count on one,” Agreste said. “Yeah you want someone you can hang your hat on to put the ball in the net, but the more diverse you are the harder you are to defend.
“I was happy with the way we played. We controlled the game.”
Thornton started to grab a stranglehold eight minutes in, when after Biddeford’s Nikki Matteau tied the game 1-1 on a transition goal McKenna corralled the following faceoff and raced through the Biddeford defense, slotting a shot past goalie Emily Boisvert to give her team a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
Goals from Wells, Audrey Puleio and McKenna then increased the lead to 5-1 as Biddeford continually found possession hard to come by, with a tenacious Golden Trojans transition defense repeatedly forcing the Tigers into turnovers in the midfield area.
“We’ve got some very good athletes out there. We run well and they have great anticipation skills and I think that was the difference,” Agreste said. “They were making saves, but they couldn’t get it past the restraining line because of the pressure we were putting on. Their mistakes were a direct result of our pressure.”
Shelby Courtois was able to get on back on the Tigers’ first extended offensive set since Matteau’s goal when her centering pass deflected off Trojans goalie Allie McCarthy and trickled in with 2:15 left in the half, but Thornton responded with a pair of key goals in the final minute to push the lead to 7-2 at half.
“Once we kind of lost our hold on them and they started scoring, we were getting frustrated and started making stupid mistakes and losing the ball,” said Matteau, who with Courtois led Biddeford with two tallies. “It just got messy.”
It did get messy in the second half for the Tigers, as their inability to hang on to the ball and build any momentum with solid possessions all but killed off any chance of getting back into the game.
“Once we get the ball on offense we can hold it,” Matteau said. “It’s just our transition and getting the ball up the field. That’s something we need to work on.”
And on the other end Thornton started converting more of its many chances, scoring the first four goals of the second half to salt things away.
“We had the play in our end the whole first half and I think it was a matter of playing to their level a little bit. We were peppering (Boisvert) but we weren’t moving her around,” Agreste said. “In the second half I was much happier ”“ we shot low, we shot high, I don’t think she knew where it was going.”
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