CUMBERLAND – When the Cape Elizabeth and Greely girls’ soccer teams meet, everyone is certain to walk off with a hard-fought lesson.

This time around, the same lesson applied to both teams: When you’re knocked down, you get back up.

Cape Elizabeth scored two goals six minutes apart in the first half Saturday night and held off a late Greely push for a 2-1 victory in a Western Maine Conference match at Glenn A. Hutchins Field.

Cape (4-1) handed Greely (4-1) its first loss of the season. But the Rangers fought to the end.

“It took us 25 minutes to wake up, and by then we were down 2-0,” said Josh Muscadin, Greely’s first-year coach. “In the second half, we played our game. We learned a lot about ourselves, how to treat an opponent and what we need to do to move forward.”

For the Capers, the game was a good recovery from their last outing, a 2-0 loss to Falmouth on Sept. 18.

“Every game we try to get the first goal,” said Cape forward Kathryn Clark, who opened scoring in the 10th minute by knocking in Lizzy Raftice’s low direct kick from 30 yards. “Against Falmouth we didn’t score first and we got rattled. This was our biggest test, and I’m glad we passed it.”

Six minutes after Clark’s goal, Addie Wood made it 2-0, heading in Kate Breed’s cross from the right corner.

“Kate made a great cross and I just made the run forward, and I was lucky enough to finish it,” Wood said.

“We’ve always had a big rivalry (with Greely), and we were very lucky and we’re really excited that we won this game.”

Kristina Volta nearly broke through for Greely in the 28th minute, knocking a defender off the ball and avoiding the onrushing keeper. But the ball got away from her, running wide to the right.

Jocelyn Mitiguy poked in the rebound of her own shot to cut Cape’s lead to 2-1 with 12 minutes to play.

“She’s a firecracker,” Muscadin said. “I have several of them. I just wish they came on in the first half.”

Cape held advantages in corner kicks (7-4), free kicks (15-7) and shots (15-11). Cape keeper Mary Perkins and Greely’s Elyse Dinan each made eight saves.

“We talked a lot about Wednesday and why we lost,” said Craig Fannan, Cape’s first-year coach. “We knew we were going to lose at some point, it’s all about how we react. I thought the girls had a quality first half. They came out and showed what we’re about.”