KENNEBUNK — Playing its third quality opponent in the space of five days, there was always the chance that the Kennebunk girls lacrosse team would show some fatigue and come out flat against Cape Elizabeth on Friday afternoon.

It did anything but.

Displaying a relentless offensive energy and a surgical passing game that tore apart the Capers’ man-to-man defense, the Rams scored seven straight goals on seven straight shots early in the first half to take a commanding 13-5 lead into halftime before coasting to a 14-11 victory in an early season Western Maine Conference showdown between two of the top contenders in Western Class B.

Following 10-7 and 8-3 road wins against Massabesic and Greely, respectively, on Monday and Wednesday, it was the third impressive performance in the opening week for Kennebunk (3-0), which has come out of the gates quick and built sizable first-half leads in each contest.

“Our whole team was ready. We know what’s coming, so we just have to get fired up before games,” sophomore attackman Carly Sandler said. “We know the competition, and we had to push it and stay on them. It was momentum, the first home game, we were just feeling it the whole first half.”

Sandler scored five goals and assisted on two others, while her fellow sophomores Jenny Bush and Kyra Schwartzman and senior Allie Truman added three goals apiece for Kennebunk. The team used a consistently direct approach when attacking the net, either driving straight on from up top or rolling around the crease before rapidly dishing or shooting on Cape goalie Kate Bosworth’s cage.

“We worked a lot yesterday on going to goal, looking for every one-on-one and just going,” Kennebunk coach Annie Barker said. “Typically, we’ve been going outwards, so we worked on going to the center and just pounding the cage, and it showed. They were confident and were getting quality shots.”

After Hannah Newhall opened the scoring for Cape Elizabeth (2-1) just 45 seconds in, Sandler started Kennebunk’s early run with back-to-back goals.

Schwartzman was the key component of the next two strikes, twice picking up ground balls in transition and running at the Capers goal; the first time she dished off to Allie Truman for a close-range catch and shoot, and the next kept it herself, rounded the goal and shot low past Bosworth to make it 4-1.

Truman scored again soon after to make it 5-1, with Sandler finishing the blitz by finding Bush and then scoring from a free position goal herself as the Rams tallied seven goals in a span of 8:19.

Cape stopped the bleeding with back-to-back free position goals, but Kennebunk then went on another run, getting four goals from its four different goal-scorers in a span of just 2:13 to take a commanding eight-goal lead, an advantage the Rams would eventually take into the break.

“I think it’s been the urgency,” said Barker of the Rams’ first-half displays, during which time it has outscored opponents 26-9 so far this season. “We have enough people that can go, and the draw has been on our side in the first halves, so we have the ball and can do good things with it.”

After Sandler and Cape’s Abby McInerney both scored free position tallies early in the second half, the Capers scored the next three goals to get within 14-9 with 6:49 to play.

Cape could have gotten even closer three minutes later when McInerney had another free position chance, but Kennebunk goalie Bella Kudas came up with the biggest of her nine saves to keep the lead at five, and the Rams were able to kill off most of the rest of the clock before McInerney scored twice in the final minute to make it a 14-11 final.

“We need to work on finishing,” said Barker, whose team had nine turnovers in the second half after committing just three in the first. “In the second half, the other team has put a little more pressure on us, and we lose it a little bit and aren’t as smart with the ball.”

Still, three wins against three good teams isn’t a bad way to start the season ”“ a stainless record the Rams will try to keep going with home games against North Yarmouth Academy and Wells next week.

“We’ve all just been meshing really well together,” Sandler said. “It just feels good to get the first three games off our backs with three nice wins.”

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or [email protected].