SACO — Trailing Gorham 6-5 at halftime Tuesday, Thornton Academy girls lacrosse coach Craig Agreste challenged his players to do one thing: be more assertive.

“They’re an aggressive team and talented, and I think in the first half they pushed us around because we weren’t tough,” Agreste said of Gorham. “They were the aggressor.”

The Golden Trojans received the message and turned the game around as a result, grabbing the majority of the ground balls and winning seven of the 12 draws in the second half as they outscored the Rams 7-5 in the final 25 minutes to take a 12-10 victory in an SMAA girls lacrosse game at Hill Stadium.

“I challenged them at halftime and they responded, so the girls get all the credit. They responded to the style of the game that was warranted,” Agreste said. “As a coach, we tell them there’s going to be highs and lows in games, and we have to stay in the middle. They did that today.”

Carly McKenna scored four of her game-high six goals in the second half for the Trojans and was the epitome of Thornton’s more aggressive style in the closing stages, scoring TA’s final three goals unassisted as she took the ball and used her speed and agility to drive at the Gorham cage.

“Coach definitely challenged all of us, and I think we realized we were in the game, so we had to challenge each other,” McKenna said. “We definitely had to step it up.”

Neither team led by more than one goal in the first half ”“ exchanging the lead three times. But the Rams controlled seven of the 12 draws, thanks to winning more 50-50 balls, and took a 6-5 lead into the break when Katie Tucker scored her third goal of the half with 2:19 left on the clock.

“They were getting every draw in the first half, and I thought it was because many times the ball was on the ground and they were going after it,” Agreste said. “They weren’t playing dirty, just aggressive.”

Thornton (1-1) tied the game at 6-6 early in the second half when Hannah Wuerthner picked up a ground ball and slotted a diving shot past Rams goalie Madeline Hamblen. Gorham retook the lead with the next two goals, but Thornton won three-straight draws and got goals from McKenna, Wuerthner and Faith Sinclair in the span of 43 seconds to take a 9-8 lead.

The teams then traded goals as Gorham (0-2) twice reduced a two-goal Thornton lead to one, with Morgan Cushing tallying her fifth assist of the game when she found Tucker wide open out front as the Rams closed the gap to 11-10 with 4:03 to play.

Cushing then controlled the resulting draw and had a chance to tie the game with 2:30 to play, but Trojans goalie Brianna Chaisson came up with the biggest of her 11 saves to deny Cushing, who soon after was called for a yellow card trying to win the ball back.

Up a man, McKenna scored her final goal to again give Thornton a two-goal lead, and the Trojans were able to runoff the remaining two minutes to close out their first win.

“In the first half, everything was too easy for them. They’re a good team, but we weren’t challenging them enough. In the second half, we were making them earn things,” Agreste said. “The biggest thing was possessing that ball, and in the second half, that’s where the game was won.”

With several new varsity players after graduating 12 seniors from last season’s playoff team, Agreste said he saw plenty of improvement from game one, a 12-6 loss at defending regional champion Massabesic last Friday.

“The first game, they had big eyes and were nervous, but today they, were much more poised,” Agreste said. “Any sport you coach, the biggest improvement you see is from game one to game two. You’re either going to make those adjustments or you’re not.

“We made a lot of silly mistakes in that game against Massabesic, and today we cleaned it up, so I’m very happy with the younger girls.”

Thornton is back in action today, when it will visit Westbrook with a chance to go above .500, and improve even more from game two to three.

“People are going to look at us as we lost 12 seniors, but we’re going to show everyone we can be just the team we were last year,” McKenna said. “We’re young, but that doesn’t matter; it’s not an excuse. I just expect us to come together as a team.”

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