SACO — Thornton Academy got ahead early, and this time they never looked back, as the Trojans topped Scarborough 9-5 in an SMAA girls lacrosse game at Hill Stadium on Thursday.

Thornton took the lead 2:31 into the game and doubled its lead two minutes later.

“Getting the lead definitely gets us in there. It sets the tone for the game,” said senior captain Carly McKenna, who assisted on the second goal, scored by Julianna Grondin.

Even better than the start for the Trojans was the finish, as the Trojans dominated possession in the second half to close out the Red Storm, something head coach Craig Agreste said was a problem in previous years’ meetings, as well as in their last loss, against Falmouth.

“We played Falmouth, and we didn’t execute down the stretch. We kept turning the ball over, and they came back and won,” said Agreste. “I think the girls learned from that. Those are hard learning experiences when you lose.”

The Trojans couldn’t build much on their lead in the first half, as the Red Storm matched them goal for goal. Ainsley Jamieson cut the Thornton lead in half six minutes into the game.

McKenna and Jamieson then traded off the next three goals ”“ two by McKenna and another by Jamieson ”“ as the score stayed close at 4-2 with nine minutes left in the half.

“You can’t complain when you have a player like that. You need one player that you can hang your hat on, absolutely, but I think we had some balanced scoring today.”

Kaitlin Prince cut the lead back to one with just over five minutes to go, after the Red Storm missed two previous shots on the possession.

McKenna restored the two-goal lead ”“ the closest deficit the rest of the game ”“ on a free position shot with 22.2 seconds left.

“Even with the few goals we had, it still felt like they were coming hard, and we were just going back twice as hard,” said McKenna. “We still had to keep our composure, we couldn’t just set on that, we had to keep going.”

The Trojans took a three-goal lead for the first time 31 seconds into the second half, as Faith Sinclair ran in untouched from 30 yards out on a free position play after getting fouled trying to corral the opening draw.

Bailey Adams answered for the Red Storm two minutes in, but Scarborough rarely possessed the ball in the offensive end after that.

Katie McCrum and McKenna scored 50 seconds apart just over 10 minutes in to give the Trojans breathing room at last.

From there on out it, the Trojans played keep away.

“Any time you get a lead, it’s easier to play. If you possess the ball ”¦ the key to the game was, yeah we scored those early goals, and then we had possession the majority of the game,” said Agreste. “If they can’t get the ball, they can’t score.”

Sinclair finished off a hat trick on a free position shot with 6.2 seconds left. McKenna finished with a game-high four goals.

“You can’t complain when you have a player like that,” Agreste said of McKenna. “You need one player that you can hang your hat on, absolutely, but I think we had some balanced scoring today.”

The win was the first for the Trojans against the Red Storm since 2005, Agreste’s first year. For Thornton, it was a long time coming.

“We’ve come close to it, definitely,” said McKenna. “This feels real good.”

“We play them tough every year. But we haven’t executed,” said Agreste. “Today we were able to make the plays.

“(The girls) did everything that we told them that they had to do, and the girls executed. The girls played awesome.”

— Staff Writer Wil Kramlich can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @WilTalkSports.