FALMOUTH — Greely got the early jump in a showdown between two of the state’s top high school girls’ hockey teams Saturday night and held on for a 7-5 victory against Scarborough at Family Ice.

The Rangers (12-2-1) built a 4-0 lead in the first 21 minutes and went on to snap the Red Storm’s six-game winning streak.

“We knew we had to score early because Scarborough was not going to give up, and they clearly didn’t give up,” Greely Coach Nate Guerin said. “I thought they played a strong game and I thought our girls played a strong game. It took some resolve to finish strong.”

It was first loss for the Storm (10-3) since Dec. 13 when Greely, the third-ranked team in Eastern Maine, skated to a 4-2 victory at Saco.

After falling behind 5-1 on Saturday, Scarborough, the top-ranked team in Western Maine, rallied to make it close.

“I’ve been coaching now for six years and we’ve always been a third-period team,” said Scarborough Coach Caitlin Cashman. “It drives me crazy. We can’t be a one-period team. You’re going to get eaten up.”

Less than five minutes into the game, Courtney Sullivan of Greely scored on two breakaways.

With less two minutes left in the first period, freshman Bridget Roberts poked a rebound inside the left post after goalie Lucca Sterrer stopped a shot by Erin Molloy.

Six minutes into the second period, Danita Storey made it 4-0 on a rebound for the first of her four goals.

The Red Storm, who were limited to four shots in the first period, finally got untracked in the second.

At 7:49, freshman Lucy Bogdanovich flipped the puck past goalie Nica Todd to make it 4-1. Less than a minute later, Storey scored on a breakaway.

“Defensively, we got caught up in things we hadn’t seen this season,” Cashman said.

“There’s no excuse for three breakaways.”

Scarborough sophomore forward Sami Shoebottom, the daughter of a former Maine Mariner, Bruce Shoebottom, scored two goals about two minutes apart in the final four minutes of the second period to close the gap to two goals.

The Red Storm (10-3) got closer.

After Storey finished a hat trick by scoring on a power play five minutes into the third period, Lily Nygren scored on a shot from the top of the right circle and Shoebottom scored her third goal with less than three minutes left to make it 6-5.

“We told the girls to take it shift to shift and do what you have to do,” Cashman said.

The Rangers (12-2-1) regained the momentum for good when Storey added another power-play goal with 1:11 remaining to complete the scoring.

“(My players) were fired up for this game,” Guerin said. “This is becoming quite a rivalry and we really like playing this team.

“I think Scarborough gets up for it, too, and it’s really fun to see the end-to-end action like what we saw tonight.”