BIDDEFORD — A big first half was enough to propel the University of New England womens lacrosse team past visiting Thomas College 13-3 on Tuesday.

In the opening 30 minutes of play, the Nor’easters received scores from four different players – six on the night – three of who scored multiple times to take an early 10-1 lead.

UNE coach Sue Estabrook credited her team’s strong first half to the execution of their gameplan.

“I think we just played our game. We went out there and played our systems, played our game. We are a young team so we are still putting it together,” said Estabrook.

UNE was also short multiple players, making Tuesday’s win an even more impressive feat for the Nor’easters.

“We are battling a few injuries and two of our players are on the ice hockey team and they just won a fabulous playoff game,” said Estabrook. “We are just waiting to get the whole group together so we can work on our systems and see what we got and do the best we can.”

UNE’s first goal came just 3:37 in the opening half when Jocelyn Davee fired the ball high into the net.

Thomas fired back less than two minutes later thanks to a goal from Samantha Greenlaw, who wrapped around the net and put the ball in for the score, tying the game at 1-1.

From that point forward, UNE dominated Thomas on both ends of the field.

UNE’s Tori Stocks took a pass from the center of the field and scored the go-ahead goal at the 21:31 mark. Five minutes later, Korinne Bohunsky added another goal to make it 3-1 UNE midway through the first half.

The onslaught continued as Stocks scored her second goal 2:06 later, and less than two minutes after that Davee added her second to bring the score to 5-1 with 12:24 remaining in the first.

Davee secured a hat trick at the 10:45 mark sending a hard shot low in the net.

Bohunsky then scored three consecutive goals in the next four minutes to give her four in the contest and giving the Nor’easters a commanding 9-1 lead late in the first.

Perhaps the most impressive play of the game came from UNE’s Natasha Nary with 1:31 remaining in the opening period. As the final two minutes began in the first half, the Nor’easters surged downfield into the Thomas zone. The drive was capped off when Nary spun, shaking off two defenders and sending a shot in the top-right of the net, giving the Nor’easters a big 10- 1 lead heading into halftime.

UNE immediately took control of the second half of play, possessing the ball for the majority of the opening 10 minutes.

As the clock counted down, UNE played keep-away from the Thomas squad and slowed the tempo down greatly.

Although the Nor’easters took their foot off the gas, they still managed to add to their lead when Davee scored her fourth goal at the 20:22 mark, giving UNE an 11-1 lead.

UNE would then get late goals from Kyra Taylor and Carly Sheehan, bringing the Nor’easters to 13 scores on the night.

Thomas continued to fight back in the second half, scoring two late goals from Greenlaw and Erin Nelligan in the final second of action.

A big win was exactly what her team needed early in the season, according to Estabrook.

“It does a lot because we are so young. We have a lot of first year’s out there and we also have some girls that were on the bench last year getting more playing time so it’s definitely an ego boost for them. It gives them confidence and it shows them they can do it,” said Estabrook.

Despite the dominant victory, Estabrook still wants to see her team make adjustments moving forward.

“We need to clean it up, we need to get our sticks on the ball and be more aggressive with our pressure. We also need to clean up our passing, we need to move and pass the ball a little more cleanly,” said Estabrook.

Tuesday’s win brings UNE to 2-0, while Thomas falls to 0-1.

— Sports Staff Writer Alex Sponseller can be reached at [email protected] or at 282-1535 ext. 323. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @ JournalTsports.