SACO — Paige LeBlanc says Wednesday’s dominant 15-1 Class A South quarterfinal win against Biddeford shows how much her third-ranked Thornton Academy girls’ lacrosse team has improved.
In the regular season, Thornton slogged its way to a 9-5 win against the sixth-seeded Tigers.
“We took the win against Biddeford and we were kind of unsatisfied with the results because we know we have the potential to be a very good team,” said LeBlanc, a midfielder and Thornton’s draw specialist. “We applied what we thought we could do and just made that work.”
LeBlanc won the first six draws of the game, scored twice and assisted on another goal as Thornton built a 7-0 halftime lead. LeBlanc scored twice in a 41-second span early in the second half to push the lead to 9-0 and squelch any Tigers comeback thoughts.
Saturday the Golden Trojans (10-3) will go to Waterboro to take on No. 2 Massabesic (12-1). The Mustangs have won 12 straight, including an 11-1 thumping of Thornton on May 5. Massabesic beat No. 7 Scarborough 15-4 in its quarterfinal.
Thornton has lost to the eventual state champion the past three seasons. Last year it was a 4-2 setback at Marshwood. In 2014 it was an overtime loss at Massabesic.
“Our minds are in the right place but we’ve got to cross the bridge,” Thornton Coach Craig Agreste said. “We haven’t done that yet but we’re going to have another opportunity. We’re a pretty young team and we’ve been progressing all year, and we’re in a place right now where we’re a pretty confident group.”
Faith Sinclair, Alana Pettaway, Amanda Cyr and Catherine Henaire each scored twice for Thornton. The lead swelled to 14-0 before Taylor Turgeon got the Tigers on the board with 6:43 to play. Turgeon’s goal came after Biddeford picked up four yellow card penalties in quick succession.
“For the most part we played lacrosse the whole game and that’s what I’m happy about because we have good lacrosse players,” Agreste said.
Biddeford (8-5) was coming off the best season in the seven-year history of its program. Coach Caitlin Albert praised her nine seniors’ commitment and improvement over the past four seasons.
“In our previous 12 games the most we’ve lost by is four goals,” Albert said. “I think today was just a case of the girls don’t have the experience to come back from 5-0, 7-0 down in a playoff game. It’s another step, a lesson.”
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