YARMOUTH — Third-seeded Yarmouth rode its depth up front to a 5-1 victory against sixth-ranked Fryeburg Academy in a Class B South field hockey quarterfinal Tuesday.

Ally MacLeod scored two goals, and Sophie McGrath, Abby McDowell and Emilie Martin also scored as the Clippers (11-4) beat the Raiders (6-8-1) for the second time this season to move into the semifinals.

Yarmouth will play at second-seeded Kennebunk (12-3) at 3:30 p.m. Friday.

“We are a complete team and anybody can step up any given day,” Yarmouth Coach Amy Ashley said. “Its great for four different girls to score. It’s going to be hard to mark us that way.”

“There’s not one person to stop,” said McDowell, who also had an assist. “We’ve got so many strengths from different people.”

The Clippers, who won 2-1 at Fryeburg on Sept. 16, this time moved into an early 3-0 lead.

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“It was just one of the games where it wasn’t our day,” Fryeburg Coach Dede Frost said. “We got here later and just before the game we had an injury.”

Frost said Faye Taylor, a junior defender, may have suffered a broken nose during warmups.

“The first 10 minutes of the game I was trying to get the young lady to the hospital,” Frost said.

“When we get into playoffs, we know we have to step it up,” McDowell said. “I think that excitement around playoffs is helping us to play our best.”

Yarmouth converted three of its seven penalty corner in the first half and opened a 4-1 lead.

“We’ve worked hard on corners,” Ashley said. “Our thought processes weren’t correct. We weren’t in the right positions.

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“Now they’re starting to see where they should be and we’re able to deflect (shots). In corners, it’s not about the straight shots, it’s about the deflections. Today there were a lot of corners that went off two, maybe three girls’ sticks. It’s hard to defend.”

The Clippers opened the scoring after less than five minutes on their first penalty corner when McGrath scored from in front from Chloe Noack.

Nearly 15 minutes later, MacLeod made it 2-0 by tipping a shot by McDowell into the left side of the cage.

With less than five minutes left in the first half following Yarmouth’s fifth penalty corner of the game, McDowell put in a shot from the left side for a 3-0 lead.

Less than a minute later, Zoe Bodwell bounced in a shot from just inside the arc for the Raiders’ goal.

The Clippers regained their three-goal edge in the final minute of the first half when Martin scored on a backhander after receiving a feed from Nicole McDowell following another corner.

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With less than five minutes left in the game, MacLeod completed the scoring when she sent a shot 10 yards along the ground inside the right post.

During the regular season, the Clippers split two games against Kennebunk.

On Sept. 22, the Rams pulled out a 1-0 win at Kennebunk when Britney Gregoire scored in overtime on a penalty corner.

On Oct. 5, after dominating the first 30 minutes of the game, Yarmouth held on for a 2-1 win at home.

“We played very well the last time against Kennebunk and hopefully we’ll play like that again, not like the first time,” Abby McDowell said.


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