FALMOUTH — The Falmouth field hockey team lived up to its top billing and rolled to a 4-1 win against No. 8 Gorham in a Class A South quarterfinal game Wednesday.

Devon Sarazin scored two goals, while Isabella Libby and Kate Kelley each had one as the Yachtsmen, who will host No. 5 Massabesic in the semifinals, showed why they are tough to beat on their turf field.

The Rams (9-4-2) didn’t play the Yachtsmen (13-2) in the regular season. Gorham plays in the all-Class A SMAA. Falmouth is the lone Class A team in the Western Maine Conference, which is made up mostly of Class B and C teams.

“This is our first turf game of the year,” Gorham Coach Becky Manson-Rioux said. “We played all of our games on grass and it’s a much faster game on turf.”

Most of the game was played on Gorham’s side of the midfield line as the Rams found it difficult to move the ball deep into Falmouth’s defensive zone.

“We knew their midfield was strong,” Manson-Rioux said. “When we could get through and had some passes we couldn’t quite get inside the 25. They have excellent stick skills and really hard drives.”

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The Yachtsmen hadn’t played since finishing the regular season with a 6-0 win against Cape Elizabeth on Oct. 6, but the long layoff didn’t seem to affect them.

“It was something I was worried about, but the girls played a complete team game,” Falmouth Coach Robin Haley said.

The Yachtsmen took a 1-0 lead when Sarazin slammed home a shot from 10 yards out less than five minutes into the game. Sydney Bell had the assist.

“Being able to score early gave us some confidence and help to settle us down,” Haley said.

The Rams made just four brief forays into the Falmouth end in the first 30 minutes, but play was even more one-sided in the second half.

Libby made it 2-0 less than nine minutes into the second half when she put in a shot from the center of the circle. Liberty Ladd set up the goal with a centering pass from the right side after Gorham goalie Jessica Dusseault stopped a shot by Sarazin.

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The Yachtsmen made it 3-0 when Kelley converted a backhanded centering pass from Bell from point-blank range.

Jamie Juskiewicz scored on Gorham’s only shot on goal with 3:25 left when she turned and fired a shot from between two defenders past goalie Caitlin Bull.

Erin Esty had an assist.

Less than a minute later, Sarazin smacked in a loose ball to complete the scoring.

This story was updated at 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 20 to correctly identify that Devon Sarazin scored two goals for Falmouth.


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