WESTBROOK — Mary Keef scored one goal and assisted on another as Westbrook defeated Falmouth 4-1 in a Southwestern Maine Activities Association field hockey season opener Wednesday afternoon.
Keef, a sophomore, scored the first goal of the season just under 11 minutes into the game, off a rebound.
“It feels good (scoring the first goal), definitely,” said Keef.
After a goal by Morgan LeBeau gave the Blue Blazes a 2-0 lead, Keef delivered a sharp pass to set up a goal by Alexis Witham that made it 3-0 lead with 2:08 left in the first half.
“We have a lot of our starters coming back (from last season), so it was great that they came out and set the tone right from the beginning,” said Westbrook Coach Theresa Hendrix, whose team was 11-3-1 last year.
Westbrook dominated play in the first half, spending the majority of time on attack. The Blue Blazes earned 17 penalty corners compared to just two for the Yachtsmen in the first half.
Despite the domination, Westbrook was unable to convert any of its corners into goals.
“That is definitely one thing we’re going to be working on tomorrow. To have that many corners and not produce anything out of them, that’s extremely frustrating,” said Hendrix.
Falmouth made adjustments and had a 5-1 edge in corners in the second half.
“I am comfortable with the defense; (there are) just some adjustments we need to make, and I think a lot of it had to do with nerves today,” said Falmouth Coach Robin Haley.
Wednesday marked the first game in the SMAA for Falmouth, which previously played mostly Class B schools as a member of the Western Maine Conference and finished 13-3 last season. After a slow start, the Yachtsmen showed some promise in the second half.
“It was just a matter of settling down,” said Haley. “(If) you look at it in terms of halves, it was a 1-1 half. So there is improvement. We didn’t get the win, but this is a little bit of a learning experience.”
Next up for Falmouth is Scarborough, a perennial Class A South powerhouse.
“I think (playing two top SMAA teams is) great. Bring it on,” said Haley. “That’s what we want to do, we want to be able to compete regularly with these teams, and we’re just going to learn fast and go for it. We’re here, so we’ve got to do it.”
Falmouth got on the board just over eight minutes into the second half on a laser shot by sophomore Mary Kate Bayer, assisted by Grace Soucy.
“We’re trying to find some scorers on our team. I say ‘find’ (because) we graduated a lot, and so every player is playing a new role this year,” said Haley.
Westbrook junior Kimberly Goddard was outstanding in net, making 11 saves. Falmouth goalie Caitlyn Bull also had 11 saves.
The Blue Blazes capped the scoring three minutes after Bayer’s goal when Katelyn Champagne scored.
“It makes a statement when we pull out a win (against) a strong team,” said Westbrook senior captain Maddison LeBeau.
“Last year we were kind of the sleeper team. We wanted to come out and make a statement,” said Keef.
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