WATERBORO — After a scoreless first half, the Massabesic field hockey team would get three second half scores to push past visiting Thornton Academy by a 3-0 score in the Class A South quarterfinals on Wednesday.

After 46 minutes of play, the Mustangs would finally get on the board when Camryn Champlin deflected a shot by Logan Champlin off a corner into the cage.

Emma Rutledge quickly followed that up with a goal just over two minutes later to give Massabesic some breathing room, and would score a second time in the final minute to send the Mustangs to the semis.

“We began to focus on our game and our gameplan. We tend to get wrapped up in the moment instead of (getting) settled,” said Massabesic coach Michele Martin-Moore. “I took some of the starters out and told them, ‘we need to settle, we need to play our game which is getting pressure on the ball. If we continue to do that then we’ll get our strikes.’”

A big factor for Massabesic were corner opportunities, as the Mustangs racked up 15 overall including eight in the second half.

“We were just cutting to the ball and they were doing their dodges and really pressured the ball,” said Martin-Moore.

Martin-Moore also felt that her team, which consists of nine seniors, showed its big-game experience in the win. The Mustangs also avenged a tough 4-1 loss to TA earlier in the season, as the Trojans handed them their first loss of the fall.

“You can’t put a pricetag on experience, that’s huge. Having that there in the big moments and knowing that they could come back, they needed to play better than they did the last time and they were focused on that.”

TA coach Lori Smith felt that Massabesic’s intensity and tough play was the difference.

“The difference was their hustle. Massabesic definitely came to play tonight, their fundamentals were sound and in a lot of cases outhustled us tonight,” said Smith. “They challenged us each and every time we had the ball, it was a different gameflow than the last time. After that second goal they definitely got the momentum.”

Freshman goalie Madi Vachon had a solid night in the cage for TA despite the loss, racking up nine saves and withstanding heavy pressure at times throughout the contest.

“My freshman goalie played really well tonight, she had a great game. She stepped up, she’s a big game player and that was a lot to handle,” said Smith.

Massabesic will move on to face Westbrook on Saturday in the semis. TA will head back to the drawing board, and Smith hopes Wednesday’s game will provide her young club with valuable experience moving forward.

“The experience, we have a lot of sophomores and we had a lot of freshmen step in and play solid minutes,” said Smith. “I think down the road that will help us.”

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