FALMOUTH — In its first game of the season, the Cape Elizabeth/Waynflete/South Portland girls’ hockey team scored 12 goals, but that was against an unheralded opponent.

For their second game, the Capers visited Falmouth, which has been in the state championship game or South final in each of the past four seasons. The result was a dominating 7-3 victory.

Sophia Venditti led the way with two goals and four assists, all in the first two periods when Cape grabbed a 6-2 lead. Nicoletta Coupe added two goals and two assists, and Koto Yamada, the other player on the first line, finished with a goal and assist. Freshman Annie Guimond also scored.

“This is amazing. We’ve never (won) against Falmouth,” said Venditti, a junior. “We all worked real well together as a team. We’ve even improved since our first game on Saturday.”

With a strong freshmen class – led by Coupe and Yamada – to go with veterans Venditti and senior goalie Abby Joy, Cape Coach Bob Mills is expecting big things.

“We have a different team this year with a lot of freshmen who provide a lot of skill, to go along with strong (upperclassmen) leadership,” said Mills. “I’m not too surprised by the win, but it is a long time coming.”

The Capers (2-0) took a 4-0 lead less than five minutes into the second period before the Yachtsmen scored the next two.

The home team, with the momentum, then went on a power play with 3:02 left in the middle frame, but saw the Capers get on the board twice short-handed – by Venditti and Coupe – to push the lead back to four.

Coupe scored off a faceoff win by Venditti – following an icing by Falmouth (0-2) – 34 seconds into the penalty. Venditti then made it 6-2 just 35 seconds later when she picked up a loose puck in her defensive zone and skated to the right faceoff dot, where she stopped and wristed a shot to the far top corner.

“The short-handed goals were a game-changer,” Mills added. “We talked in the locker room about maintaining their composure. Being up (only) two, the (short-handed) goals meant a lot.

The young players on Cape’s team did not surprise Falmouth Coach Rob Carrier.

“We’ve known since summer league that Cape has good freshmen coming in and that Venditti was going to be a force to be reckoned with,” he said.

“The short-handed goals really killed our momentum. We thought we were going to climb back in, but we had a couple lapses in judgment.”

Falmouth didn’t go away after trailing 4-0, getting goals by Bea Johnson and Sammy Means 3:33 apart midway through the second period. Stone Carmichael also scored.

Cape freshmen defensemen Guimond and Abbey Agrodnia made a couple pivotal plays early in the third period as they both broke up partial breakaways with their team leading 6-2.

“A win like this is definitely going to help our mentality as a team,” Venditti said. “We know we can (beat good teams).”