SCARBOROUGH — Scarborough has set the bar in field hockey in southern Maine for many years, with at least 10 wins for 13 straight seasons and three consecutive trips to the Class A state championship game, including a state title in 2014.

Last year, Westbrook emerged as an elite team by winning the Class A South championship, and the Blue Blazes are showing that they plan on remaining a contender. Westbrook remained undefeated and jumped into first place in the Heal Point standings with a 2-1 victory in double overtime Saturday afternoon.

Westbrook (4-0-1) tied the game with 2:02 left in regulation, then won it with less than four minutes remaining in the second eight-minute overtime.

On the winning goal, Alexis Witham won a one-on-three battle at midfield and got the ball to Mary Keef. With a Red Storm player off for a penalty, Keef and Avery Tucker took advantage of the sparse defense and executed a perfect give-and-go, with Keef firing a shot from 10 yards out near the right post that beat goalie Abigail Roy with 3:23 showing on the clock.

“I got it and I saw the defender taking away my angle to shoot, so I passed it to my right and Mary had that wide-open shot and hit it in,” said Tucker.

It took nearly 58 minutes for Westbrook to get on the board, but relentless play in the second half – a 10-2 shot advantage, 5-0 on corners and the majority of the 30 minutes in Scarborough’s defensive end – finally paid off when Tucker received a short pass from Keef and fired a hard shot from 20 yards into the far corner.

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“The big thing we talked about all week is they have one of the toughest defenses in southern Maine, maybe the state,” Westbrook Coach Theresa Hendrix said. “It took a while to get going and to have that extra urgency, but we finished strong.

“With this tough defense, we knew we had to get one hard shot off and see what happens. Avery is great for us at the top of the circle and making things happen for us.”

Scarborough (5-1) had allowed only two goals in its first five games.

“In the second half, I was most concerned about containing the 1-0 lead,” Scarborough Coach Kerry Mariello said. “I was playing defense, defense, defense, and trying to kill the clock, That has done it for us up until now.

“(Westbrook) has a great team and they kept plugging away. We tried to key on Avery and she got a hold of one. It fired them up and it was hard to come back from that.”

Defense dominated the first half. Ainslee Allen, Hannah Dobecki and Julia Booth-Howe kept Westbrook away from Roy (three saves). At the other end, Abigail Symbol, Katelyn Champagne and Ella Morris limited chances in front of Kimberly Goddard (one save).

Scarborough took the lead, though, when Kelby Woolverton tipped in a shot from Dobecki off a corner.

“Scarborough is a great team – they always have been since I was a freshman,” said Tucker, a senior. “We never beat them, so it feels nice.”

Dobecki, a midfielder, left the game late in the second half when she took a backswing on her hand. Westbrook’s Morgan LeBeau was forced out of the game in the first half because of an apparent foot injury.


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