SCARBOROUGH — Finishing offensive chances has been a challenge all season for the Scarborough girls’ soccer team, but the Red Storm did manage to score one in each half Tuesday afternoon against South Portland at the Kippy Mitchell Sports Complex.

Abby Drapeau ended 36 minutes of frustration with a goal late in the first half and Natalie Bilodeau added an insurance goal in the second half as Scarborough went on to a 2-0 victory, evening its record at 3-3-1.

“We’re creating chances, but we need to be able to finish them,” said Scarborough Coach Mike Farley. “We need to stop pressing and relax and finish. We’re getting chances that we usually finish, we just have to do it.”

For most of the first half, the Red Storm got the ball in dangerous spots, but had nothing to show for it as Drapeau, Grace Pettingill and Ali Mokriski either were off target or had shots stopped by South Portland goalkeeper Elise Connor, whose finest save was a diving theft against Mokriski.

The Red Riots nearly took the lead in the 29th minute as Bella Schifano got a great look after a turnover but sent it just wide.

Scarborough then broke through with 3:57 left in the half. Lana Djuranovic sent a cross in front which Drapeau ran into and directed past Connor for a 1-0 lead.

“Whenever Lana has the ball, I try to get in position in the box,” said Drapeau. “Then, I just let whatever happens happen and I try to throw my body on the ball and when it goes in, I’m in shock and celebrate with Lana.”

The Red Storm had trouble adding to the lead in the second half, but South Portland couldn’t generate a shot. With 11:33 remaining, off a low cross from Paige Spooner, Bilodeau managed to finish for a two-goal advantage.

“That was big for (Natalie) because she played awesome,” Farley said. “She did a good job staying wide and then was all alone on the back post where she could finish. She just took her time and finished in the corner. That’s what we need. We just have to put the ball in the goal.”

Scarborough finished with a 15-0 advantage in shots and also had a 13-0 edge in corner kicks.

Connor made 13 saves for the young Red Riots, who fell to 2-5.

“We’re getting to the point where we’re learning a lot in practice and trying to put it on the field and we’re getting there,” said Adam Perron, South Portland’s first-year coach. “It’s tough to play defense all the time and when we were on offense, it wasn’t for long.

“The loss of summer (soccer) and preseason really hurt us. We haven’t been able to put things in fundamentally, so we’re teaching fundamentals now. The girls have been great. I really like our younger group coming up. I feel pretty good about the future.”

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