CUMBERLAND — It’s taken awhile for the young and talented Greely girls’ lacrosse team to hit its stride, but it’s safe to say the Rangers have rounded into form.
Four days after scoring 19 goals in a win at Brunswick, Greely earned an even more impressive victory Wednesday, dominating once-beaten Scarborough from start to finish at Glen Hutchins Field.
Elsa Dean-Muncie scored consecutive goals to start each half and the Rangers’ defense never let Scarborough’s offense get comfortable as Greely earned a 7-1 victory.
“I’m so proud of them,” said Greely Coach Becca Koelker. “All week we’ve worked on coming out hard in practice, so we start the game hard and that’s exactly what we did. We set the tone early and got possession, and we could dictate the pace the rest of the game.”
It took just over a minute for Greely (4-2) to go ahead for good, as Dean-Muncie converted from free position.
Then, with 17:25 left in the first half, Dean-Muncie finished unassisted for a quick 2-0 advantage.
“I think it was getting in the mindset of playing our game and focusing on what we could control and how we were playing,” said Dean-Muncie.
Freshman Asja Kelman added a goal after a Scarborough turnover, then Carley Ferentz finished after a nice move.
Red Storm Coach Emily Field tried to stem the tide with a timeout, but it didn’t work, as Ferentz scored again. Meanwhile, Greely forced 10 turnovers in the first half and led 5-0.
“We work so hard on double-teaming and our communication,” said senior defender Abby Taylor. “Our talk is up, as well as our trust in each other.”
Dean-Muncie squashed any Red Storm comeback hopes by opening the second half with an unassisted goal after a turnover, then finishing on a free position.
Greely didn’t score again, but Scarborough (6-2) remained frustrated until Paige Spooner finally scored on a free position shot with 6:01 left.
The Rangers were able to run out most of the rest of the clock and closed out a surprisingly decisive win against an opponent that had scored 90 goals in its first seven games.
“We have such a young team and the young girls are like sponges, they’re learning really quickly,” said Dean-Muncie.
“I think the best defense is when our attack has the ball,” Koelker added. “We got ground balls and never gave them second chances. We’ve improved a lot from three or four games ago.”
Greely goalie Hannah Perfetti returned from injury to play her first full game of the season and stopped four shots.
The Red Storm got a dozen saves from Kathleen Murphy.
“We obviously didn’t bring our ‘A’ game today, to take nothing away from Greely,” said Scarborough Coach Emily Field. “We haven’t played from behind much. That will be one of our conversations (in practice) tomorrow.”
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