Scarborough girls open playoffs with decisive win over Noble

BOX SCORE

Scarborough 22 Noble 7

N- 5 2- 7
S- 10 12- 22

First half
23:33 S Henderson
21:06 N Baxter
20:01 S Henderson
17:25 N Baxter
15:35 S Bilodeau
15:02 S Bilodeau
14:46 S Durgin
13:40 N Martel
12:31 S Donovan
8:43 N Martel
6:33 S Bilodeau
6:06 S Henderson
4:38 N Baxter
2:39 S Henderson
2:25 S Bilodeau

Second half
24:02 S Donovan
23:51 S Durgin
23:39 S Bilodeau
23:30 N Baxter
22:56 S Stolz
22:35 S Grondin
21:46 S Henderson
19:57 S Henderson
17:30 S Donovan
15:55 S Henderson
14:37 S Bilodeau
11:05 S Carlson
9:08 N Marcotte
4:45 S Donovan

Goals:
N- Baxter 4, Martel 2, Marcotte 1
S- Henderson 7, Bilodeau 6, Donovan 4, Durgin 2, Carlson, Grondin, Stolz 1

Assists:
S- Henderson 5, Bilodeau, Stolz 3, Durgin 2, Donovan 1

Shots on cage:
N- 11
S- 26

Saves:
N (Lessard) 2 (Wilcox) 2
S (Hess) 4

SCARBOROUGH—Scarborough’s offense was just waiting to break out.

And Monday evening, in a Class A South preliminary round contest, the Red Storm did just that.

To the tune of a program-record, playoff-high 22 goals, which didn’t just move Scarborough on to the next round, but suggests that the Red Storm might just be getting started.

Hosting No. 11 Noble at the Kippy Mitchell Sports Complex, sixth-seeded Scarborough put up 10 goals in the first half, but the Knights countered with five of their own to keep things interesting.

Then, the Red Storm were even more prolific in a second half which saw them score a dozen times, and Scarborough went on to a comfortable 22-7 victory.

Junior Molly Henderson scored seven goals, senior Natalie Bilodeau added six and classmate Meagan Donovan finished with four as the Red Storm improved to 7-6 on the season, ended Noble’s year at 2-11 and advanced to battle No. 3 Marshwood (8-4) in the Class A South quarterfinals Wednesday at 3 p.m., in South Berwick.

“We really needed this for our confidence,” said Bilodeau. “It gives us a lot of hope as we move on in the playoffs.”

Back on track

After its breakthrough season a year ago, which resulted in a trip to the regional final, Scarborough was expecting big things again this spring, but after a 4-0 start, the Red Storm found the going tough and won just twice the rest of the regular season (see sidebar for links to previous game stories).

“We learned we need to play as a team as a whole instead of just an individual game,” Bilodeau said. “Working on fundamentals. Catching and throwing, ground balls.”

Noble won its opener, over Westbrook, then lost six straight. After downing Deering, the Knights dropped their final four games.

The teams didn’t meet this year. They’d met just once before in the tournament, a 12-8 Scarborough victory in the 2006 Western A Final, as the Red Storm made an improbable march to their first state championship.

Monday, Scarborough was close to unstoppable as it gradually pulled away to victory.

The tone was set just 87 seconds into the game, as Henderson scored for the first time, beating Knights sophomore goalie Kia-Lillian Wilcox.

Noble answered with 21:06 left in the first half, on a goal from sophomore Jenna Baxter, but Henderson scored for the second time with 20:01 on the clock.

Baxter tied the game again with 17:25 remaining, beating Scarborough senior goalie Zoe Hess, but with 15:35 to go before halftime, Bilodeau scored her first goal and the Red Storm were in the lead for good.

Bilodeau struck again 33 seconds later, then junior Grace Durgin made the score 5-2 with 14:46 on the clock.

Junior Haley Martel got a goal back for the Knights with 13:40 left, but a little over a minute later, Donovan tickled the twine to push the lead back to three.

After Martel struck again with 8:43 remaining in the half, Bilodeau scored with 6:33 on the clock and 27 seconds later, Henderson struck again to make it 8-4.

Baxter scored her final goal of the half with 4:38 to go, but Henderson answered with 2:39 left and 14 seconds later, Bilodeau found the net to make the score 10-5 at halftime.

Scarborough then excelled at both ends of the field in the second half and left no doubt.

Just 58 seconds in, Donovan scored to make it 11-5.

A mere 11 seconds later, Durgin scored for the second time.

It took just 12 more seconds for Bilodeau to strike and just like that, the lead was up to eight.

“Out of a timeout, one of my defenders, (senior) Kayleigh York said, ‘We’re playing so unselfishly’ and I think that was the difference,” said Scarborough coach Emily Field. “We’ve had some tough games and when we have tough games, I have a lot of girls who want to put the team on their shoulders. I love that mentality, but that’s not how we win games.”

Baxter scored her final goal with 23:25 to play, but the next eight would go to the Red Storm.

Senior Darby Stolz scored unassisted 29 seconds later, then junior Stella Grondin got in on the fun, as her pass from up top somehow snuck through and found the net.

Henderson then scored twice in succession, the first goal from Grondin and the second from Bilodeau in transition.

With 17:30 left, Donovan spun and finished to make it 18-6.

Henderson scored for the last time with 15:55 to play, as Stolz set her up.

Bilodeau then added an unassisted goal and with 11:05 remaining, Donovan set up junior Ella Carlson to push the lead to 21-6.

With 9:08 remaining, sophomore Stella Marcotte converted a free position for Noble, but with 4:45 on the clock, Donovan finished, from senior Anna Ravis, and that put the punctuation mark on the Red Storm’s commanding 22-7 victory.

“We’ve been talking about how we tend to be a second half team and Coach told us to bring more fire,” said Bilodeau. “That really clicked with all of us today.”

“We needed a game like this,” Field said. “Frustratingly, we’re a second half team, but it’s nice when the second half does come together the way it did. Now, we need to play that way in the first and second halves.”

Scarborough put seven different girls in the scoring column, as Henderson led the way with seven goals, Bilodeau had six, Donovan four, Durgin two and Carlson, Grondin and Stolz one apiece.

Equally impressive was the Red Storm producing 14 assists, as Henderson had five, Bilodeau and Stolz three apiece, Durgin two and Donovan one.

“In this one, almost every one of our goals was assisted,” Field said. “We had lots of people scoring. It was beautiful.”

Hess made four saves.

Scarborough had a 26-11 advantage in shots on cage.

Noble was led by Baxter, who had four goals. Martel scored twice and Marcotte once.

Wilcox made two saves, as did freshman Tianna Lessard, who came on in the second half.

Down to Marshwood

Scarborough lost at Marshwood, 10-5, back on May 19. The Red Storm are 2-1 all-time versus the Hawks in the playoffs, with a 16-3 loss in the 2015 Western A Final the most recent matchup.

Scarborough doesn’t believe the result from earlier this season has much relevance in June and is up for the challenge Wednesday.

“I’m looking forward to that game,” Bilodeau said. “When we lost earlier in the season, we didn’t play our best. We’re fired up to play them again. We need to play like we did in the second half today.”

“I’m excited we get to see Marshwood again,” Field said. “We need to play 50 minutes and we need to play as a team. It’s a grass field and the weather doesn’t look great, which is exactly how the first game against them went. This is our chance to rewrite that. We have to win the 50-50 balls and play together as a team.

“I’m excited about the road we have. I don’t think we have pieces missing to win any of these games. We’ve learned that it’s playoffs and it’s 0-0 and we get to rewrite how this ends. We know we can hang with all of those teams. It doesn’t really matter the seed. It’s comfortable to come out as the underdog.”