SCARBOROUGH — The Massabesic Mustangs entered Tuesday’s Class A South field hockey showdown at Scarborough with a 5-8 record, but six of their losses had come by just one goal.
Unfortunately for the Mustangs that trend continued on Tuesday as Massabesic dropped a hard-fought 3-2 game to the host Red Storm.
The Mustangs would open up the scoring with a goal by Izzy Hurlburt with just 2:50 left in the opening half. Emma Snyder provided the assist to help Massabesic take a 1-0 lead into the break.
Scarborough coach Kerry Mariello took a timeout after the Mustangs’ goal and challenged her team.
“We just weren’t playing up to our potential at the start of the game. I had to call that timeout and give them a tad bit of a tongue-lashing,” said Mariello. “It’s just one of those things where they have to want it every minute out there and they can’t take plays off.”
The timeout and halftime speech would certainly light a fire under the Red Storm as they would tie the game early in the second half.
Scarborough junior Carrie Timpson scored the equalizer off a deflection to make it 1-1 with 22:30 left in regulation.
Timpson would quickly strike again as she scored at the 20:43 mark to give the Red Storm their first lead of the contest.
Massabesic wasn’t going to go away quietly as Micaela Jacobs scored with 14:52 left to make it 2-2.
Scarborough answered right away as Timpson sent a pass to Caitlin Tyrrell, who finished it off with a shot into the cage to give the Red Storm a 3-2 advantage with 14:27 remaining.
“It definitely started out slow. We weren’t really connecting. We were all pretty frustrated, our legs were feeling tired … but after the timeout and in the second half, coach told us to get our heads in the game — it’s the senior game and we had to win it. We started connecting and got good passes,” said Timpson.
Massabesic had three penalty corner opportunities late in the contest, but the Red Storm would hold on to finish the regular season with an 11-2-1 record.
The Mustangs, who close the regular season with a 5-9 mark, would get eight saves from goalie Ashley Day. Scarborough’s Abby Roy stopped five shots in the win.
Both the Mustangs and Red Storm will compete in the Class A South playoffs, which will begin on Saturday with a preliminary round. Scarborough will most likely get the No. 3 seed and a first-round bye, while Massabesic is currently in the 10th spot out of the 12-team field.
— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at [email protected] or at 780-9017. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.