BATH

The Morse girls lacrosse team opened its home schedule with a solid performance against Oceanside, downing the visitors, 14-5 in a Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference clash at McMann Field.

The Mariners edged the Shipbuilders, 10-9 in last year’s State Class B North semifinal.

Coming off a win against Mt. Ararat on Tuesday, Morse went right back to work Thursday evening, putting to task some the skills that they worked on in practice during the off day. A couple of those items they worked on were passing and communication, according to co-coach Linda Levesque.

“Coach (Jess) Avery does a great job designing drills for the girls to work on what they need to work on,” said Levesque. “Passing is something you have to work on every day. It was one of our weaknesses coming into preseason, especially with our youth and inexperience that we have.”

The drills and work the two coaches put the team through paid off on the turf against Oceanside (0-1). Morse used six different scorers, after spreading the scoring amongst five in its first game.

“Our mantra is one of seven on attack and one of seven on defense,” said Levesque on the spreading of the goals. “You can’t single in on one scorer because the other team will shut them down eventually, so we look to have everyone get involved. Tonight they played as a group, it’s like a symphony, you have to play together to be good.”

Emily Martin registered seven goals, including five in the first half to lead Morse (2-0).

“Emily is a tremendous asset to our team,” said junior Mae Winglass, who assisted on three of Martin’s goals. “We try to get everyone involved and set each other up, we’re never just looking for one person to score, our goal on offense is to get everyone involved.”

Each team traded goals in the early going. Oceanside’s Mattie Hooper opened the scoring just 39 seconds into the game, beating Morse keeper Zenaide McCarthy. Morse’s Maddie McDonough evened the score before Oceanside’s Emily Tyler gave the visitors the lead once again minutes later.

Martin scored the next three goals, the first coming off a pass from Emily Belanger to tie the game. Winglass set up the sophomore for the next two goals and Morse had a 4-2 lead 11- and-a-half minutes into the contest.

Marija Medenica and Abbie Baker got in on the scoring before another Martin goal made it 7-4 with a little over a minute left in the half.

Baker scored again when the defense gained control of the ball deep in its own territory before passing the ball to midfield. From there, McDonough carried the ball into the zone looking to pass. McDonough found Martin, who quickly passed it to Baker for the score.

“We worked inside and we worked on our passes, mainly shuttle passes as well as our communication,” said Winglass. “That totally helped with our play today.”

Martin closed out the first-half scoring, giving Morse a 9-4 lead at the break. The sophomore also had three first-half assists. Morse outshot Oceanside, 15-8, and held the advantage in draw controls, 9-5. McCarthy made a pair of saves in the half for Morse.

“I thought Oceanside did a good job at the beginning of the game transitioning, they’re a young team and well-coached,” said Levesque.

Second half

Morse controlled the pace during the second 25-minute half. The Shipbuilders used the precise passing of Winglass, Medenica, Emma Warner and Rosa Atienza to keep possession of the ball.

Warner scored the half ’s first tally less than a minute into the frame, firing a shot past Mariner goalie Lydia Laslavic for the unassisted goal. McDonough scored her second goal of the game, sandwiched between two more Martin goals to put the game out of reach with a 13- 4 lead for the home team.

Atienza finished off the scoring with an unassisted goal with 13:42 left in the game.

“Our communication and passing has developed each day,” said Winglass. “And if we continue, it will only get better by the end of the season.”

Each team continued to shoot towards the net, but were unable to get one in for the remainder of the game. Morse’s Abby Sreden relieved McCarthy in the second half and made six saves on the seven shots she faced in net.

Morse finished the contest with 27 shots to Oceanside’s 17. The ’Builders also took 13-of-21 draw controls from the Mariners.

“We have some tough games coming up on our schedule,” said Levesque as her team plays Greely on Saturday and travels to Messalonskee on Tuesday before not having another game on the schedule until May 9. “Those couple of games will test us as it’s different level of play.

“Something we’ve been preaching to the kids is that we’re not just playing this team for this game, we’re working to play for ‘States,’ not that we may make it there, but we’re playing for the next game, then the next game, and so on.”

Morse 14, Oceanside 5

At Bath

	Oceanside	— 4	1	—	5
Morse	—	9	5	—	14

Goals — (O) Gabby Straka, Mattie
Hooper, Emily Tyler, Kristina Ferguson, Lexie McMahan; (Mo) Emily
Martin 7, Maddie McDonough 2,
Abbie Baker 2, Marija Medenica,
Emma Martin, Rosa Atienza.
Assists – (O) Emily Tyler; (Mo) Mae
Winglass 3, Emily Belanger.
Saves — (O) Lydia Laslavic 7; (Mo)
Zenaide McCarthy 2, Abby Sreden 6.
Shots — Morse 27, Oceanside 17.
Draw controls — Morse 13, Oceanside 8.
Man-up opportunities — Oceanside
0-for-1.
Records — Morse 2-0, Oceanside 0-1.
Up next for Shipbuilders — Saturday
at home against Greely at 10 a.m..