GRAY — Poland and Gray-New Gloucester were both winless heading into Monday’s meeting of rebuilding Western Maine Conference rivals, and each showed how desperate it was to get that first win for about a half.

Poland’s first half was more productive than Gray-New Gloucester’s second half on the scoreboard, so it was the Knights who got into the ‘W’ column with a 3-1 victory.

Amanda Dube, Carly King and Kyla Sturtevant each as the Knights, who scored just two goals in their first five games, jumped out to a 2-0 lead and held off a Patriots charge in the second half.

“To hear that noise off the back of (the cage) feels so good,” Sturtevant said.

Poland has one senior, goaltender Liz Callahan, who made three saves on Monday. Gray-New Gloucester has three seniors and two juniors, so both coaches were looking for signs of incremental improvements. Which is what they got.

“We’ve been working an awful lot in practice on passing. That’s been our number one issue of the year, along with staying calm in the circle. We haven’t had a lot of calm shots into the goal cage,” Poland coach Amy Hediger said. “We were staying calm in the circle, getting no backswing on our hits and just sweeping it into the cage today.”

Dube may have been calm, but the ball looked anything but coming off her stick when her low line drive screamed through to the right of Patriots goalie Adrianna Kimball (12 saves) 7:18 into the game for a 1-0 Knights lead.

“I pulled to the side and went for it. I just got mad, and then I didn’t think it was going to go in. I  thought it was going to hit off her pads,” Dube said. “Last year, I was a consistent scorer, but this year, I haven’t been. This was my first goal of the season, so I was really happy and relieved.”

Poland kept the pressure on Gray throughout the remainder of the half. Gray-New Gloucester didn’t manage a single shot on goal, while Sturtevant, Dube and King created numerous opportunities for the Knights. King’s goal midway through the half made it 2-0.

Led by Jamie Boulos and Sara Carder, the Patriots came out with a greater sense of urgency in the second half and tilted the field their way.

“The passing was impeccable. They were talking to each other, ball-handling and weren’t afraid to attack the ball,” Patriots coach Corenna Dick said.

Vanessa Tripp finally got the Patriots on the board with 18:30 left in the game, leading Hediger to call a time out to give her team a chance to regroup.

“I just wanted them to know that we hadn’t won the game yet and we had to keep our tempo,” Hediger said. “That’s been a key phrase for all of our games, to keep our tempo, play our game and not play anyone else’s tempo because we’re a fast team.”

Led by midfielders Kate Walker and Emily Gibson, the Knights were able to find their tempo again and turn the tide back in their favor on Sturtevant’s insurance goal with 6:53 remaining.

“Coach told us to not let (the goal) get into our heads and just calm down in the circle,”  said Sturtevant. “I kind of just drove it into the circle and didn’t really expect anything out of it. Then it went in.”

“We got our first win of the year here last year, too,” added Sturtevant, whose team went on to a 6-8-1 record and a playoff berth. “

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