AUBURN — Two teams intent on improving defensively to begin their 2015 campaigns clashed on opening day Tuesday in a blustery, low-scoring affair at Edward Little High School.
Buoyed by a strong second half, Oxford Hills nabbed the win on the road. The Vikings held off the Red Eddies, 6-4, for a season-opening KVAC girls’ lacrosse victory.
“There were a lot of jitters,” Oxford Hills coach Jaimie Brett said. “This was our first game, and at our scrimmage last week we were missing most of our returners. The jitters and just figuring it out, it took a few minutes to get going.”
Persistence and patience from Edward Little had much to do with the slower-than-usual start, as well. The Red Eddies regularly spent four or five minutes at a time with the ball, looking for openings and trying to get cutters through the middle against the stingy Vikings.
“We had a difficult time with the fundamentals of cutting and finding the person,” EL coach Jessica Somers said. “Once they set up defensively, we had a hard time getting offensive opportunities.”
The home team had enough opportunities to carry a lead into halftime, though, thanks to a goal each from Fran Haines and Danielle Gagne four minutes apart early in the stanza.
Aside from those two goals and one from Oxford Hills’ Natalie DelVisco, the first half featured long possessions with little offense to show from either club.
“It was great for them to have that patience, and it was kind of a learning experience for us,” Brett said. “I think it helped build their confidence, because they weren’t getting any shots, even though they weren’t penetrating.”
“I am very impressed with these girls and the change and the development from last year to this year,” Somers said, “especially defensively, it looks like a completely different team.”
The Vikings picked up the pace a bit in the second half, though it was EL that struck first as Haines again caught Oxford Hills flat-footed on defense, pushing the lead to 3-1.
From there, the Vikings took over.
“I think we just really got into it and pulled ourselves together,” DelVisco said. “We worked as a team, we worked on our cutting a little bit more, and that helped a lot.”
Haley Wakefield, Ally Hanley and DelVisco scored in succession to put the visitors on top by a goal. It might have been more, if not for rookie goalie Mariah Vaillancourt.
“Our goalie did a great job, she made some really great saves today,” Somers said. “But we struggled transitioning out of our defense.”
Haines’ third of the afternoon briefly tied the game at 4-4, but Hannah Hartnett and Sadie Record put the Vikings back on top to stay with goals 16 seconds apart later in the second half.
“They picked up the pace a bit quicker,” Somers said. “We didn’t have as much time to set up.”
And the Vikings’ defense kept the door closed in front of keeper Sam Bickford.
“During practice we’ve been focusing on our defense, and on cutters, and making sure we trade off and not just let someone go right across the front,” DelVisco said. “During the game, we were able to be slow, calm, collected and not be all over the place.”
The Vikings host Lewiston on Thursday, while EL will try to rebounds when the Eddies host Erskine, also on Thursday.
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