Whenever the Phoenix swarmed the Eagles’ net, Bessey was smack dab in the middle of the crowd, allowing her to score back-to-back goals in the first half and another one in the second.
It was an inside job on most of the goals for the Phoenix, who dominated the game from start to finish.
“Team effort, it’s a great group of girls. It’s a fun group to work with,” Bessey said. “It is great to be a part of it — just senior year, gotta get after it.
“We have a big game coming up and we are getting ready for it. We are looking forward to Belfast.”
It took most of he second half before Bessey scored her first goal on sophomore Julianne Dorion’s assist at 15:40. Bessey and Dorion paired up again for Bessey’s second goal about seven minutes later to give Spruce Mountain a 2-0 lead going into the second half.
“We worked on being aggressive in the circle,” Spruce Mountain coach Tanya Evans said. “Still need a little more work, but it is early in the season. I think it was the eighth or ninth corner before we put it in.
“But they were able to keep it down there and you know, push, push, push, so they finally saw some positive results.”
It was a team effort for sure and there is no question Bessey’s teammates set things up for her to turn in her hat trick.
“She is one of the stronger players on the front line,” Evans said. “She is also a very good team player, but she had the opportunity. We’ve talked about moving the goalie and working on the goalie. As you can see, she had some success doing that today.”
In the second half, the Eagles tried to pressure the Phoenix, but Spruce’s offense and defense remained in control.
Junior captain Morgan Dalton slapped the ball in on Bessey’s assist with 27:55 left in the game.
Bessey put the game out of reach when she scored her third goal on senior Evelyn Castonguay’s feed to give the Phoenix a comfortable 4-0 lead with 17:26 left.
“They were fast. They were ready to play,” Erskine junior varsity coach Kristen Burke, who was filling in for the head coach, said. “They wanted it more, I think. That something that hurt us in the end.
“We did finish on one of them. I think the few opportunities that we did have we need to dominate on those chances, and we didn’t, and that is something we need to dig a little deeper and that is something we didn’t do today.”
With four minutes left, Erskine got on the scoreboard when Chantelle Roddy scored on an assist from Keeley Gomes assist.
Leavitt 2, Mt. View 1
THORNDIKE — Kaitlyn Leclerc scored two second-half goals to pace the Leavitt Hornets to a 2-1 victory over Mount View on Thursday in KVAC field hockey action.
Reanna Boulay had Mount View’s lone goal in the second half.
Leavitt goalie Hailey DeMascio made eight saves while Alexis Bowman had nine saves for Mount View. Lindsay Mattingly also had a save for Mount View.
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