St. Dominic Academy’s Hannah Trottier-Braun, center, maneuvers around Freeport keeper Katelyn Rouleau during their match in Auburn on Wednesday. Rouleau stopped the shot, but Trottier-Braun scored on the rebound.
AUBURN — The first 10 minutes of Wednesday’s Western Maine Conference high school field hockey game gave no clue to what was about to come.
Freeport, entering the contest with a 5-0-1 mark, controlled play against unbeaten and untied St. Dom’s. The Falcons’ pressure led to a pair of penalty corners and opportunities to score the game’s first goal.
Then, the Saints gained possession and transitioned to offense in a blink of an eye. Moments later, senior Hannah Trottier-Braun scored for St. Dom’s.
Then she scored again. And again. And again. Trottier-Braun rattled home four goals in five minutes in the first half to lead the Saints to a 9-0 victory, and a 7-0 record.
“As soon as we score, the momentum changes for us,” St. Dom’s coach Brian Kay said. “Today, we scored some great goals, had some beautiful corners and we worked the short passing game. We just seemed to settle into our game and the results were there.”
The game snowballed quickly away from the Falcons.
“We started out strong,” Freeport coach Marcia Wood said. “This is one of the first teams that we have played that actually is fast. We didn’t adjust to that, even though we knew. It wasn’t a lack of skill, just a lack of hustle.”
The Falcons fall to 5-1-1.
After her first goal was scored unassisted with 19:13 left in the first half, Trottier-Braun positioned herself to receive passes from her teammates. Callie Samson, Caroline Johnson and Paige Cote assisted on goals 2-4.
The lead grew to 6-0 by halftime as Bailey Durocher tipped home a pair of goals off passes from standout Kylie Leavitt.
“We knew after those first couple defensive corners that they had that we had to buckle down and put all of our effort into it,” Trottier-Braun said. “After that first goal, everything changed. We do a lot of practicing, give-and-goes in front of the net. We all contribute to this team. We all work together as a team and it works.”
“We played the rest of game tentative and just wasn’t doing anything,” Wood said.
After being outshot 13-0 in the first half, Freeport put two shots on Saints goaltender Abigail Slonina, both off the stick of Natalie Anderson. Slonina stopped both tries, then watched Trottier-Braun scored her fifth goal at the other end for a 7-0 Saints lead.
A recent 5-3 victory over Poland gave Kay’s team a reason to focus on the challenges ahead.
“Giving up three goals against Poland was a wakeup call. Our goalie has had games that she doesn’t see shots. Then we give up three goals. Our defense was solid today,” said Kay, whose Saints have outscored their seven opponents 67-3. “We beat Poland, then Poland beat Greely, and suddenly that win is worth a lot of points. We get all those extra points playing those ‘B’ teams.”
Durocher completed her hat trick off another Leavitt assist, and Johnson finished the scoring with 1:17 remaining off a setup from Cote. The Saints held a 26-2 shot advantage. St. Dom’s also led 10-3 in penalty corners.
Freeport goaltender Katelyn Rouleau, despite allowing nine goals, made several quality saves throughout the contest, finishing with 17.
St. Dominic Academy’s Callie Samson, right, and Freeport’s Alexa Koenig watch the ball after Samson fired it forward during their game in Auburn on Wednesday.St. Dominic Academy’s Hannah Trottier-Braun, left, fires the ball past Freeport goalie Katelyn Rouleau and into the cage for a goal in the first half of their game in Auburn on Wednesday.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
