PARIS — Oxford Hills scored nine seconds into its game with Fryeburg Academy on Saturday afternoon, and the Vikings kept up a blistering offensive pace en route to a 13-2 girls lacrosse victory at home.
It was Oxford Hills’ first win of the season after losing to Messalonskee in overtime on Thursday in the season opener.
The Vikings (1-1) were led by Kelsey Bennett’s hat trick, including two of Oxford Hills’ first four goals that came in the first seven minutes of the game. Bennett also assisted on two goals.
Bennett scored to make it 2-0 a minute into the game after McKinley Soehren’s opening goal, then Bennett made a looping pass over the Fryeburg (0-1) defense to Mallory Kennison, who scored her first of two goals to make it 3-0 just 4:30 into the contest.
“We really liked our connecting passes to transition from offense to defense,” Oxford Hills coach Jaimee Smith said. “We were looking for that transition and we kind of emphasized that the ball can travel faster than anyone can run it, so looking for those three, four or five passes to go from goal to goal is kind of that thought process. Hopefully we go from there and use those opportunities and that momentum to capitalize and score goals. We can also get some great play opportunities.”
After Kennison scored again to make it 5-0 with 15:44 left in the first half, Fryeburg’s Madison Lavertu-Foreman scored her first of two goals for the Raiders on Saturday.
Fryeburg entered the game with many players who were playing in their first varsity lacrosse game, coach David Olson said.
“We competed for 50 minutes, they worked hard and I think offensively I was happy with how patient we were,” Olson said. “We didn’t rush things too much and we scored. Sometimes you need to just see the ball go in the back of the net.”
Soehren scored after to make it 6-1, followed by goals from Gracie Hart, Celia Melanson, then Bayleigh Young with 7:36 left in the first half. With a 9-1 lead, the Vikings began to take their foot off the gas. They didn’t shoot again until the 17:31 mark in the second half.
“I said to them that if you have an opportunity, shot fake,” Smith said. “Definitely work on that. There’s way more to lacrosse than goals, so looking for those shot fakes, looking for team opportunities for passing and cutting. Let’s run some offense, some plays and see how it unfolds.”
In the second half, Saige Winslow scored her first goal with 15:32 left in the game to put Oxford Hills ahead 10-1. Winslow also scored the last Oxford Hills goal to make it 13-1 with 3:13 left.
“I am glad in the second half we picked up our composure a little more, more than we did in the first half,” Winslow said. “The first half was a lot of breakaways, but we had time to focus on our transitions, which was good for us.”
Melanson added a second goal and Bennett scored her third between Winslow’s goals.
Oxford Hills goalie Delaney Stone saved two shots in the first half before being replaced in the second half by Zaya Vollmar, who saved three shots.
“Saige, Mallory Kennison, Katie Hallee, Allison Slicer all did well and Melanson does a nice job of setting things up and slowing things down when we need to,” Smith said. “I want to give a shout out to Zaya Vollmar, who stepped into goal in the second half. We are working on our goalies and she did a nice job today.”
Lavertu-Foreman scored with about six seconds left in the game for the Raiders.
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