GORHAM – A pair of goals by Gorham/Bonny Eagle freshmen Celia Begonia and Anna Nault weren’t enough, not by a longshot, to dispatch visiting Cheverus/Kennebunk/Old Orchard Beach on Saturday afternoon, Jan. 21. Half a dozen different Stags – among them Victoria Lemieux and Abby Enck – hashed a point apiece en route to a 6-2 win over the Rams.

“We’re excited with the way we played,” said G/BE head coach Nat Germond. “One of our JV girls (Nault) scored her first-ever goal, so that was all positive. The locker room is positive.”

The Stags got on the board first, Lemieux scoring midway through the opening period: Stuck in a scramble out front of G/BE netminder Izzy Wareham, Lemieux made the most of the moment, poking home the 1-0 point.

C/K/OOB kicked off the middle period in style, adopting a dominating posture and attacking for a lengthy stretch. Only a Begonia breakaway gave G/BE any breathing room.

Still, the Rams stood stalwart in that time, and soon  evened out the action, pushing back and earning themselves a chance on offense. Begonia could be found snowbirding sneakily, and picked up a handful of pucks that floated her way, sparking opportunities. Alas, the home team couldn’t find a way to penetrate the Stags’ defense.

“We only played six girls for the first period,” Germond said. “We played a trapping style, just to kind of conserve our energy. The game-plan was, in the second period, to play an attacking style, us up our energy, see if we could get a lead.”

With roughly nine minutes remaining in the second, G/BE’s CC Cochran pulled a minor penalty for checking, a misstep C/K/OOB wasted little time capitalizing on: less than a minute later, Enck put the Stags up 2-0, assisted by Caitlin Wolff.

With 55 seconds to play before the break, G/BE finally got on the board, Begonia unwinding a rebound wrister from low on the right side of Stags keeper Anna Smith to the opposite-side top corner. Credit the assist to Mary Adams.

C/K/OOB immediately responded, however, Abby Lamontagne feeding Eryca Leclerc to keep their squad out front by two at 3-1. The Stags struck again early in the third – Sophia Pompeo fed Wolff, who earned the notch – then pushed ahead to 5-1 midway through the period, Terryn MacDonald scoring unassisted.

“The girls were exhausted after the second period,” Germond said. “We kind of went into the game knowing we were going to let them play around the boards, that we couldn’t lunge. We did a good job with that in the first period. Obviously, when you get down a couple goals, now you’ve got to create turnovers, so you’re going to take more chances in the defensive zone, and they took advantage of those times when we lunged and missed. Now they have an odd-number advantage in front of the net there, and they took advantage of those.”

Wareham helped squash C/K/OOB’s momentum a minute later, turning a big save on a Stags breakaway. Nault then added her goal for the Rams, assisted by Isis Adams, with 3:35 remaining, but it would prove too little, too late. C/K/OOB’s Olivia Adams capped the afternoon with one last goal for her girls at 2:22, and the Stags emerged victorious.

G/BE are already looking forward to an upcoming rematch with C/K/OOB, as they were hobbled in Saturday’s bout by a long list of roster holes – a number of the squad were out of town, participating in women’s protests.

“We were playing with only half our varsity team,” said Germond, “because they’re at the March on Washington. And we’re also missing our starting goalie today. We had five varsity girls playing; we ended up playing a lot of our JV girls, rotating them in, getting them game experience.

“So we were expecting it to be what it was…No discredit to [Cheverus/Kennebunk/Old Orchard Beach.] They have a bunch of good players. They’ve got good skaters. They’re a good team. We see them in a week or so, and I think it’ll be a more positive result for us.”

Bonny Eagle/Gorham moves to 4-10 on the result. The team travels to Cape Elizabeth/Waynflete/South Portland on Thursday the 26th.

Cheverus/Kennebunk/Old Orchard Beach, meanwhile, goes to 7-8. They host Scarborough on Monday the 23rd before visiting Cape/Waynflete/SoPo on Saturday the 28th.

Adam Birt can be reached at abirt@keepmecurrent.com. Follow him on Twitter: @CurrentSportsME

Stag Abby Enck played an important role in her team’s win over the Rams on Saturday afternoon.

Caitlin Wolff attacks for the Stags visiting the Rams.

Elizabeth Cain breaks the puck out on defense for the Stags.

Olivia Adams passes to teammate Hannah Woodford as the two push forward on the attack vs. Gorham/Bonny Eagle.

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