SACO — Trailing 1-0 at halftime, the Thornton Academy field hockey team would score four unanswered goals to upset undefeated Massabesic 4-1 at Paul Hill Stadium on Wednesday.

Emma Rutledge would score in the first 10 minutes of play to put Massabesic ahead 1-0 early on. However, the Trojans battled the rest of the half and controlled the tempo for much of the period.

TA would storm back in the second half, and get two goals in the first eight minutes to take the lead. Olivia Lambert scored just 1:32 into the half, while Lily Stark added another goal, assisted by Lambert, just over six minutes later.

The two squads battled hard, but TA would break through with 5:26 remaining on a goal from Cat Henaire to extend the lead to 3-1, and would put the game out of reach less than three minutes later when Taylor Ouellette deflected in another goal.

The Trojans felt confident after playing such a close first half, and knew that they had a chance to pull ahead in the second.

“We were kind of focusing on ourselves and getting the momentum right out from the start because that’s been our problem,” said TA captain Claire Decker. “The confidence (we had) was because we were dead even and we knew that we weren’t going 100 percent the entire time. We knew we had a defense and a talented bench.”

“In the second half we knew if we outhustled them then we would have a chance to win. The kids are confident, our defense is getting better, they had confidence after that first half,” added TA coach Lori Smith. “Every year with Massabesic it’s a shootout. I know that they’re a great team, but we took advantage of some of their mistakes and some opportunities.”

Massabesic coach Michele Martin-Moore expected a tough test against TA, and felt that the Trojans’ energy was the difference in the loss.

“Whenever we play TA we play hard —one team can be clearly better than the other, it doesn’t matter, it is going to be a battle every time,” said Martin-Moore “They beat us to the ball. The ball wasn’t bouncing our way tonight, we were not hustling to the ball, we were not cutting to the ball as hard as they were. Every time you move forward with one more win, the target gets bigger. My girls didn’t even match the intensity that TA had. That was the big difference.”

Despite the loss, Martin-Moore and company were not discouraged to see their win streak come to an end.

“I’d rather lose now than in the playoffs … this is one loss, let’s not make it too big of a deal.”

After losing close games to Noble, Cheverus, and Kennebunk, the Trojans were happy to be on the winning side against the defending Class A South champs.

“We’ve had some tough losses late, so this is definitely a huge boost in confidence,” said Decker.

“It’s huge — it really is huge. It’s hard when you play those really close games and then you lose them,” said Smith. “The more those happen the more and more your confidence goes down so this is huge for us … definitely a turning point.”

— Associate Sports Editor Alex Sponseller can be reached at asponseller@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 323. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.

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