FRYEBURG — Make it three straight regional titles for the Cheverus field hockey team. And as has become their style, the Stags left little doubt.
Lucy Johnson scored three goals, freshman Caroline Rousseau scored two more, and No. 1 Cheverus returned to the Class A championship game, its fourth overall, with a 5-0 victory over No. 3 Biddeford in the regional final Thursday night at Fryeburg Academy.
Cheverus (17-0) fell to Skowhegan in last year’s state final but has been peerless on the A South stage. Thursday’s victory bumped the Stags’ regional winning streak to 51 straight games.
From the beginning, the Stags’ advantage was clear. Cheverus peppered Biddeford (12-5) with one attack after another in the first quarter, but the Tigers’ defense and standout goalie Cadence Goulet hung on.
The Stags broke through in the second. Early in the period, Johnson tapped the ball free from a Biddeford player just in front of the circle, giving the state’s all-time leading scorer an open path to the goal. Johnson paused for a moment before snapping a shot past Goulet, giving Cheverus a 1-0 lead with 11:21 to go in the quarter.
Johnson struck again on a corner about three minutes later. Mackenzie Cash inserted on a corner, got the ball back and sent a pass into the area in front of the net, where Johnson was waiting to hit it home for a 2-0 lead with 8:16 to go.
Cheverus converted on another corner with 3:57 left. Lily Johnson hit a shot that was blocked and caromed left, where Joey Pompeo gathered it and passed back in front of the net to Rousseau, who scored to make it 3-0 shortly before halftime.
Cheverus padded its lead on the last play of the third quarter, with Rousseau knocking in the rebound of a shot off a corner. Lucy Johnson made it 5-0 with her third goal, again off a corner, with just under 10 minutes to play.
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