WATERBORO – A strong second half led Thornton Academy girls soccer to a shutout 7-0 victory over hosting Massabesic on Wednesday night.
Four minutes into the contest, Massabesic’s (0-5) Abby Stonehouse tore off on a breakaway and had a close attempt at a goal but Thornton goalie Grace Mears scooped the ball up.
“It was a tough start for us. Massabesic played us very hard in the first half and gave us a lot of trouble. They were putting a lot of pressure on us. We weren’t really finding each other,” said Thornton head coach Natalie Sharland.
Ten minutes into the first half, Hannah Niles started the scoring for the Trojans (3-3).
At the 14:32 mark, Thornton scored again. Alexis Cook was assisted by Hazel Stoddard. Stoddard shot the ball at the net but her kick was high and the ball bounced from the top of the goal post to the front of the goal, Cook poked the ball in and produced a 2-0 score.
Two minutes into the second half, Thornton went on a scoring spree.
At the 38:40 mark, Niles scored again assisted by Alyanna Beaudoin.
With 38:08 left in the second half, Beaudoin scored a goal for herself.
At the 28:13 mark, Stoddard scored. Stoddard kicked high over a group of defenders to plunk the ball into the back of the net.
With 14:40 left in the competition, Stoddard scored again.
“It felt great to score. They were great passes from my teammates,” said Stoddard. “We played really well in the second half.”
At the 2:44 mark, Beaudoin scored the last goal of the night. At first, she tried to hit the ball into the net but the goalie kicked it out then Beaudoin ramed the rebound into the right corner of the net to create a score of 7-0.
“In the second half, we cleaned things up a little bit. We started to play one-two-touch and knock the ball around, which really opened up some scoring opportunities for us,” said Sharland. “In the final third of the field – particularly the 18, I thought we did a nice job at finding the last pass. We could have taken a shot from the outside but we were looking for our teammates inside and it was pretty unselfish.”
Massabesic will travel to Kennebunk on Friday. Thornton will travel to Cheverus on Friday for their next game.
— Sports Writer Sienna Barstow can be reached at sbarstow@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.
Thornton’s Gabrielle Belanger and Massabesic’s Hayden Zielinski sprint towards the ball during a match up on Wednesday night.
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