WATERVILLE — The Waterville Purple Panthers admitted they took Winslow lightly when the teams settled for a 2-2 draw in their Sept. 8 meeting.
They didn’t make the same mistake for their homecoming Saturday at Webber Field.
Waterville dominated from start to finish in a 6-0 rampage over its rivals. Fotini Shanos scored twice and dished out an assist and Jordan Jabar contributed a goal and an assist for the Purple Panthers.
“We were a lot more mentally prepared this time,” Shanos said. “I think this time we wanted it more. We were on our ‘A’ game this time.”
Waterville (6-1-1) outshot Winslow 27-9 and had an 8-0 advantage in corners. The Black Raiders (6-1-1) only allowed three goals and had five shutouts going into Saturday.
“We’ve had time to work on our formation, so we felt better about where we were,” Waterville coach Christina Bright said. “We were prepared for their offsides trap, and I think we just mentally came to play today.”
“The defense was on their game. They had support from our mids, and when they cleared they pushed up and it was just mid, forward, goal,” Waterville senior goalie Gabi Martin said.
Waterville made it look that easy early, scoring twice in the first two minutes to knock the Black Raiders off their game.
Shanos out-raced her defender and teammate Sophie Webb to rebound a Sophie Anich shot that deflected high off the crossbar and punched it through for a 1-0 lead just 39 seconds into the game.
Moments later, Mackenzie St. Pierre stepped into a pass by Shanos and beat Hillary Libby (eight saves) to the far post to make it 2-0.
“I noticed their defense doesn’t pressure that much, so I tried to slow it down and look for an open player. I saw Mac running and I just sent in a through ball,” Shanos said.
“I’ll give you one comment: They played better than we did today,” Winslow coach Steve Bodge added.
Shanos made it 3-0 with her second goal off an assist from Anika Elias with 28:43 left in the half.
Libby kept it there with a spectacular sequence where she kicked a hard Elias shot aside with her left leg, then leapt to poke away another bid with her right hand.
Jabar set up Webb 6:46 into the second half for a 4-0 lead. Winslow, which managed just two shots in the first half, put on more pressure but enjoyed few quality chances against Martin (seven saves) and a Waterville defense led by senior Cody Veilleux.
“They were the very first part of our attack, especially the outside defenders,” Bright said.
Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638
rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @RAWmaterial33
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