On one sideline stood the defending Class B state champion Hornets with a bench and JV team deep enough to have fielded three varsity squads. On the other stood the Black Bears, with two coaches, three injured players and a pile of equipment where any substitute players would otherwise have been standing. There were no subs.

For one half, at least, Maranacook, which dropped into Class C this season and could field only eight players plus a goalie, stood toe-to-toe with Leavitt before the powerful Hornets flexed their muscle in the second frame to run away with an 8-0 win.

“You just try to not worry about how many people they have, you just try to play your game,” Leavitt coach Wanda Ward-McLean said. “Their goalie did a nice job in the first half. She made a lot of nice saves. It took us a while to get going there. I think the emotions (from senior day), they always say it’s not going to affect them, but it does.”

Leavitt will graduate nine four-year players after this season, and also loses two exchange students.

The Black Bears began the season with a scant 12 players on the roster, and injuries have decimated the group. But they’ve plugged away.

“I’d say we stuck with them for the first 20 minutes,” Maranacook coach Tanya Evans said. “Playing the kind of ball we’re accustomed to — good passing, cutting to the ball. Leavitt’s got a pretty good wall of a defense, and we were having a little bit of trouble trying to get through that wall.”

Tuesday’s tilt wasn’t the first in which the Black Bears have thrown a scare into a highly-ranked opponent. Earlier this season, Maranacook played Eastern B power Nokomis to a scoreless deadlock at the half, and stayed within a goal of Winslow, a traditionally strong team that also dropped into Class C this season.

“We don’t have the legs to give the players a break,” Evans said. “But, coming into the season, we only had 12 players, and they made the decision, they made the commitment that they would do what it took. And they’ve played every game with no subs.”

A big reason the Black Bears stayed with Leavitt for a while Tuesday was the play of goaltender Amber Ridlon, who’s not really much of a goaltender at all.

“She played a little bit for us last year,” Evans said. “She’s been under the weather, like other members of our team, and she just got back from a … trip, and she’s been dealing with a cold. I knew she was going to be tired, so we put her in the cage so she could ‘rest.’ But she’s a fighter, she never gives up and she’s not easily intimidated. You could tell that out there today.”

But the Hornets’ well-oiled machine proved too much for Maranacook to handle on weakened legs in the second half. Kierstin Leclerc banged home the first of her two on the day six minutes into the second half to expand the home team’s lead to 3-0. Emma Fournier, Leclerc, Bri DeGone and Sadie Royer then all scored in a six-minute stretch to blow the game open.

“It was nice, because all of those kids have scored for us this season,” Ward-McLean said, “but not usually all in the same game. That was nice.”

Megan Dow and Emily Shaw also scored for Leavitt in the victory. Goalie Sierra Santomango didn’t make a save and saw Maranacook’s only two shots go wide of the cage in the shutout. DeGone, who will be the team’s emergency backup goalie in the playoffs, played in the cage for the final 10 minutes of the contest, and she also saw no action.

The Hornets will now wait and see what the playoff picture looks like. Despite the win, the Hornets will have to wait until the final Heal Points are tabulated to find out not only who their opponents will be, but what their final seed will be. Either way, it appears they’ve locked down a home game in the quarterfinal round.

“You always want your kids to play up to the competition,” Ward-McLean said. “But we don’t make the schedule, and we play who we have to play.”

Maranacook, meanwhile, may still eke its way into the playoffs. The Black Bears are in contention for the No. 9 seed in the Western Class C draw.