POLAND — A stick to the nose ultimately woke Carly King up during Poland High School field hockey’s early-morning contest Saturday. 

King caught a high stick early in the second half and was forced to the sideline for a brief moment to tend to her injury. There was no stopping her when she returned just a few minutes later.

The junior forward scored a pair of goals less than four minutes apart as the Knights defeated Gray-New Gloucester 5-0. Poland’s five goals are the most the Knights have scored this season. 

“She got that big bump on her nose and had to come out for a moment and that just sort of set her on fire,” Poland coach Amy Hediger said. 

King’s first goal of the game came on a deflection on the Knights’ first penalty corner of the second half. King got her stick on a shot at the top of the circle by Abbie L’Italien and redirected it past Patriots goalkeeper Talia Tims to give Poland a 3-0 advantage with 26:10 remaining. 

“Abby was driving the ball in from the circle, so I knew I had to touch it for it to count and I just swung and luckily it went in,” King said. 

King added her second of the game 3:13 later to push Poland’s lead to 4-0. Amanda Dube was credited with the assist. King’s second goal ended Tims’ day in net for Gray-New Gloucester (0-5). Adrianna Kimball finished the game.

Despite setting a season high in goals, the Knights’ (5-2) offense got off to a slow start. They had four penalty corners early, but couldn’t generate a quality scoring opportunity. Poland’s best chance in the early going came when Dube got behind the defense and was one-on-one with Tims. Dube couldn’t get a shot off as she crashed into Tims, who came out of the net to block off a shooting angle. 

Tims was injured on the play and came out of the game for the next seven minutes. The Knights took advantage of the goalie switch, scoring twice on Kimball in a span of 37 seconds. 

“We just know our game,” Hediger said. “We know our style so well that we’re able to maintain our tempo and speed. We knew if we just stayed calm it would eventually work out for us.” 

It was a pair of seniors who put the Knights on the scoreboard in the first half. Kyla Sturtevant netted the first goal at 4:18 and Dube scored the second with a perfectly placed shot into the far side of the cage from the right side of the field. 

“Our recovery today was one of the reasons why some of those goals were scored,” Gray-New Gloucester coach Corenna Dick said. “Our girls rallied together. They started talking on the field more. A lot of it was they all decided to take that deep breath on the field instead of recovering and that’s how those goals were scored.” 

The Knights carried the momentum over to the second half as Mary Everett scored just 21 seconds after halftime. 

Poland goalie Tia Lowndes had a relatively quiet day, needing just three saves to record her first shutout of the season. 

Hediger said she was pleased with her team’s defensive effort. 

“Abbie L’Italien and Mercedes Archer — our two defenders — as well as our weak-side midfielder know their roles and their positions and they’re not afraid to come after you and get the ball, carry the ball and set it back up to restart our offense. Our style is when we don’t have the ball everyone plays defense and when we have the ball everyone’s on offense.” 

The Knights held a 23-3 advantage in shots and a 12-1 edge in penalty corners. 

mkraft@sunjournal.com