ORONO, Maine — Junior defenseman Adelaide Strout scored a pair of goals and the Yarmouth-Freeport Clippers went on to post a 5-1 victory over the Penobscot Pioneers in a Class A North schoolgirl hockey victory at the Alfond Arena on Friday night.
It was the first of two games in a Fill the Alfond doubleheader.
The Bangor-Brewer boys game followed it.
The Yarmouth-Freeport-Penobscot game featured the teams that met in the A North final the last two years with the Clippers winning both by identical 3-1 scores.
That was the score after two periods as the Clippers scored three unanswered goals after Penobscot freshman defenseman Cayleigh Coleman had opened the scoring at the 10:39 mark of the first period.
Strout tied it just 1:12 later.
Junior right wing Emma White gave the Clippers the lead for good at the 2:18 mark of the second period, and 5:42 later Strout made it 3-1.
Freshman Maya Nasveschuk and junior left wing Celia Zinman sewed up the win with third-period goals as the Clippers improved to 5-1-1.
Penobscot is now 3-3-2.
The Clippers had a decided edge in play but Penobscot junior goalie Abbie Derosier turned in a terrific performance to keep her Pioneers within striking distance until the Clippers finally pulled away in the third period.
Yarmouth-Freeport outshot Penobscot 44-16 for the game.
Derosier stopped a number of point-blank shots including a breakaway by Zinman.
Coleman opened the scoring by skating around the Yarmouth-Freeport net, wheeling in front and roofing a 12-foot wrist shot over the glove of Clipper goalie Lexie Wiles for her sixth goal of the season.
But Strout tied it with a nice individual effort.
She pounced on a loose puck in the neutral zone and sprinted down the right wing into the Pioneer zone.
“I was looking to see if there was a pass (to make),” said Strout.
No Clippers were in the slot, so Strout took the puck to the net and stuffed a backhander under Derosier’s pads.
“I was just trying to put a shot on net,” said Strout who admitted that she didn’t know she had scored until a teammate told her.
Strout said her team got off to a rough start, but her goal helped “set the tone” for the rest of the game.
“We turned it up (after that),” said Strout, whose goal was her seventh of the season.
The Pioneers had a golden opportunity to regain the lead early in the second period but Wiles made a nice glove save on Izzy Brideau’s breakaway.
Just a few moments later, White scored from a difficult angle to the left of Derosier. It was her team-leading eighth of the season.
Strout made it 3-1 off a nice passing sequence following a faceoff win.
Erica O’Connor fed her at the left point and Strout wristed a shot that made its way through a maze of players into the upper far corner.
“I was trying to get the puck through to the net,” said Strout.
Nasveschuk made it 4-1 at the 8:38 mark of the third period when she swatted home an Erin O’Connor rebound for her fifth of the season and Zinman notched her fourth by shoveling home a Drea Rideout rebound.
Derosier finished with 36 saves on 40 shots before Mariah Coon came on with six minutes left and stopped three of four shots she faced.
Wiles finished with 15 saves.
“Abbie kept it in the game,” said Penobscot coach Jarrod Williams. “We couldn’t get anything going, offensively. They’re a tough team. They beat us to the puck. They must have won 75 percent of the one-on-one battles for the puck.”
