Senior Sabrina Daoud, playing in her first varsity field hockey contest, helped turn things around for Dirigo on Wednesday, scoring the lone goal in the first half while goalie Morgan Morrow made some spectaular saves in the second to preserve Dirigo’s 1-0 triumph over Winthrop at Harlow Park.

Winthrop forced a lot of the action and had several quality shots, but was unable to get the ball past Morrow. At the opposite end, Winthrop goalie Corinna Coulton proved to be equally stout, saving 24 of 25 shots.

“All I really asked was for the team not to come out flat. Since I’ve been here at Dirigo we’ve fallen behind early (record-wise) and had to dig deep in order to make it up,” Dirigo coach Gretchen Errington said. “The team really came and played with a lot of energy, today.”

Dirigo struggled out of the gate last season, starting 0-4 before finishing the year at 6-6-2. That start a year ago included an opening-day loss to Winthrop. 

The Cougars started strong and peppered the offensive zone, creating early penalty corners. For her goal, Daoud was in position in front and received a pass from freshman Sophie Jacques and the ball bounced up and over Coulton in to the back of the cage, with 17:25 remaining in the first half.

“We practice our corners all the time,” said Daoud, who played soccer prior to this season. “I was positioned on the stroke (side). It was an adrenaline rush because when the ball (deflected) up in the air, I was just super excited and wanted to celebrate with my teammates.”

The Cougars maintained control of the ball as midfielders Emma Lueders, Katelyn Olsen and Olivia Noyes advanced the ball in to the offensive zone.

Front-liners Jordan Holmquist, Jacques and Daoud benefited from the pressure; leaving Winthrop defenders Madelyn Thomas, Megan Chamberland and Celeste Hannum backpedaling.

”We didn’t play like we’re capable of,”Winthrop coach Jessica Merrill said. ”We’re just not clicking, even though it was the first day of school, and that’s no excuse. We didn’t go after the ball at time and our (positioning) left to much space between the players.”

Winthrop utilized the speed of Emma Conrad, Katelynn, Emily Molino and Sarah Spahr to get shots away. But Dirigo fullbacks Katelyn Radcliffe and Haley Turner rotated back and cleared the zone. Morrow (11 saves) also rushed out to make several pad saves.

“Morgan is incredible,” Errington said. “She sees every thing back there and when she does get beat, when she comes out she’ll analyze what went wrong.”