FARMINGTON — Brianna MacKay poured in eight goals to lead Castleton University to a 23-5 win over the University of Maine at Farmington in a North Atlantic Conference women’s lacrosse game at Prescott Field, on Saturday.

Castleton (4-4) struggled in the early going when UMF (2-3) pushed the four-time defending NAC champions to play defense.

Castleton opened the game, taking a 5-0 lead, but the spirited play of UMF saw the Beavers rally controlling play, narrowing the Spartans advantage to 5-2.

“It is really important for us to know the other teams strengths and stick with our game plan,” Castleton coach Hannah Corkery said. “UMF is a tough team that rallied behind each other to keep them in the game.”

After watching MacKay score four of the game’s first five goals, the Beavers caught fire, pinning the Spartans deep in their defensive end.

Alaina Shorey put a pair of shots past Castleton goalkeeper Meghan Els, cutting the Spartans lead to 5-2 with 19:23 remaining in the first half.

Unfortunately for the Beavers, a thin bench (two subs) and the high level needed to cut the margin left, UMF with little remaining to counter the talented Spartans.

“We are not deep and that caused us a problem, today,” UMF coach Molly Wilkie said. “This was a game against a very good team, where we needed to prove we could play with them.”

“We executed the best we could, had good mental focus and kept coming at them,” she added.

With plenty of substitutes rolling in off the bench, Castleton started to pull away from UMF, using an exceptionally quick transition game to take a 13-4 lead at the half. Castleton finished the game out-shooting UMF, 42-13.

“When you have 10 solid players coming in off the bench, it helps wear teams down,” Corkery said. “Hopefully we are really successful again this year.”

UMF scored on a pair of free position shots in the first half, the first from Rhi Jackson followed by Jaclyn Langevin.

Castleton tallied 10 straight goals in the second half but the Beavers continued to push forward when Sierra Gilley scored off a pass from Messalonskee grad Mara Balboni with just 47 second left in the game.

Els went the distance for the Spartans in net registering three saves, while Winthrop’s Alyssa Arsenault made 15 saves for the Beavers.

Castleton claimed the advantage in ground balls, 27-18.