LINCOLNVILLE — The Lincolnville Lynx teed off against the Searsport Vikings on Wednesday, Sept. 15 in Lincolnville on a gray and threatening day, and emerged with a 6-2 win to start off their much anticipated, pandemic-delayed title defense.

It only took a little over seven minutes for LCS to get on the scoreboard when winger Maren Johnson crossed a ball from the right close to the goal mouth that passed through without being touched. Winger Jacob Talbot corralled it on the left side and sent it right back in, but it was intercepted by a Viking defender. Midfielder Liam Day-Lynch promptly stole it off the Searsport player’s foot, shifted left to find an open lane to drive, then angled through the defense and drove the ball home from close range.

Day-Lynch followed this with another effort at the 9:40 mark when he snagged a loose ball on the right side of the goal box, dribbled adeptly through the defense and slammed a hard finisher in from close range once again.

Day-Lynch promptly completed his hat trick with 10:37 gone when he received a throw in on the left, made an angling run across and through the defense and caromed his shot off the downside of the crossbar so that it bounced into the net.

After that, things quieted down for a bit, and both teams played rather evenly with both racking up several dangerous drives.

This pattern continued into the second half until a few injuries brought some key Lynx players onto the bench for a spell. Searsport leapt to take advantage and drove in a long ball from the left at 31:23 followed by another at 40:58 when they took exploited an LCS defensive lapse.

With the recovering of several key Lynx players, Lincolnville again began to dominate and tallied another score when Abby Webber kicked a long feed to the left side which striker Mickey Nowell fielded and then using his fine turn of speed, he blew by the defense and to go in alone, finishing by slipping a soft shot past the charging Viking keeper and nestling it inside the far post at 53:30.

Nowell struck again with 57:36 gone after a Vikings’ handball just on the LCS side of midfield. Nowell made a brilliant move to open space on the Vikings’ right side, and Day-Lynch quickly sent the free kick up to spring Nowell loose so that he could blaze past the defense once again, ending by burying the ball in the back of the net. Johnson ended the scoring at the 59-minute mark when she intercepted a throw out by the Searsport keeper, make a quick dribble forward, and beat the keeper with her ensuing shot.

The game featured a number of fine individual performances, not least from the scoring pair of Day-Lynch and Nowell. Sophia Skrivanich made a fine debut anchoring the defense at the sweeper position, Bryson Hise and Abby Webber gave the team some excellent minutes at the wing defensive positions, and Jack Lytton performed well as the stopper.

Teaming up with Day-Lynch at midfield to dominate the crucial middle of the field were Olivia McManus and Natalie Bolduc with Bolduc also putting in some crucial time at sweeper to fill a hole for an injured player. The rest of the team also played valuable supporting roles on the field as well.

The Lynx have next week off but will resume play on Monday, Sept. 27 against Appleton on the LCS pitch.

Ben Edes is the coach of the Lincolnville soccer team.