Telegraph photo by TOM KING Nashua South's Isabella Walsh tries to chip the ball past Nashua North's Madlyn Phillips during the Panthers' season-opening 5-0 win Monday at Stellos Stadium.

NASHUA – Sometimes a team will go into a season not quite knowing where its firepower will come from.

That wasn’t the case for the Nashua High School South field hockey team in Monday’s 5-0 season opening win over rival Nashua North at Stellos Stadium.

Nope, Panthers coach Ciki McIintire knew that junior Kaitlyn West was going to be her new go-to player. Her faith was rewarded when West scored all five South goals.

“She’s kind of always been right at that level,” McIntire said. “She’s been waiting to come into her own. I think this year she’s kind of realized as a junior she can step into that leadership. I think she’s just playing with confidence and being a great leader on the field.”

Much to the Titans’ chagrin.

“I thought we were a little too passive on defense,” North coach Robert Bailey said. “The ball would pop loose in by our net. We did a nice job defending the goal line but they would get people loose five yards in front of our net.”

And one of them was always West. Her first goal came nearly eight minutes in, and she got her second three minutes later. West’s third goal came with 6:47 left in the half, which ended with the Panthers up 3-0.

She put away two in the second half, and that was that.

“She’s been such a leader,” McIntire said of West, “trying to bring the level of play up for the team. I’m really proud of her.

“She’s been such a workhorse this summer. She put in a ton of work and it paid off. The icing on the cake for her.”

Helping out with assists for South were Audra Robinson with two, plus Madison Berthiaume and Christina Menke with one each.

Courtney Tello made two saves in the South goal for the shutout, while Madi Goulet made five stops for North, but she was busy throughout, thanks to West & Co.

“It’s an adjustment we’ve got to make,” Bailey said. “We went out in that fourth quarter and said our goal as a team was no more goals. The girls finished strong.

“Lot of stuff to work on in practice and right back at it Wednesday.”

And that’s the fun part – they get to play each other again tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. at Stellos, if there’s no virus-related glitches. It’s the fine line all the school teams walk these days.

“We all understand what’s at stake here,” Bailey said. “Everybody takes it seriously and we’re having a blast with it.”

“We’ve been waiting to play since March 13,” McIntire said. “This was it. We were happy to take the field. … We saw how we didn’t get to play this spring, and if today was our last game, we want it to mean something. This team has done a great job of bringing it every day.”

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