The field hockey teams for both Lakeland and King’s Fork high schools had reasons to be happy after their showdown on Wednesday at Lakeland. The Lady Cavaliers’ reasons did not come until the second half, but they led to their 6-0 home victory.

“We definitely didn’t start out as we had planned, we didn’t come out as hard as we should have, but we definitely picked it up in the second half,” said Lakeland senior Stasha Waterfield, who scored twice and had one assist.

Lady Cavs coach Cortney Parker started with the positive in her assessment of her team’s play.

“I felt like the second half went well,” she said. “Finishing was our struggle in that first half, but we picked it up in the second half, and we found the back of the cage.”

The score was 2-0 at halftime after freshman Sydney Beale and senior Shannon Leonard scored.

Explaining what specifically changed about Lakeland after the break, Waterfield said, “We just had more drive and more intensity, and I think we were hungrier for the goal. We wanted to score more.”

Helping to motivate them at halftime, Parker said, “I told them if they didn’t score four goals before the end of the game that practice would not be fun tomorrow.”

Waterfield did her job as a team leader, scoring the first two goals of the second half. One came on a penalty stroke and other came on a restart at the top of King’s Fork’s circle.

Senior Taylor Roten scored next, and senior Victoria Harmon put in the final goal, assisted by Waterfield.

Lakeland finished with nine offensive penalty corners while its defense allowed none.

With the win, the Lady Cavaliers improved to 5-1 on the season after a 2014 campaign in which they ended up 9-10.

“I’m really proud of just how far they’ve come from last season to this point,” Parker said.

Wednesday’s loss dropped the Lady Bulldogs to 0-5 this year, but their coach, Darcy Pinchbeck, liked something she saw from her team.

“We really needed to become more of a team and try for the little things in the game,” she said. “Yeah, we lost 6-0, but I told them they won in my eyes because they had come off of a bad week, a lower week last week, 10-0, 9-0 (losses), and I think they showed me what I wanted. They showed me determination, they showed me they cared.”

On Monday, Lakeland visits Hickory High School while King’s Fork hosts Grassfield High School.