BIDDEFORD – The Cheverus field hockey team’s regular-season winning streak is now at 47 games. Few were as hard-earned as Friday evening’s latest addition to that list.

Lucy Johnson scored early, Sydney Brunelle struck late, and Cheverus outlasted rival Biddeford in a matchup of two of Class A South’s top teams, 2-0.

So many of Cheverus’ victories during its streak, dating back to before the pandemic, have been routs and runaways. This was anything but. The Tigers and Stags fought each other up and down the field, with both teams mounting chances and making game-changing defensive stops.

In the end, the Stags, as tends to be the case, had the answer.

“I 100% thought of it as one of our harder games, for sure,” said Johnson, the two-time reigning Varsity Maine Player of the Year. “Even though it was our first game of the season, I wanted to come out with a bang. I think our whole team did. We all played well together.”

It wasn’t the win Biddeford was looking for, but for the Tigers, it was perhaps the proof they needed to see that the gap between the teams had closed.

“Just because Cheverus has been such a powerhouse, I feel like our girls needed to know they could hang with them,” Biddeford Coach Caitlin Tremberth said. “They can dominate a quarter. They can win the possession game. All those little things are little battles we can work with. It’s a great building block.”

The Stags went ahead by showing the quick strike ability that has made them the state’s most feared team for three years. After Biddeford foiled a pair of early Johnson rushes, she raced up the field with Brunelle on another and this time got the ball from the sophomore and released a shot that hit off a Biddeford stick and went high into the net for a 1-0 lead with 6:32 left in the first.

“I’m glad we scored right at the beginning, to get us going,” Johnson said. “I think it was intimidation towards them.”

Biddeford rallied back, however, and a midfield led by Ayla Lagasse, Eliza Doyon and Kayla Magnant was able to pile up the looks and chances. The Tigers came closest to evening the score with roughly two minutes to go in the third, when Mia Mariello just missed knocking in a fine centering pass from Magnant and Lagasse missing just right on a chance seconds later.

“Three of those (chances) we had should have gone in. We had so many missed chances,” Tremberth said. “It should have been 1-1, it should have been 2.”

Part of that was due to the Cheverus defense, which got seven saves from Ellie Skolnekovich (Biddeford’s Mariah Villandry made 10) but also got impressive stick saves from Johnson and Jordan Drouin.

“It was a really tough fight out there today,” said Cheverus Coach Andrea Musante, who earned her first victory after taking over for Theresa Arsenault. “They earned that one. … I’m very impressed with that, because those are really difficult moments to hold it together and not let your nerves get the best of you.”

The missed chances loomed large when Cheverus struck again. Joey Pompeo had a long pass up that snuck past Villandry and went to Gabrielle Blais, and Blais quickly found Brunelle on the left side of the cage for a goal with 1:57 to go.

“It hit a bunch of sticks,” said Brunelle, a sophomore. “I just kept my eye on the ball and put it in the back of the net.”

With the goal, the drama was finally out of the contest.

“It was a super intense environment, and I think our entire team worked together,” said Brunelle, a sophomore. “It was a super even game. We’re just going to come at it super strong every time. Biddo’s a good game, but we fight every time.”

Tremberth had a similar sentiment.

“At the end of the day, it was just a really good field hockey game,” she said. “I’m excited to battle them again.”