Waterville knocked off Maranacook 3-0 on Wednesday in a rematch of last year's Class B state final. Waterville played all last season under the radar and peaked at the right time, but everyone is after the Purple Panthers this season.

"Somehow the phrase came up, 'We have a target on our backs' because we are the defending state champs and every team is going to come out wanting to really bring it to us," Waterville coach Amie Dubois said.

"I told them that all though preseason, all through our scrimmages, and it was just a little bug in their ear: Keep in mind that no game's going to be easy this year. So they knew that coming into this game. They knew that Maranacook was going to play us very, very tough. So we were ready for that."

The Purple Panthers played so well that new goalie Jasmine Bishop wasn't called on very often, although she seemed to play with confidence and made a nice play to charge out and break up a 2-on-1 early in the second half.

Maranacook had two goals disallowed and didn't play aggressively until the final 13 minutes. The Bears made several substitutions at forward, and Kacie Laferriere in particular played well.

Laferriere was involved in one of the toughest calls an official has to make. With the score 2-0 and a little under 12 minutes to go in the first half, Laferriere was right in front of Bishop and hit a shot off her pads. Bishop kicked the ball back to a Maranacook player, but a little high.

In this case, some officials will hold their whistle because the offense still had possession in the circle. Other officials will immediately blow the whistle because the ball is dangerous.

In this case, the official blew his whistle right away, and awarded Maranacook a penalty corner. I can certainly see arguments both ways, and this wasn't a call that impacted the outcome of the game.