ORONO – With junior center midfielder Karen Hebert out with a fractured foot, UMaine field hockey coach Terry Kix was worried about her line.

Moving sophomore left-mid Heidi Spurling to the center and dropping junior left wing Becky Blue back to cover the open spot, Kix put freshman Brianna Banks at left wing – all of which gave Maine more speed but less experience.

But even with that kind of youth, the Black Bears midfield ate up America East rival New Hampshire 6-0 in front of 120 fans at Orono Saturday.

“It just shows that we have a lot of depth,” Kix said. “We had a lot of young players who came through for us.”

The Black Bears, who improved to 9-3 overall and 4-1 in conference play, blistered the Wildcats defense with 20 shots and 10 penalty corners while completely controlling play.

“We really focused on right side attack because that’s the strength of our team and we also have had most of our injuries on the left side of the field,” Kix said. “We really wanted to keep it where our strength is and the team really did an excellent job of maintaining possession.”

New Hampshire, which falls to 1-11 and 0-3 in America East, managed one penalty corner and two shots on Cindy Botet. The sophomore goalkeeper recorded her first solo shutout of the season without making a save.

Starting three freshmen at midfield, and seven sophomores and freshmen overall, the Wildcats were helpless to hold off Maine.

“We aren’t generating any attack because we don’t have a strong midfield working the ball out, and that’s what’s been killing us,” said UNH coach Robin Valducci. “Maine’s a good team, but by the same token, our individual skills were horrendous.

“We kept giving up the ball and you can’t do that against a good team that’s got speed, but we kind of didn’t help ourselves,” she said.

Sophomore center forward Dedra DeLilli led the Black Bear scoring attack with three goals, including the game-winning score with 20 minutes, 39 seconds left in the first half.

DeLilli scooped up the rebound of a second Black Bear shot on goalie Shayne Madico, who had made a split save on the left post on the initial shot, and flicked it over the prone Madico.

The Black Bears took a 2-0 lead into halftime when Jeni Turner, who also scored on a second-half penalty stroke, converted on a penalty corner with 11:33 left.

Hit into play by Annie Elkanich, the ball was stopped by Dawn Porter and Turner blasted it past Madico’s right for her eighth goal of the season.

Madico, a fifth-year senior, made 11 saves for New Hampshire.

Maine continued the onslaught with four second half goals, including Banks’ second goal of the season, a reverse stick over the flattened Madico from 10 feet out 11:03 into the half.

DeLilli scored again on a penalty corner four minutes later, with assists fron Elkanich and Spurling. She finished her first UMaine hat trick by dribbling through the circle and knocking in a shot from the right to beat Madico with 4:39 left.

“It was like we had six forwards [with the three midfielders attacking] instead of three today,” DeLilli said. “I think we connected really well with the midfielders, they were getting the ball up really quickly.”

The only downside to Maine’s victory was the first-half injury to Blue, who Kix said may have fractured a finger.