CORINTH – There was a bit of pressure, Meagan Fogarty admits, when she became a starter for the Dexter field hockey team. After all, the sophomore was taking the place of former Tigers star Kristy Veazie, the state record-holder for career goals.

Fogarty doesn’t have anything to worry about. She showed off her scoring touch – and showed some toughness as well – in Dexter’s 4-0 victory over Central Wednesday.

Fogarty scored three goals for coach Margaret Veazie’s two-time defending Class C state champion Tigers, now 6-0.

The Red Devils (5-1) hadn’t been scored upon this season until Wednesday.

Fogarty knocked in the eventual game-winner. She added two more goals after she was hit in the left hand by an errant pass. It didn’t force her out of the game, though.

“It hurt, but I wasn’t coming out,” she told a Dexter coach during a quick break later in the first half.

Fogarty’s effort was a big help to the team as a whole. In games last week, she said, most opposing defenses keyed on midfielders Brittany Veazie and Keriann Patterson.

“[The midfielders] felt that the offense wasn’t helping out as much,” she said. “I feel that the offense in this game stepped up and helped them out.”

Fogarty scored her first goal, which turned out to be the game-winner, just 2:35 into the first period. She knocked a loose ball past Central goalkeeper Jenna Dauphinee.

Patterson assisted on first-half goals by Fogarty and Sarah Wyman. Fogarty netted her third goal off a Courtney McCormick assist with about four minutes left in the game.

Dauphinee had to make a couple of tough saves in the second half. She stopped eight of 14 shots in the game.

“She did some nice things. I thought she stepped up tremendously,” Central coach Diane Rollins said. “I thought the breakdown was more in the half-field, before it got to Jenna. … We needed to get back better and mark overall and we didn’t do that in the first half.”

The Tigers had 15 penalty corners to five for the Red Devils.

Dexter backs Amanda Pullen, Michia McKusick, Courtney St. Germain and goalkeeper Cindy Koscielny (three saves on four shots) did a fine job keeping the ball out of their area and averting Central’s runs at the goal.

“We just knew this was going to be a physical game so we just played strong and we protected the ball,” Pullen said.