ORONO – Not 10 minutes had gone by in Maine’s field hockey home opener Saturday at Lengyal Field and Black Bears coach Terry Kix had seen enough.

The Bears, who suffered a 2-1 loss to Providence early in the week, looked like they were still suffering with sloppy passes and slow play. In the one corner they drew, they didn’t get off a shot.

Kix called a timeout 7 minutes, 30 seconds into the game. Before the end of the half, Maine transformed and took control scoring twice in two minutes en route to a 3-1 win in front of about 175 fans.

“We played very sluggish. It’s all about confidence,” Kix said. “They were a little disappointed after Providence. They came out tentative. At the timeout, I got in their face a little. Their passing game was breaking down. They switch from playing inside to the grass. We need to overcome adversity.”

Kix’ call to order worked, although not right away.

A minute after the huddle, Colgate scored when Carly Henney took the ball at the top of the circle on a corner and sent it to Lauren Picone at the left goal post. Picone beat Maine keeper Cindy Botett at 25:26.

It took the Bears 16 more minutes to shake their lethargy, but when they woke up, they came alive with sharp passes, aggressive defense and exciting breakaways.

Bear forward Becky Blue sounded the alarm with 10:06 left in the half when she took a Heidi Spurling pass and pushed it past Colgate’s Hilary Meyer.

A little more than two minutes later, Spurling got the ball at the edge of the circle, pulled to the left and drilled it in the left corner as Meyer went down.

The second half opened with center Dedra DeLilli, right wing Debbie Akerly and forward Karen Hebert leading Black Bear drives downfield.

After seven unsuccessful scoring attempts on corners, DeLilli took a perfect Karen Herbert pass on a corner and tapped it in 6:02 into the half.

“We picked up our intensity. We knew we needed to score. We really came out flat,” DeLilli said. “Overall our whole play wasn’t good. It’s the beginning of the season. But we can’t go out with no energy.”

The good news for Maine Saturday was it drew 21 corners, compared to Colgate’s six. And despite the Bears slow start, they showed moments of fast, aggressive play.

“Our speed and passing game was better than against Providence. We took a lot of shots,” DeLilli said of the Bears, who outshot the Raiders, 20-7.

Botett had one save, while Meyer had 17.

Colgate coach Cathy Foto said that after losing to Connecticut 11-2 this week, her Raiders were mostly playing to restore their self esteem.

“We got destroyed by UConn. We came out excited,” Foto said. “We don’t have a lot of depth. We couldn’t sustain it. After they scored that first goal, they had a sustained attack. We had to hold on just to come out of the half.”