Mt. Hope’s Felicia Vieira, left, vies for the ball against Scituate’s Colleen McCormick in the second half of yesterday’s match. The Spartans edged the defending state champion Huskies, 4-3, in a Division I-North matchup. Click here to see a gallery of game photos.

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The Providence Journal / Gretchen Ertl

SCITUATE — Having lost seven starters, including its midfield, from last year, the Scituate girls soccer team’s success this fall will hinge on a number of the younger players assuming bigger roles, says coach Bubba Parmenter.

Brianna Mare demonstrated yesterday that she could very well be one of those players. The sophomore midfielder, who primarily played jayvee last season, netted her first two varsity goals, the second of which proved to be the game-winner, as the Spartans edged defending state champion Mt. Hope, 4-3, in a Division I-North matchup.

“We knew Brianna was a good player coming up and today she was where she had to be, which is what we’ve been working on,” Parmenter said. “We kept telling her, ‘Stay focused. Stay with the ball.’ And obviously on that (second goal) she was in the right place at the right time.”

Scituate took command early yesterday, putting three goals on the board in less than two minutes. Two-time All-Stater Katie Birrell was responsible for the first two. Receiving a pass in the middle, she dribbled to the left, maneuvered around a Mt. Hope defender and knocked a shot past the Huskies’ Heather Morreo, who is replacing All-State keeper and ’07 state tournament MVP Hanna MacDougall in net this season, for her first tally at 9:45.

Birrell struck again 25 seconds later, heading in a corner kick by Jessica Karlberg.

Without a fellow All-Stater –– the now-graduated Ashley Choiniere –– to help draw away some of the attention, Birrell “is always double-teamed and getting everybody’s best defenders on her,” Parmenter said of Birrell, who led Division I in scoring last season with her 26 goals and 9 assists. “And she’s still getting it done.”

Then it was Mare’s turn to shoulder some of the load. Taking a pass from Birrell, the sophomore fired a blast from the top of the circle into the top-left corner of the net to put Scituate up, 3-0.

Mare picked up her second goal with about 15 minutes remaining in the second half when she one-timed a cross from Karlberg.

And the Spartans needed it, for a short time later, Mt. Hope came alive, netting three goals in less than four minutes.

Lauren Patriarca got the rally going with her tally at 7:18. The Huskies then caught a break when a Scituate defender inadvertently deflected a ball into the Spartans net to make it 4-2.

Less than a minute later, Mt. Hope found itself within a goal when Allison Faria converted a corner kick by Alison Massed.

Sophomore Brianna Quatrocchi, who is playing her second season in net for Scituate, made sure that’s as close as the Huskies would get, though, finishing with nine saves.

Scituate, which dropped a 3-2 decision to Cumberland on Tuesday, evens its record at 1-1. In just two games, the team has already made considerable progress, Birrell said.

“Mt. Hope — which lost its season-opener, 1-0, to Portsmouth and drops to 0-2 — has similar hopes for its squad. Coming off an emotion-filled season that they dedicated to fallen teammate Kayleigh Raposa, the Huskies — who upset top-seeded La Salle in a shootout in last year’s Division I Championship — must establish a new identity for themselves.

They have lost five starters, including first-team All-Staters Ariel Teixeira and MacDougall and second-team All-Staters Tara Turnbull and Emily Donahue.

Mt. Hope coach Roy Borges is hoping that freshmen Meghan Rainville, Christie Ribeiro and Felicia Vieira can create their own type of magic as the Huskies’ new frontline.

cthorn@projo.com