Lakeland bounced back from its first field hockey loss since the end of the 2009 season with a 6-0 victory over city rival King’s Fork Wednesday afternoon on the Lady Cavalier home field.

The Lady Cavaliers poured the pressure on against the Lady Bulldogs, winding up with three goals in each half, with the three second-half goals coming in 18 minutes before the mercy rule was called. Lakeland tallied 31 shots to zero for KF.

Even with a district win to go to 4-0 in the Southeastern, how the Lady Cavaliers respond to Saturday’s 3-2 loss to St. Catherine’s in the final game of the Surf and Turf Invitational Tournament in Virginia Beach will show up in future tests, said Lakeland head coach Tara Worley.

“I think it’s a good thing, with our team being so young, to experience a loss like that in a game that doesn’t mean anything in the standings,” Worley said.

“We played really well versus a fine-tuned team, a team with 14 seniors on it,” Worley said.

The contest pitted the defending Group AAA state champs, although with the Lady Cavaliers not having eight senior starters from a season ago, against the defending Div. I private school state champs.

“It gives me a good idea where we are and where we need to go, so in that sense I’m happy. I’m not so sure I got the response I was looking for in today’s game,” Worley said.

The Lady Bulldogs made the opening minutes a challenge for the Lady Cavaliers. Each time King’s Fork had the chance to take a big swing at the ball, they successfully cleared it 50 or more yards down the field. None of the long drives turned into Lady Bulldog offensive chances, but at least they kept the match stalemated.

The Lady Cavaliers broke through shortly after a timeout taken by Worley 10 minutes into the match.

From a Lakeland penalty corner, Gabrielle Wash passed to Summer Parker near the end line to the left of the cage. Despite a slim angle, Parker lifted a shot accurately inside the far post for a goal in the 12th minute.

Two minutes later, a hard Lakeland shot was turned away by KF goalie Kayla Jones. The rebound set off another Lakeland scoring chance with Parker assisting to Wash for a pushed shot over the goal line.

“I tend to call a lot of early timeouts. We were just trying to adjust to (King’s Fork’s) tendencies and more so I was trying to settle our team down and get them to stop making small, little mistakes,” Worley said.

Jones kept the Lady Bulldogs in shouting range. She saved nine straight Lady Cavalier shots on goal through the next 15 minutes and finished with 16 saves overall.

Lakeland’s attacking was too strong, though, and Parker scored again with an assist from Jessie Cox with 1:15 left in the first half.

Quick movement through midfield by Kristen Vick and Jamee Albright set up a shot by Kasey Smith, a save by Jones, but a rebound for Smith to pass to Cox near the left post for a tap into the empty goal for a 4-0 Lakeland lead in the 35th minute.

Jillian Bates scored an unassisted goal, again with a Smith drive on goal setting up a rebound for a teammate.

Smith got her own goal to make it 6-0. Cox set up Smith from a corner and Smith nailed the back of the cage with a big shot.

Next up for King’s Fork (1-4, 1-3) is a district match at Indian River on Wednesday. Lakeland (7-1, 4-0) gets its other Suffolk rival playing at Nansemond River on Wednesday.