ADAMS TWP — Margaret Manjerovic started singing to break the silence.

Standing patiently on the field with her Mars lacrosse teammates, Manjerovic waited several minutes before starting the national anthem.

The Planets joined in, alleviating Manjerovic’s nerves.

“I started to think this is our nation. Let’s just sing,” Manjerovic said. “I didn’t think the music was going to come on. Luckily, everyone joined in.”

That was how the night went for Mars. An inexperienced group continually improvised as if they had been together for years.

The Planets banded together to win the first game in program history, beating Knoch 13-11 in Division II-Section 3 play Thursday night at the Mars Athletic Complex.

Excitement, mixed with a little bit of anxiety, motivated Manjerovic.

All she wanted to do was take the field. The Planets were supposed to open up Tuesday against Shaler, but it was postponed due to cold weather.

When Knoch’s field wasn’t ready for Thursday’s game, it was moved to Mars, creating another conflict. The Planets track team already had a schedule meet, pushing back the lacrosse start time.

When technical difficulties left the Planets waiting for the anthem, Manjerovic accelerated the process.

Admittedly, Manjerovic said it wasn’t a pitch-perfect performance.

“I think I’d give it a two out of 10,” sophomore Bella Alampi joked.

While Mars doesn’t anticipate winning many singing contests, the Planets’ offense was already in tune.

Kelly O’Connell showed their excitement, scoring Mars’ first goal 1 minute, 51 seconds into the game. The Planets nearly scored two more quickly after it, but couldn’t convert on restarts.

Mars coach Rich Schoeffel knew his girls were excited. He heard about it all day.

“All through school today they kept saying ‘We aren’t getting canceled today are we?’,” Schoeffel said. “They were definitely ready to play.”

After the initial adrenaline surge from Mars wore off, both teams traded the lead in the first half.

Knoch (1-2, 1-1) knotted the score at five with 21.2 seconds left before halftime on a penalty shot by Emily Zilka, who finished with a game-high five goals.

Savanna Steffen also finished with three goals for the Knights.

Zilka’s shot was set up after Shannon Doyle, who scored a goal for Mars, received a red card.

Knights coach Garett Butler said it was tough to create a gameplan for the Planets.

“I didn’t tell my girls they are a new team because they’ve been playing together for three years in clubs and other activities,” Butler said. “I don’t know what to expect. We know what to expect when we play them again a few weeks from now.”

Patience after halftime helped Mars pull away. Manjerovic set the tone, sneaking from behind the net in front of the post to score the first goal 1:08 into the second half.

“I feel like after halftime we realized we wanted to slow things down and set it up,” Manjerovic said. “We started to realize what we should be doing, taking good shots instead of rushing things.”

Another goal from Manjerovic, followed by two from Kaitlyn McKenzie — who finished with three goals — put the Planets ahead 9-5 with 16:01 remaining.

Schoeffel, who took over as Mars’ coach in February, felt like his team was well prepared.

“As well as we could during a short amount of time,” Schoeffel said. “The more we’re together, my assistant coaches are great coaches, and the more we’re together with the girls we’ll be a lot better.”

Knoch cut the lead to two twice with less than 13 minutes left, but Mars answered with goals both times. Manjerovic scored her fourth off an assist from Tori Kopchak with 12:09 left and Alampi added her fourth with 8:17 remaining.

“We stuck together, kept our intensity and played as a team,” Alampi said. “It was really awesome and it feels good to win. We played as a team and it worked.”

Nothing went as planned, but that’s OK with Alampi. It’s a lasting first impression for the Planets’ program.

Even if it took longer than expected to happen.

“It was definitely worth the wait,” Alampi said.