New London — Connecticut College struck for three goals in the first 23 minutes of the annual Whale Cup women’s soccer game Wednesday.

The Camels appeared to be on their way to an easy win, but the rest of the game was anything but easy for the home team.

Conn College held off a tenacious Coast Guard Academy, which regrouped and responded after falling behind, and finally secured a 4-1 victory.

Both coaches came away with something to build upon.

“We scored a couple of really nice team goals, but we also knew that they would not go away, and they didn’t,” Conn coach Norm Riker said. “Even though we scored three goals, they had some chances and were making it hard. Then they scored a great goal on a corner, and game on.”

Riker was referring to Coast Guard freshman Ella Pottle’s goal off junior Arwen Wise’s corner kick that cut the deficit to 3-1 at the 41:33 mark of the first half.

Pottle’s goal and the sparkling play of senior goalie Emily Scharnitzky energized the Bears (0-4), who increased their intensity and effort.

Conn College (2-1) finally sealed the win on freshman Kieh Blessing’s first career goal at the 75:13 mark.

“I’m proud of them,” Coast Guard coach Susan Grant said. “They didn’t give up. They brought it in the second half. I felt like we had them on their heels. … I thought we played excellent in the second half.”

Entering the game, the Camels had won all previous 12 meetings in the Whale Cup series. But the rivalry still is a competitive one.

Wednesday’s game followed suit.

“They’re always a great competitor,” Conn senior Ella Davidyock said. “They’re always a good, physical, fast team. They give us a chance to work on our style of play and how we want to do that against any competitor.”

The Camels established their ball control attack early on and regularly fed runners for goal-scoring opportunities.

Junior Ella Gazo’s nifty passing set up the first two goals. She played a through ball to senior Lexi Gudaitis, who converted from close range for a 1-0 lead at the 11:47 mark.

About nine and a half minutes later, Gazo found Davidyock, who raced in and found the back left corner of the net for her second goal of the season.

It took only 1 minute, 9 seconds for senior Clare Mulvihill to finish off her run with a well-placed strike. Sophomore Katelyn Hardwick earned the assist.

The Camels basically took what the defense gave them.

“We value the ball and like to build out of the back and try to get it systematically into our forwards,” Riker said. “We also have some pace. We have reads what we look for to see what the other team is doing to us and what our options are from that. … They did a nice job figuring that out and creating some attacks for us that were dangerous.”

The game evened out from there, as both teams went deep into their bench.

Scharnitzky made a couple of nice saves to keep the score close and finished with five stops overall.

“She’s been great,” Grant said. “She’s confident. This is her fourth year in goal, so she’s familiar with the position. She has really taken control of six, so it’s been nice to see.”

The Bears, who’ve scored only two goals in four games, are still searching for some consistency up front. They’ll have two more nonconference games left before beginning New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference play.

“We’re quite a young team,” Grant said. “It will come. They’re a hard-working group. There’s some talent there. They’ve just got to get it all together.”

Three games into the season, Riker is encouraged by his team’s play.

The Camels have scored 10 goals in two nonconference wins and lost to No. 9 Amherst 2-0 in New England Small College Athletic Conference action.

“We had a really good game plan (against Amherst) and did a nice job defending and creating chances for ourselves,” Riker said. “That final third piece is going to take some time. I know when we watched the film, some players wished they had some chances back, but that’s the game and we’ll learn from it.

“We took some chances today, which we were happy with. We’ll keep building and moving forward. We’ve got a good group.”

g.keefe@theday.com