FREEPORT — A third-quarter surge lifted No. 1 Winthrop past No. 6 Lisbon to capture the Class C South regional championship.
The Ramblers scored five times in the period in an 8-1 victory at Joan Benoit Samuelson Track and Field on Wednesday.
Maddie Perkins scored three goals and had three assists while Bella Littler had two goals.
“(Perkins) has several school records including most career goals, which she added to tonight,” Winthrop coach Sharon Coulton said. “We hope she could increase that number the next game.”
Perkins has at least 70 goals for her career, but Coulton and Perkins weren’t quite sure the exact number.
Winthrop didn’t want to be next in line of upsets the Greyhounds have pulled off in the playoffs.
“We knew they were on a roll because they upset the number two (St. Dom’s) and they upset the number three (NYA),” Coulton said. “We didn’t want them to upset the number one.”
Winthrop came storming out of halftime, scoring three times in the first seven minutes of the quarter. Perkins had another blast at the top of the circle nearly three minutes into the third quarter.
“I think when we came out for (the third quarter), we were talking like its a zero-zero game and it could go either way,” Perkins said. “We wanted it to go our way and we came out firing. We got a couple quick and we just kept going.”
Perkins set up Winthrop’s fourth goal when she made a pass to Littler on a 2-on-1 and Littler put the ball in just past the four-minute mark. Perkins then stretched the lead to 5-1 at the seven-minute mark.
“It’s hard for a team to come back when a team pummels you with a couple of goals at a time,” Lisbon coach Julie Petrie said. “The momentum shift definitely went (Winthrop’s) way.”
The Ramblers continued the offensive surge later in the third quarter, with Lauryn Wood and Littler scoring as Winthrop took a 7-1 lead into the fourth quarter.
In the first minute of the fourth quarter, Izzy Folsom scored, and Perkins picked up her third assist of the game.
“One of our most dangerous things is that everybody on our team can score no matter what,” Perkins said. “It doesn’t have to be me, literally anyone on our team can score.”
Winthrop has scored 110 goals this season with six players scoring double digits.
“We wanted to do what we could to contain them in the fourth,” Petrie said. “(We didn’t) want to hang our heads and be proud of being here. (We wanted) to play out the game with some pride.”
The Ramblers took a 1-0 lead when Perkins blasted a shot at the top of the circle after a corner early in the first quarter.
Winthrop had six penalty corners in the first quarter and put five shots on Lisbon goalie Maria Levesque.
Lisbon started to get offensive chances in the first quarter and carried the momentum into the second. Laura Mockler tied the game by putting the ball past Madison Weymouth (one save) three minutes into the second quarter.
“I was really proud of how they answered,” Petrie said. “We have been down early in the first in a couple of games and we knew we needed to play hard together to score. That was a big momentum shift when we did score on them. They had not allowed many goals at all this season.”
Levesque (15 saves) played aggressively in goal for Lisbon, stopping four shots in the second quarter. However, Madeline Wagner broke the 1-1 deadlock with her shot trickling past the goal line to give Winthrop a 2-1 lead.
Petrie was pleased with how her goalie performed.
“I was proud of how she got down (and competed) today,” Petrie said. “She came out and played aggressively, and she kept us in the game in the second quarter.”
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