LISBON — A new offensive formation has made her team an overwhelming aggressor on the young season, so Winthrop coach Sharon Coulton was wondering how her team would react when the opponent came out with more intensity.

The Ramblers weathered an early storm from Lisbon and broke the game open with superior stick-handling in the second half to post a 3-0 victory Wednesday, the Ramblers’ third shutout in five games.

Kenzie Hill, Nikki Scott and Kayla Kaiser scored for the Ramblers (5-0). Scott also dished out an assist and Kelsey Ouellette had two assists.

“We didn’t start off with the intensity we wanted, really,” said Coulton. “We responded to what they were doing. They were outhustling us to the ball and we stepped up to that and tried to play our game.”

Unfortunately for the Greyhounds (1-4), beating the Ramblers to the ball wasn’t translating into a lot of scoring opportunities (three shots in the first half). Winthrop came out of a timeout more intent on moving the ball and was more resilient attacking the cage. 

“I think at first we were more focused on carrying, and once we started passing, our intensity built up more,” Scott said.

Scott helped get Winthrop on the board with a shot that rolled to the right of Lisbon goalie Brianna Moore (nine saves) to the far post, where Hill was ready to beat Moore stick side with 12 minutes left in the first half.

Lisbon was fortunate to be facing just a one-goal deficit at the intermission as the Ramblers kept the pressure coming, culminating with a Shauna Carlson shot that deflected off the far post with two minutes left.

The Ramblers found more success two minutes into the second half when Scott carried a pass from Ouellette wide to the right side of the circle. Moore came out of the cage to kick the ball out but overran it, and Scott slipped behind her to reclaim the ball and found the back corner for a 2-0 lead.

“I carried it wide and the goalie got to it, but I was surprised I was
able to get to it and get around her and into the goal,” Scott said.

Kaiser added the clincher at 16:50 when she backhanded a Ouellette pass into the cage.

“When they got into a lot of the big hits we tried to shift into doing more controlled passing and dribbling,” Coulton said. “We had a lot of breakaways and controlled dribbling by people in the second half.”

With five forwards up front this year instead of the four they played last year, the Ramblers have been able to take advantage of their stickhandling and speed   

“We’re pretty quick up front and we work well together,” said Scott,
a junior forward. “We’re able to move the ball around a lot and put it
where we want.”

“We moved Lauren McHatten, our center-halfback
up a little bit further,” Coulton said. “She keeps saying ‘I feel like
I’m not playing enough defense,’ but she’s in on the offense and she’s
making a lot of plays in the middle.”

The defense hasn’t suffered despite having less people back, thanks in part to goalie Katie Michelson (11 saves), who didn’t allow a goal for the third straight game. 

“She’s done a fantastic job, and she had some great saves,” Coulton said. “She had a couple of games where she hasn’t had to make a lot of saves, so this was a great test for all of our defense, to play defense against a really intense, aggressive team like Lisbon.”