GARDINER —  Top-seeded Gardiner was prepared for leading scorer Keegan Smith to be less than his best going into  Friday’s Eastern Class B lacrosse semifinal against No. 4 Maranacook/Winthrop. But were the Tigers prepared to continue with their senior attack leaning on crutches on the sidelines?

Smith had to be carried to the sidelines after suffering an ankle injury early in the third quarter. But the Tigers showed their balance, scoring four of the next five goals after his injury to beat the Hawks for the fourth time this season, 13-9, at a rainy Hoch Field.

“We came in knowing Keegan wasn’t feeling well,” said linemate Dalton Sargent, who scored two goals. “We’re trying to deal with it and do what we can without him.”

Smith started, but was still feeling the after-affects of a hit the Hawks dealt him the last time the two teams played, in last Saturday’s KVAC championship.

“Keegan was about 75 percent going in,” Gardiner coach KC Johnson said. “He got hit pretty hard in the KVAC game. He’s not concussed or anything, but he’s not feeling right. We don’t know if it’s a virus or what it is.”

Smith scored a pair of goals and assisted on another as Gardiner (14-0) built a 6-2 lead.

“They’re a tough team,” Maranacook/Winthrop coach Zach Stewart said. “We knew we had to play all four quarters and we didn’t do that. Going down five goals, that’s really tough.”

The Hawks (11-3) rallied for three straight goals, two of them by Dan Condon (four goals) to tie it with 4:13 remaining in the half.

Josh Caldwell (two goals) scored to give the Tigers a 7-6 lead at halftime, but things looked bleak for Gardiner when Smith went down in a heap 2:38 into the second half.

“There was a pothole in the ground, and I hit the guy next to me and after the play, I fell in the pothole and hurt my ankle,” said Smith, who did not return to action.

Fortunately for the Tigers, they had reinforcements in senior midfielder Seth Wing, who was playing his first game since fracturing his jaw in late April against Oak Hill. Fifty-four seconds after Smith went down, Wing fired a shot that bounced past Hawks goalie Zach Bessette (eight saves) and into the net to make it 8-6 with 8:28 left in the third.

“It was his first day back,” Johnson said. “The nice thing about that is he gives us another look back there.”

Zach Nadeau scored to make it 9-6 Tigers. Zach Glazier (three goals) briefly broke up the run with a goal to make it 9-7, but Caldwell and Sargent answered with one score apiece to give the Tigers a four-goal cushion heading into the fourth quarter.

“(Playing MW) gets harder every time,” Sargent said. “We’ve played them twice into overtime and we knew this game they were definitely going to come out to play.”

Condon pulled the Hawks back within three with 7:29 remaining, but that’s as close as they would get. It took Austin Moore 39 seconds to push the lead back to four, and Gardiner goalie JD Crocker (10 saves) made it stand up with several nice stops.

“JD played exceptionally well,” Johnson said. “Going up against Zach Bessette, who is the best goalie in our region and one of the best in the state, he was up for the challenge.”

“We were on the doorstep with our scorer several times and he made the stop. He had three huge saves against Condon,” Stewart said. “Usually, we’re the ones that come up with those one-on-one saves and he did it today.”

Gardiner will host the winner of Saturday’s semifinal between Yarmouth and North Yarmouth Academy in the regional final at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.