WINTHROP — It’s been a long time coming for the Winthrop girls’ soccer senior class. 

Not since homecoming week of its freshman year has the senior class tasted victory. That skid ended Monday against Telstar, and it was a freshman who did the honors. 

Sierra Huff buried a shot into the upper-right corner of the net three minutes into overtime to give the Ramblers a 2-1 victory over Telstar, which also entered the match seeking its first victory of the season.

“It felt really nice and I felt I owed my team it since we haven’t won in a few years,” Huff said. “I just took a shot and it went off the tip of her fingers and went in. It felt absolutely amazing.” 

Huff’s goal came on a breakaway. She took possession near midfield and dribbled into the box down the left side before netting the game-winner to send Winthrop’s bench into a frenzy. The victory was the first for second-year coach Jaynelle Smith. 

“Our team felt like all they needed was a breakaway,” Smith said. “They set their minds on getting that breakaway and they did and they got the goal.” 

Huff assisted on Winthrop’s other goal, feeding Shie Smith in the 48th minute to break a scoreless tie. Dribbling down the right side, Huff found Smith in the middle of the box and the sophomore rocketed a shot that deflected off Telstar goalkeeper Tehya Johnson and into the net.

Smith nearly made it 2-0 in the 62nd minute when her shot on the breakaway ricocheted off the crossbar. 

In Telstar’s previous five matches, one goal by the opposition was enough. Monday, it wasn’t as the Rebels (0-6) recorded their first goal of the year in the 69th minute, snapping a 468-minute scoreless mark.

Lexie-Ann Hart tied the game with a shot into the top-left corner of the net to the left of Winthrop goalkeeper Haley Choate. Kylee Martin took a shot from the right side that went wide of the net, but served as a fortunate cross as Hart was wide open on the left side to knock in the rebound and tie the match.

“This kind of breaks the ice,” Telstar coach Robert Remington said. “We’ve had scoring opportunities in the last two games where as prior to that we didn’t. It’s kind of like cracking the ice. As we go forward, we’ll have a little more confidence that we can put the ball in the net.”  

The Ramblers (1-5) nearly won it in the final minutes of regulation, but Johnson came up with back-to-back saves on Smith and Matti Rice to force overtime. 

“I told my team to keep their head in the game and keep playing as hard as they could play,” Jaynelle Smith said. 

Winthrop held an 11-2 advantage in shots in the second half after being outshot 6-4 in the opening 40 minutes. The Ramblers recorded the only shot in overtime. 

“I told the girls afterwards that it stinks to lose, but it’s especially tough when it comes in overtime,” Remington said. “I’ve seen a lot of overtime games and it’s unfortunate when someone scores because you’re in overtime because the game’s equal. It’s too bad it doesn’t end in a tie because nobody really deserves to win or lose.” 

Choate finished with seven saves and Johnson recorded 14. 

mkraft@sunjournal.com

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