Field hockey: No. 3 Winthrop ousts No. 2 Dexter in penalty corners

DEXTER — The tremendous ride continues for the Winthrop field hockey team.

It took a bit longer than they wanted Thursday, but the Ramblers earned the end result they’d been looking for.

Sarah Spahr fired the ball past Dexter keeper Megan Peach in the fifth round of sudden death penalty corners on a rebound off the pads to lift third-seeded Winthrop to a 2-1 win over the No. 2 Tigers in a Class C North field hockey semifinal.

“We’d been trying to do what we always do on corners, and it wasn’t working,” Winthrop coach Jessica Merrill said on an understandably jubilant bus ride home Thursday night. “We spread it out a bit more. Katie (Perkins) got the shot in there and we got the tip on the goalie’s pads.”

Spahr, whose first goal tied the game in the second half, was there for the rebound.

“She’s on the left side, and she was able to flick it into the goal,” Merrill said. “It was a nice shot.”

The Ramblers (13-2-1) move on to the Class C North final to face the winner of Saturday’s other Class C North semifinal, No. 1 MCI vs. No. 5 Boothbay. That game will be Wednesday, Oct. 26, at Hampden Academy.

Dexter (13-3-0) scored first in Thursday’s contest on a snipe from Kaitlyn Webber, and carried the lead into halftime. Spahr’s first goal, with 8:31 to play in regulation, knotted the game at 1-1.

The Ramblers held the edge in both shots (17-14), and in penalty corners (13-6).