LEWISTON — Winthrop coach Sharon Coulton wouldn’t say Telstar was overmatched against her top-ranked Ramblers in a Class C South quarterfinal field hockey game on Thursday.
Coulton was quite impressed with the ninth-ranked Rebels’ quality of play despite Winthrop’s 5-0 victory at wind-swept Lewiston High School.
“The Telstar team did an awesome job (defensively),” Coulton said. “(Telstar coach) Gail Wight had them working in triangles and patterns. (The Rebels) did an excellent job.”
Winthrop goes on to face fifth-seeded Oak Hill (6-9) in the regional semifinals on Saturday. The Raiders beat fourth-ranked Hall-Dale 3-0 on a different turf field at Lewiston on Thursday afternoon.
Julia Letourneau put the Ramblers (13-2) on the scoreboard, scoring on an assist by Madeline Wagner with 1:36 left in the first quarter.
Telstar’s defense continued to slow down Winthrop throughout the rest of the first half, even though the Ramblers scored again in the second quarter. Freshman Sara True used an assist from Bella Littler and scored with 2:34 left in the first half, providing the Ramblers with a 2-0 lead heading into halftime.
“We were pleased the way they were passing and working together,” Coulton said. “The stress is on the passing for today.
“Well, we are working on a little bit of a different setup, so that is kind of new. We are a small team, so it is hard to practice those things in practice when we don’t have two full squads… So I was very pleased with how (the new setup) was working and some people playing in certain spots.”
The Ramblers collected two more unassisted goals in the third quarter. Wagner and senior center back Emma Shuman each slipped in a goal to give Winthrop a comfy 4-0 lead.
“I think we did a good job connecting today,” Shuman said. “We started leading each other on with passes and we were just doing a lot of give-and-go’s quickly up the field.”
Despite Winthrop’s five-goal victory, Shuman said the Rebels’ (1-15) temerity was impressive.
“We’ve seen them like at the beginning of the season, in the middle of the season and now we see them toward the end — and every time they step up, like they are super good, like they work with what they have,” Shuman said. “They should be proud.”
Shuman said the victory is another opportunity to move on in the playoffs.
“We’ve been focusing on keeping it game by game.” she said. “Last year we had a pretty big season. Just the pressure — it is a lot easier for us to take it step by step.”
The Ramblers topped off their would-be victory with their fifth goal in the fourth quarter. Lauryn Wood scored on Wagner’s second assist.
Wight, who has been coaching a team with no bench, was proud of her Rebels.
“We got 11 players on the field today,” Wight said. “We’ve been playing down numbers, so it was good to have 11 players out there. It is a full team for the season.
“We’ve only played with 11 players I think four times this year. They played really good defense today. They kept their sticks down. They were trying to move the ball out. We had a few fast breakaways when we got the ball down the field. They were really playing well as a team.
“They kept on going. They didn’t give up on Winthrop. We played a lot of defense today, but they hung in there. It made us proud.”
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