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BETHEL —Nik Conrad knew the importance of the opening goal in a battle of two high-scoring eight-person boys soccer teams. Whoever struck first between Telstar and Pine Tree Academy, he thought, would win Wednesday’s match and remain undefeated.

Fortunately for Conrad, Telstar scored the first two goals, then added another in the final minutes to secure a 3-1 win.

“The effort put out in the beginning was what we wanted to do, because we knew the animal that they had just faced yesterday, which is a rough, physical game at Valley,” Conrad said.

The Breakers (7-1) were playing an undefeated team on the road on back-to-back days — they defeated Valley 6-3 on Tuesday — whereas Telstar (6-0) was playing its first game in 12 days. A school trip last Friday and a lack of officials on Tuesday caused games against Rangeley and Dirigo to be postponed.

“(During) our practices, we’ve just been focusing and focusing, and not trying to lose our focus and get distracted on things,” Telstar senior Cyrus Mills said. “And we knew (Pine Tree is) a big team, so we knew we needed to be prepared.”

Mills scored 6 minutes, 15 seconds into the first half, after a lane opened when Pine Tree senior keeper Colby Solberg (seven saves) went too far out of the box.

The Rebels (6-0) doubled their lead 2:43 later, as Tommy LaPointe found Nicholas LaPointe with a left-to-right cross from midfield.

Pine Tree went into Wednesday’s match averaging over six goals per game but struggled to capitalize on its chances in the first half. Without her first- and second-string center backs, coach Jess Remmes-Davis had to move one of the Breakers’ best offensive players, Miguel Matos, to the back line.

The visitors caught a break in the 25th minute when Telstar was called for a handball in the box. Pine Tree sophomore Camden Brace sent the penalty kick to his right, and Adam Stephenson (six saves) made a diving stop. The senior keeper couldn’t hold on, though, and Brace sent the rebound into the back of the net.

It was the first goal allowed by Telstar this season.

“It’s nice to actually play a real game, for the most part,” Conrad said. “No disrespect to the eight-man conference, but it’s kind of like you’re there or you’re not. … It makes a huge difference if you’re ready to go physically for 60 minutes, compared to not. But, yeah, I’m very, very happy with how we played … even in the face of adversity, we didn’t shut down completely.”

Mills nearly scored his second goal in the 40th minute, but Solberg made a key deflection. Mason Perks netted an insurance goal with 2:34 remaining off a pass from Connor Deprey.

“I’m surprised we didn’t score more,” Remmes-Davis said. “That’s our thing. But I think that there’s a couple teams this year, they’re challenging. There’s a couple that aren’t. And this was a challenge for us that we didn’t quite meet our own expectations. So we’re gonna check back in, and I think we see them again later in the year, so hopefully we can fix the things we need to and make the most of our chances next time.”