READFIELD — The Black Raiders are playoff primed.
The Winslow girls soccer team rattled off its ninth straight win Tuesday night at Ricky Gibson Field of Dreams, rolling to an emphatic 3-0 win over Maranacook in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference regular-season finale for both teams. The Black Raiders improved to 13-1-0 in an effort to secure one of the top two spots in Class B North and avoid the postseason’s preliminary round.
Sophomore Carly Warn produced a pair of second-half goals — one early and one late — to cement a clinical effort from Winslow.
“We definitely came out with a lot of intensity, which really helped us,” Warn said. “That carried through the whole first half and into the second.”
Senior Desiree Veilleux opened the scoring early in the first half to send the Black Raiders into the intermission with a 1-0 lead. Sophomore goalkeeper Jennifer Ferry was called upon to make only two saves in posting her seventh clean sheet of the season.
In outshooting Maranacook 21-3, including a 12-2 advantage in on-target chances, Winslow looked less like the team which slogged its way through a 1-0 win over MCI on a rainy Monday afternoon at Thomas College, and more like the team with designs on running at a regional championship.
“I wasn’t sure which team would show up on a back-to-back, but we were fired up today and played really well right from the start,” Winslow coach Steve Bodge said. “They even impressed me. I don’t get impressed easily, but they impressed me again today.”
Maranacook dropped to 9-2-3 with the loss, its second in the last three games, but the Black Bears, too, feel as though they are just as ready as Winslow for the postseason to begin. Maranacook, among the top teams in Class C South all season, will likely finish fourth in the Heal point standings and host a regional quarterfinal next week.
“We came into this game more like a practice game for us. We were focusing on different things, just getting ready for playoffs,” Maranacook coach Travis Magnusson said. “It didn’t really have much of a factor as far as seeding, so there were things we worked on that we wouldn’t have done if we’d have had to win to get into the playoffs.”
The Black Bears were without the services of starting goalkeeper Skyeler Webb, who is nursing a minor injury. Magnusson said he opted not to play the junior as a preventative measure to keep her from further aggravating the knock.
He declared her fit for the playoffs, saying she could have played if necessary. Freshman Anna Erb got the call between the posts in Webb’s absence and made nine saves.
“They’re fast. They’re the fastest team in our league, for sure,” Magnusson said of a Winslow side that opened up plenty of space right down the center of the park.
Veilleux put Winslow on the board in the 14th minute, when a blocked shot at the top of the 18-yard box fell to her foot. She ripped her low drive into the left corner for the lead.
It was the only goal Maranacook would concede in the opening 40 minutes, though Warn nearly added to the lead in the 31st minute by curling a bid just over the crossbar and Veilleux threatened for a second three minutes later before Erb intervened.
And unmarked Warn flicked home Sara Doughty’s corner kick in the 46th minute for a 2-0 Winslow lead, and she then added insurance in the 76th minute to account for the final score.
“We’ve always practiced keeping our (midfielders) really wide,” Warn said. “We like to try and get those crosses in as much as we can.”
Travis Barrett — 621-5621
tbarrett@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @TBarrettGWC
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