RICHMOND — Two storms hit the town of Richmond on Friday afternoon.

Most residents saw the first storm roll through town, complete with clouds, wind and rain.

The second was a flurry of offense, compliments of the Richmond girls soccer team that touched down on the Burney-Gardner Complex.

The No. 1 seeded Bobcats beat No. 4 Searsport 6-1 in a Western Maine Class D semifinal match. Richmond will play the winner of the Buckfield/Greenville game in the regional final Wednesday. Richmond has won the last three Class D state titles.

“The kids are excited, because it’s always a new group of kids,” Richmond coach Troy Kendrick said. “Certainly this year it’s a new group, because I think we graduated eight starters from last year. They’re charged, and so am I. It’s a nice group of kids. It never gets old.”

Richmond (14-0-1) has familiarity with both teams. The Bobcats played each team twice this season. The Bobcats beat the Lakers 6-0 on Sept. 9 and 4-1 on Oct. 11. They beat the Bucks 3-2 on Sept. 19 and 3-0 on Oct. 3.

“It’s a double edge sword,” Kendrick said. “They know us, too. Sometimes you know what to expect. It’s just nice to be back (to the regional final).”

Amber Loon and Autumn Acord led the offensive attack for the Bobcats, scoring two goals each. Meranda Martin and Camryn Hurley also added goals for Richmond.

Richmond, which hadn’t played a game in two weeks, took an early 1-0 lead when Loon received a pass from Kelsea Anair and had a clear path to the net, striking a shot past Searsport goalkeeper Alicen Brooks.

The Bobcats showed some early rust on defense. The Vikings (7-5-4) answered back seven minutes later when Karigen Coffin connected on a cross to Anna Bucklin, who knocked it into the net to tie the game 1-1.

Bucklin’s goal woke Richmond up, and the Bobcats responded with four goals before the end of the half. Acord connected on a 25-yard kick that was misplayed by Brooks, giving Richmond a 2-1 lead. She followed with the Bobcats’ third goal, knocking in a rebound off Brooks with 17:52 remaining in the half.

“We thought if we could get past their midfield, we’d be alright,” Searsport coach Roger Robertson said. “Their midfield really hurt us today. We knew (about) the Loon girl, we had to mark her. She’s probably the best player in this region.”

Kendrick said he was happy with the Bobcats’ offensive response after the Searsport goal.

“It’s tough to overcome, in the Western D tournament, you have this big lull,” Kendrick said. “We didn’t play for two weeks. We were worried about coming out flat, coming out rusty. In a way, when (Searsport) scored, it was (a wake up call). I told the kids, I like the way they respond to that.”

Martin added her goal on a lofting floater from 15-yards out that missed the outstretched hands of a jumping Brooks for the 4-1 lead. Loon added the final tally of the half with seven minutes left to play, finding a loose ball in front of the net and knocking it in to raise the lead to 5-1.

The most impressive goal of the afternoon came in the second half. Hurley, making her way down to the far right corner of the Vikings’ zone, tried a cross. However, the ball traveled toward the goal, and was lofted enough to fall over Brooks and into the left post of the net, giving Richmond a 6-1 lead.

The Bobcats stuck with a more defensive-minded attack in the second half, keeping the ball on the Searsport side of the field. Richmond goalkeeper Kelsi Obi made three saves.

Despite the score, Brooks had an impressive performance, making eight saves. The match was the first between the teams this season.

“We never played, we had a couple common opponents,” Robertson said. “You can kind of take something from that, but everyone matches up differently. We both played Rangeley. They had a couple close games and we tied them, beat Rangeley last round. We thought we’d match up with (Richmond), but I guess I was mistaken on that one.”

Dave Dyer — 621-5639

ddyer@centralmaine.com