RICHMOND — A new wrinkle was added to the Richmond Bobcats’ possession game this season, both for tactical and appeasement purposes.

Junior goalkeeper Sydney Tilton likes to be active. The three-sport standout for Richmond laughs when she recalls almost pleading for the ball at times.

“That’s new for me,” said Tilton, who joins her Bobcats in the Class D state championship game Saturday at 10 a.m. against Ashland at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland. “I encourage all the times that (center backs Cassidy Harriman or Camryn Hurley) play it back to me. I’m like, ‘I’m here, please play it back to me.’ It’s nice to have that little moment of involvement. I like to be active, but at the same time it stretches the other team out, brings them to you, and gets our transition game going.

“It’s something we’ve been able to emphasize this year, and I feel like it’s a good thing for us.”

Richmond head coach Troy Kendrick, who has led the Bobcats to four state titles in the last six years, including last year’s championship win, knows that it’s easy for Tilton to become a forgotten figure. In rolling to a 13-1-0 record in the regular season, the Bobcats outscored the opposition 87-7 and were the only team in Class D South to finish the year with fewer than four losses.

Richmond’s only loss came to Class C Sacopee in a 2-1 decision. The regional tournament wasn’t much different, with the Bobcats scoring nine goals while allowing none in two playoff games.

Tilton and company have 11 shutouts in 16 games in 2016, including a one-save blanking of Searsport in the regional final.

“With our schedule, she doesn’t touch the ball some games,” Kendrick said, “so she doesn’t get a lot of recognition. But she’s a tremendous goalie and makes a big difference for us.”

That difference might have been most obvious in the early part of the campaign. While Harriman and Hurley are seniors with loads of experience in the back, the team broke in a pair of new outside backs — one freshman and one first-year senior — to retool a back four after graduation last season decimated the state championship roster.

“Maybe a little bit I had to do some (coaching) back there, but not as much as a lot of people might think,” Tilton said. “I’m still learning, too. What’s great is that we have these girls that come from the middle school and come right in and have a coach like Coach Kendrick to help teach them what they need to know. We’ve been fortunate to have girls willing to step up and take constructive criticism right away.”

Kendrick deflects much of the credit when it comes to his role with the new players on the team, instead focusing on what his veteran leadership has done to have the team in position to win a Gold Ball this weekend.

“Camryn and Cassidy cover a lot of ground in the back. They cover up a lot of mistakes,” Kendrick said. “When you talk about unsung heroes, those are the players who are really big for us but tend not to get a lot of headlines.”

And Tilton is definitely one of them. She has her own effect on the Bobcats.

“We joke around about ‘The Sydney Effect’ all the time in practice,” Kendrick said. “We’ll be doing shooting drills, and we can’t put one in because Sydney is diving all over the place and making all the saves. The girls will get frustrated and we have to remind them that their shots are good, that they went to the right place. But you can’t fight The Sydney Effect.”

Travis Barrett — 621-5621

tbarrett@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @TBarrettGWC