GARDINER — For an hour, there was little in the way of offense. Then, nothing but offense.

A barrage of late goals went the Gardiner boys soccer team’s way over the final 20 minutes Thursday in a 4-2 victory over Winslow at Hoch Field. The Tigers responded to goals from the Black Raiders twice during that span, first after the visitors tied it 1-1 and later after cutting the deficit to 3-2.

“A lot of teams, you give them a bad goal like we did, you take a step back,” said Gardiner head coach Nick Wallace. “They tied, and they score a minute and 10 (seconds later). Then, they score again, and we get one right back. It showed a lot of good characters for us.”

Kian Alves had two goals for Gardiner, which got its opening goal from Alex Taylor midway through the first half before 40 scoreless minutes, and another from Brady Peacock. Braden Rodrigue and Carter Calvo scored for Winslow (0-3).

Gardiner (3-0) bossed possession in the first 20 minutes but failed to score, hitting the crossbar in the opening minute and the right post in the 15th minute. With 18:59 left in the opening half, though, Peacock slipped past two Winslow defenders and fired a shot into the right corner to give the Tigers the lead.

The hosts’ dominance of possession continued into the second half, but for all of their control, the score remained 1-0. Winslow’s Rodrigue took advantage by tying the game against the run of play with 18:43 left, but just two minutes later, Alves scored on a header to restore Gardiner’s one-goal lead.

“My teammates try to get me the ball in the air a lot,” said Alves, whose header to the center of the goal came off a well-placed corner by freshman Grayson Greenleaf. “I’m really good at tracking the ball and getting it into the back of the net. I just do what I do.”

It wasn’t a one-goal game for long, as Peacock flicked in a rebound following a Max Spicer save to make it 3-1 Gardiner with 14:30 left. Winslow’s Calvo tucked in a goal of his own off a rebound just two minutes later, but Alves’ second goal of the game with just 1:44 sealed the win for the Tigers.

“You’re never going to get an easy game when you play Winslow because they always play really hard, but I thought our guys did settle in,” Wallace said. “Like I said, I think that was a good character-building game. You don’t always play your best, but it was great to be able to put one like that away.”

The win gave Gardiner an unbeaten record through three games for the second straight year after a 2-0-1 start to 2023. The Tigers, who had their winningest season since at least 1987 last year at 11-3-2, are seeking a deep playoff run this year after falling to Medomak Valley on penalties in the Class B North quarterfinals.

“You have a lot of them who played as sophomores, so this is their third year, and they’re used to this,” Wallace said. “We’ve built a culture here over the last six years where these kids want to win, they know how to win, and they just battle and battle, and that’s important to me.”