FARMINGDALE — The Hall-Dale girls soccer team stuck with a winning formula to start its Class C South playoff push on Tuesday night.
The No. 2 Bulldogs scored early, and dominated possession, in a 2-0 quarterfinal victory over No. 7 Winthrop. Senior forward Marie Benoit had a goal and an assist for Hall-Dale, while sophomore forward Fiona Breslin added a goal.
“We’re really excited to get to the next round, we haven’t won as many (playoff games) as we would have liked in my past (three) years here,” Benoit said. “It’s a big deal to make it to the next round.”
Hall-Dale (11-0-4) will play No. 3 North Yarmouth Academy (12-3-0) — which beat No. 6 Waynflete 2-1 in its quarterfinal match — in the semifinals on Saturday.
The Bulldogs scored both of their goals in the first half. Seven minutes into play, Benoit nailed a shot from 20 yards out past Winthrop (8-7-0) goalkeeper Kylee Savage and into the left corner of the net for a 1-0 lead.
Nearly 14 minutes later, Breslin took a Benoit pass and found some room in front of the net, knocking the ball in for the final 2-0 score.
“We were definitely looking to get the first goal and get the lead, keep possession throughout the entire game,” Benoit said.
“It’s always great to get some more people scoring goals,” Hall-Dale head coach Tatum Hancock said. “We love when Marie scored goals, but she assisted on (Breslin’s goal), and it’s great to see her get those assists as well.”
The Bulldogs have now outscored opponents by a 65-9 margin in their 15 games and have kept opponents scoreless in 10 games.
“We definitely have really good team chemistry,” Benoit said. “Everybody works really well together. We just work off the ball, pass and connect with each other.”
Thanks to short, crisp passing, Hall-Dale managed to maintain possession throughout most of the first half, and a good chunk of the second.
“We spend a lot of time working on possession (in practice), so I’m happy to see them connect and do that whenever we can,” Hancock said. “I think there were times tonight where it looked really good. That gives us a lot of momentum going into the next round.”
The Ramblers, who fought throughout the match, managed to get two shots on Hall-Dale in the second half, both stopped by Bulldogs goalkeeper Sierra Gibbons.
“I’m very proud (of the season),” said Winthrop head coach Joe Menice. “We have a few upperclassmen, great leaders, and some younger kids who did really well this year and had a lot of fight.”
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