NEWPORT — For 45 minutes, the Nokomis field hockey team had the clear upper hand. Then, as soon as time expired in the third quarter, the Class B North quarterfinal on Tuesday changed.

Lawrence scored on a penalty corner with zeros on the clock to cut the Warriors’ two-goal lead in half. The Bulldogs rode momentum from that goal to push toward an equalizer, and Nokomis was on its heels.

“You get in a playoff game where emotions are high, and you have to remember to make a great pass and not just hit the ball hard because it feels good,” said Nokomis coach Shaunessy Saucier. “We knew we had to pack in closer together and be able to defend up and out.”

The Warriors did just that, holding off Lawrence for a 2-1 victory. The win sends Nokomis to the semifinals, on the road against No. 2 Old Town (12-2-1).

HOW IT HAPPENED

Third-seeded Nokomis (13-2) showed patience to start the game, controlling the ball in the Lawrence half and waiting for an opening. Midway through the second quarter, the Warriors found one, as Raegan King scored on an assist from Maeve Rush.

No. 6 Lawrence (8-6-1) showed improvement in the third quarter, pushing the ball into the attacking half more often and nearly scoring at the midway mark. But with 29 seconds left in the quarter, Rush scored against the run of play to give Nokomis a 2-0 lead.

A penalty corner as the third quarter expired, though, produced a goal for Lawrence as Mya Dixon scored on an assist from Kiera Day. The Bulldogs’ surges in the fourth produced multiple penalty corners, but they couldn’t convert and Nokomis came away with the win.

“We’ve been working the past week on passing and moving up as a team,” King said. “We kind of (had) the mindset of, ‘This is your last game; we needed to actually play defense and offense as well because, if we won’t, this is our last game, period.”

WHAT IT MEANS

• Nokomis, seeking its first regional title since 2013, has won seven straight games. The Warriors haven’t lost since a 3-2 defeat to Belfast on Sept. 29 and defeated Lawrence 3-1 on Oct. 4.

• Lawrence’s season ends in the regional quarterfinals for the third consecutive year. Still, the fight the Bulldogs showed after going down 2-0 late in the third quarter was a sign to coach Shawna Robinson of how much the y grew from start to finish this season.

“There’s been games this year where, if we went down 1-0 or 2-0, we would’ve quit, but they fought today,” Robinson said. “They’re a group of kids that didn’t want to quit, and that’s what you want from a team. I’m pretty proud of them.”

NOTABLE QUOTABLES

“The last time we played Lawrence, the girls were so winded – it was a track meet, and we had to cover a lot of ground. It’s not the style that we always like to play, but I think we handled that really well as a team. Maeve did a great job in the middle of the field, and so did Makenzie Watson right behind her.” – Shaunessy Saucier

“I really think it was teamwork; our entire team was working together. … We just really realized that we needed to step up our game and that it wasn’t going to be as easy as it was the last time we played them.” – Maeve Rush

STAT LEADERS

• Lawrence: Mya Dixon (goal), Kiera Day (assist), Abbey Stewart (six saves)

• Nokomis: Maeve Rush (goal, assist), Raegan King (goal), Haylee Romasco (three saves)