WINTHROP — Winthrop’s Shauna Carlson has had a taste of offensive success this season, but her assignment against a tough and talented Spruce Mountain squad was more defensive.

“When we’re playing an opponent like Spruce Mountain, we need her back in the midfield and on defense,” Ramblers’ coach Sharon Coulton said. “That takes some self-discipline from her, and many times during the game I looked up and she was way in the back. That’s not necessarily where she wants to be, but it’s where she needs to be, knows to be and it was very good for us.”

Her defensive awareness helped Winthrop contain the Phoenix well for much of the game. But it was another flash of offense on a penalty corner that ultimately made the difference. Carlson redirected a feed from Mary-Claire Blanchard past Spruce Mountain keeper Kasey Richards 1:47 into the second half and the Ramblers held on to secure a 2-1 victory over the Phoenix on homecoming day, bolstering their chances to play in the MVC title game next week.

“We were doing a really good job getting it down the field, and Mary just tapped it to me and I just one-timed it into the goal,” Carlson said.

The goal snapped a three-year homecoming drought for the Ramblers (11-1-1).

“This is the first homecoming we win in three years even though we’ve had a really good team,” Carlson said. “We hadn’t beaten them since the seniors were freshmen, and this was our senior game, homecoming, we weren’t going to lose.”

The one-goal victory for Winthrop also provided it with a measure of revenge. The Phoenix (10-2-1) handed the Ramblers their only defeat of the season by a 3-2 margin earlier in the season.

“They’re such a mature team, they’re older, they have seniors, they’ve played together forever,” Spruce Mountain co-coach Jane DiPompo said. “Today was their day. Home field was worth a goal down at our place, and it was here again for them.”

The script started similarly. The Phoenix pressured early, and then Winthrop rallied back and held the ball in the offensive zone for most of the first half. The efforts paid off with eight ticks left on the clock when Blanchard redirected a perfect feed from Rachel Ingram.

Coulton’s message at halftime: Don’t let down.

“We scored on them first last time, and I think it kind of got into our heads that we could let up because it was safe,” Carlson said. “This time we knew they were fast, they cherry-pick, so we knew we were going to have to get back and keep scoring.”

Carlson’s finish from Blanchard pushed the Winthrop lead to 2-0, but the inevitable Spruce Mountain rally began to manifest itself.

“Coming in, we knew it was their homecoming, we knew their emotions were high and they’d be jazzed up,” DiPompo said. “We were hoping they would ride that wave and then maybe be tired by the end, and then we could just maintain our own and increase at the end. We did, but we didn’t capitalize when we needed to. We had the opportunities.”

Making things interesting, Kayla Meserve knocked in a feed from Rachel Calden with 2:40 on the clock to pull the visiting Phoenix within a goal.

“That was a beautiful goal, she’s sitting right there on the end, it’s a nice hard shot across and a deflection,” DiPompo said.

“They had been behind for quite some time, and they weren’t letting up, they weren’t giving up,” Coulton said.

Spruce Mountain nearly forced another penalty corner as time wound down, but weren’t able to draw an infraction in the circle before time expired.

The victory gives Winthrop the inside track to the MVC title game, where a potential rematch against unbeaten Lisbon looms.

“There is the MVC game still, we hope,” Coulton said. “There’s still another game to play, so theoretically we might see them again.”

The Phoenix finish their season with a game against rival Mountain Valley, while Winthrop will travel to Boothbay.

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