Like-minded, like-skilled perfect strangers, mind you, but the stage on which they are about to play makes a regular-season tie and MVC title game meeting seem like preseason scrimmages.

The Greyhounds (16-0-1) and Ramblers (15-1-1) will meet Saturday in the Class C state championship game. It’s a return trip for Winthrop, which fell to NYA in last year’s title tilt, 1-0.

“I hope it helps; it certainly can’t hurt,” Winthrop coach Sharon Coulton said of her team having been to a title game a year ago.

Lisbon, meanwhile, is the fresh-faced newcomer already in uncharted territory. The Greyhounds last year made it as far as any Lisbon team ever had, losing in the regional semifinal round to those same NYA Panthers on penalty corners.

“Obviously experience is key, but I said to the girls, they can take the experience they’ve already gained and run with it,” Lisbon coach Julie Wescott said. “I told them, ‘You’ve made it this far, and you’re playing a team you’ve already played, just play it like a regular game.’ Sure you want playoff experience, but the big boost for them was beating NYA and knowing they could compete at that high level. They have nothing to lose now.”

Scouting for both teams wasn’t hard, either. In addition to playing against one another twice this season, Winthrop and Lisbon run similar offenses relying on speed and passing, and both defenses have to work against their respective offenses in practice.

“Winthrop and us, we have a lot of the same qualities,” Wescott said. “They pass well, we pass well. They’re fast, we’re fast. It’s going to be about playing at our top level, and preventing them from getting quality shots.”

“We know that they’re a well-balanced team. They’ve got a lot of strong players in various positions,” Coulton said. “They’re not a team where one person does all the scoring all the time.”

That the teams will face one another on artificial turf is of little consequence, since the surface will only serve to augment their skills.

“Turf always changes the dynamic of a game. It becomes more of a passing game than a hit, run and chase game,” Wescott said. “I’m hoping tomorrow we can keep our composure, and keep moving the ball around and get good opportunities and not play panic field hockey.”

“I’m sure we’ll be eyeing each other to see what looks different on this new surface,” Coulton said. “But generally, what we found last year, was that, your strengths, your stick skills, your speed and passing that we were successful with on grass, it’s just going to be that much better on turf.”

The Class C field hockey game at the University of Maine is the first of three on the day, and starts at 2 p.m.

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