WINTHROP — Given Winthrop/Monmouth’s depth, a lot of players have to be patient and wait for their turn to contribute.

Senior wide receiver Brandon Goff had to wait longer than most. But he made sure to be a game-changer when opportunity finally knocked.

In the span of 36 seconds at the end of the first half, Goff caught touchdown passes of 20 and 38 yards from Jared Hanson to change a six-point deficit into an eight-point lead. The Ramblers’ defense took over in the second half despite being tested by a revitalized Dirigo offense and secured a 28-14 win on homecoming at Maxwell Field on Friday night.

“That’s the first time I’ve had the ball in my hands this year, so it’s nice,” Goff said. “I was just finding good open space to go into and Jared saw it, so we hit it. They left the middle open and so we just went to the space.”

Senior tailback Zach Glazier overcame a leg injury suffered late in the first half to rush for 14 times for 137 yards, including a 72-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.

“If they didn’t have No. 16, we’d be going home a lot happier,” Dirigo coach Dave Crutchfield said. “That Glazier kid is tough. We had him in the backfield and he’d turn around and go 10 yards for a first down.”

After struggling to move the ball through the first two weeks, the Cougars actually outgained Glazier and company on the ground, 218-149.

“There’s no question that they shoved the ball down our throats tonight,” Winthrop coach Joel Stoneton said. “We didn’t expect the power football that came from them. We knew they’d run the Wing-T but the Power-I was a good game plan by them. But the kids were able to just suck it up and not bend and not give up any more touchdowns.”

The Ramblers (3-0) put the Cougars (1-2) in a quick hole when Zack Phinney returned the opening kickoff 79 yards for a touchdown. They added the two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead.

Dirigo responded with a 10-play, 65-yard drive capped by a two-yard TD plunge by Tyler Frost and QB Riley Robinson’s two-point conversion to tie it.

Robinson’s screen pass to Frost on 4th-and-8 kept the Cougars’ next scoring drive alive, then Brett Beauchesne (19 carries, 76 yards) scored from five yards out to give them a 14-8 lead with 5:31 left in the half.

“We revamped this week, and the guys did a great job. They were a little confused at first, but they did a great job and everything came from the heart. They just ran hard and the line did a good job blocking,” Crutchfield said.

The Cougars might have had more success if not for Winthrop/Monmouth’s Mario Meucci, who had two key sacks in the first half, one deep in Rambler territory, one deep in Cougar territory.

“We were just waiting for our tackles to make the holes for our linebackers to get in there. We got in there and made the play. Keep the outside to the inside and that’s what we did,” Meucci said.

Meucci’s second sack helped set the Ramblers up with good field position for their next score, Hanson’s 20-yard connection over the middle with Goff. Hanson’s two-point pass to Meucci put them up for good, 16-14, with 54 seconds left in the half.

The Ramblers got yet another opportunity before the half thanks to Brett Wilson’s interception and return to the Dirigo 38 with 32 seconds left. Two plays later, Hanson and Goff hooked up again, and the Ramblers had a 22-14 lead and a huge momentum swing heading into halftime.

“That made us go into the locker room feeling really good,” Meucci said. “Before those two touchdowns, we were really nervous about how this game was going to turn out.”

The Cougars kept them on edge in the third quarter with a drive that took over 10 minutes. But they stalled at the Rambler 15  on the 16th play of the penalty-filled drive.

Three plays later, Glazier took a pitch to his left, waited for a hole, found one towards the middle, shook off a pair of tacklers around the 35 and took off for the game-clinching TD run.

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