DEARBORN >> When the New Boston Huron girls’ soccer team went into the halftime break of Wednesday’s game vs Madison Heights Lamphere, they were frustrated, and rightfully so.

The Chiefs had kept play almost entirely in Lamphere territory, hardly ever crossing the 50-yard line as they fired shot after shot. But when the first 40 minutes was up, it was a scoreless affair in the Division 2 regional semifinal hosted by Divine Child Catholic High School.

However, once Huron managed to score just once, they didn’t stop. They eventually cruised to a 6-0 shutout of the Rams to advance to regional final round.

“Right out of the gates we possessed,” Huron coach Matt Lividini said. “We knew we could beat them to the ball, we knew we were the more powerful team, we knew that we could score goals. We’re definitely the more powerful team, but it was just trying to calm them down.

“What ends up happening is we go forward too quickly,” Lividini added. “Because we’re such a high-scoring team, we tend to just turn and go, so we have to take the moments to just slow down and keep the ball and allow the game to come to us a little bit.”

Come to them, it did.

Once the first goal was on the board, the floodgates opened up for Huron, who went on to score five more goals in a 24-minute span.

The first of which was scored by the team’s leading goal scorer Miley Skamiera, who dominated the half with four goals. Skamiera with her individual effort inched closer to the school’s single-season record, set by another Skamiera before her.

“Her older sister (Class of 2019 graduate Melanie Skamiera) holds the goal-scoring record at Huron and she’s been chasing it all year,” Lividini said. “She’s been scoreless for a few games and tonight puts her at 28 goals.

“We need her,” Lividini added. “She’s our leading goal scorer for a reason and putting up four is just huge.”

Skamiera scored all four of her goals before any other Chief was able to score. The sophomore netted the game-winner just six and a half minutes into the second half when she blasted a left-footed shot that sent Lamphere goalkeeper Natalie Rose leaping, but the ball was just out of reach.

Eight minutes later — and closer to the net this time — Skamiera booted in her second and with 16:43 left in the game, got her hat trick. She finished off her scoring spree with 8:37 remaining when she sent a shot arching from 25 yards out.

Once Skamiera was done, it was Malaya Singer’s turn to join the fray, netting two goals of her own before the night was over.

With 5:40 left, Singer found herself directly in front of the net to make it a 5-0 game. Then with just over a minute to go, the freshman got her second to cap the frenzy of Huron scoring.

Despite the final score, arguably the brightest spot in the Lamphere effort was the work of Rose in net. The senior goalie stopped everything she faced in the first 40 minutes after being peppered with shot after shot, reaching and diving all around her net for the saves.

“She’s a senior and she’s had four years of experience on varsity and she’s just grown as a player and as a leader every single year,” Lamphere coach Rachel Vickers said. “She is the reason why we were in this position we were in tonight in terms of getting into the regional.”

Heading into the matchup, the Rams knew it wasn’t going to be an easy task against the Chiefs, who finished the regular season ranked No. 4 in D2 by the Michigan High School Soccer Coaches Association.

“We knew that New Boston was going to be a wonderful team,” Vickers said. “They’re 18-1-1 and they’re ranked in D2. The fact that we had a chance to play in a regional semifinal in my second year as coach has been a dream come true and definitely exceeded a lot of people’s expectations.

“I think our players gave it 110 percent, especially in that first half, holding them to nothing,” Vickers continued. “I could not be more proud as a coach of what they were able to accomplish tonight.”

With the loss, Lamphere (13-5-2) says goodbye to a very large, 11-player senior class.

“We don’t have a JV team and what would be really cool would be to eventually have a feeder program,” Vickers said. “I’m really excited for the 11 non-seniors to have their time to shine next year and do some rebuilding, if you will.”

UP NEXT

With the win, Huron (19-1-1) moves on to the regional final against Farmington Hills Mercy, who defeated host Divine Child 2-1 in the second game on Wednesday (see story right).

Game time is set for today at 7 p.m. back at Divine Child High School. Lividini said his team will be ready.

“We’re the second-place team in the state with Hudsonville (Unity Christian) in first,” he said. “We’re the last two top-ranked teams. Our team is high-powered and ready to go.

“Anything can happen in those games, but I think we’re the more polished team.”