A late scoring barrage helped lift Aberdeen over Rochester on Tuesday. The Bobcats scored a trio of goals in the final 20 minutes to come out on top, 4-1, in an Evergreen 2A Conference match at Stewart Field.

After each team notched a goal in the first seven minutes of the match, the Bobcats struggled to find the right touch offensively. Aberdeen (3-3, 4-7) put seven more shots on frame in the first half, but couldn’t convert opportunities to goals.

The Bobcats controlled possession for the majority of the match and their passing helped to finally come up with the game-winning goal in the 61st minute. Aberdeen’s Dani Buckman, Tayler Housden and Abbie Bradt created a Bermuda Triangle of sorts for Rochester goalkeeper Bella Phelps. Buckman got the ball at the top of the box, passed to Housden, who dribbled to the end line and crossed ball back into the box where Bradt blasted the ball home from a couple of yards away.

“The girls had a real encouraging talk among themselves at halftime about how they needed to come together and communicate and find the connections on the field,” Aberdeen coach Ryan Housden said. “They went out and did that and I’m really proud of them for that.”

Despite Rochester pushing up and adding another forward to the mix, Aberdeen held the Warriors to just two shots on goal in the final 40 minutes and added two more goals.

The Warriors’ only goal of the contest came just 3 minutes and five seconds into the match when Janna Adams fired home a rebound from 10 yards away. The goal was one of just a handful of shots for the Warriors in the first half, but the marker put Aberdeen’s back to the wall early.

“The game started out slow and we were on our heels,” Ryan Housden said. “Rochester came out ready to go and scored a goal on us and rocked the boat. The girls had to fight and come back and they did. We had some really nice crosses and girls making runs.”

Aberdeen evened the score less than four minutes later on a shot from Buckman. Tayler Housden found Buckman with a cross just inside the box and Buckman kicked it home to create a 1-1 tie, which would last more than 50 minutes.

After Bradt added the eventual game-winner, Aberdeen got two insurance goals in the final eight minutes. In the 73rd minute, Kyra Gallinger sent a long pass for Tayler Housden, who ran under the ball just to chip it by the Rochester keeper and tap the ball in to make it 3-1.

In the 78th minute, Alex Wilson came up from her spot as a defender and sent home a cross pass from Tayler Housden to cap the scoring for the Bobcats.

“(Alex) said ‘Coach, I want to go score a goal,’ and I was like ‘If you want to go score a goal, I’ll put you up there and score me a goal,’ and she did,” Ryan Housden said.

Ryan Housden cited Taylor Coker and Amanda Bradt for their defensive play in the contest.

Aberdeen travels to Black Hills on Thursday.