Raiders shift into another gear in second half, rally to beat Blue Devils in season opener

QUINCY — The suggestion that having her long blonde hair pulled into a bulb atop her head was reminiscent of the Flintstones’ character Pebbles gave Lia Quintero the opening to explain what the hairstyle actually is.

“It’s the gearshift,” she said.

Varying levels of power come with it.

“It’s good for speed, too,” said Quintero, a junior striker on the Quincy Notre Dame girls soccer team. “It’s shifting up.”

It takes another gear to continually score game-winning goals, just like she did Wednesday evening.

“It’s exactly why,” Quintero said. “It gives me speed.”

Yet, it was her accuracy, not her speed, that produced the decisive goal in the season opener against Quincy High School at Advance Physical Therapy Field. Quintero buried a restart from nearly 30 yards out with a little less than seven minutes remaining in regulation, completing a second-half rally for a 3-2 victory.

“I came here this morning and was practicing those exact shots because I kind of had a feeling I needed to work on it,” Quintero said. “I’m glad I did because it calmed my nerves a lot and I was able to just relax and take it.”

The restart she stood over with the game tied mimicked so many of the shots she worked on for nearly 45 minutes earlier Wednesday.

“Before she shot, I looked at her and said, ‘Hey, you worked from that spot all morning. Just relax and hit the ball where you’re supposed to aim and supposed to hit it,’” QND coach Mark Longo said. “I just know it went in and that’s all that matters.”

Having misfired on a couple of earlier restarts from a similar distance, Quintero took this one with confidence.

“I knew I hit it good when it went over the wall,” Quintero said. “I could tell where (QHS goalkeeper Taylor Fohey) was she wasn’t going to get to it. Give credit to her. She played a great game. None of my other shots had a chance.

“That one I could tell it was going in.”

It was a much-needed boost for a team looking to regain its edge in the city series.

After tying 1-1 in the first of two meetings last spring, the Blue Devils scored a 3-1 victory in the regular-season finale and had hoped with a vast number of returnees they could duplicate the effort on the same field.

“We got off to a slow start,” QHS coach Travis Dinkheller said. “Nerves.”

It resulted in a mistake as QND freshman forward Annie Eaton ran onto a ball played from the midfield, beat two defenders and buried her first varsity shot into the far corner of the net for her first varsity goal less than 2 ½ minutes in her first varsity game.

“Not a bad start,” Longo said.

It didn’t last. Bri Lannerd tied the game with a volley over top the defense only 8:12 into the game, and Lannerd gave the Blue Devils the lead when she scored with 14:56 remaining in the first half. QHS carried the lead to halftime.

“I liked the way our girls bounced back,” Dinkheller said. “The rest of the half, we controlled possession.”

In the second half, Notre Dame’s pressure led to a penalty kick six minutes into the second half, which the Raiders’ Eva Dickerman converted to tie the game. Another foul by QHS in the attacking third set up Quintero’s game-winning goal.

“A couple of fouls cost us,” Dinkheller said.

Still, there’s reason to optimistic moving forward.

“There are going to be a few bumps in the road,” Dinkheller said. “I think we can build on that. There was a lot of possession-oriented soccer. … I think we have to play a little quicker with our decision making and a little bit more confident.”

And as for the gearshift, expect to see it more often.

The Raiders are undefeated the last two seasons when Quintero wears her hair that way.

“So I’ve got to keep it,” she said.