CORINTH – Senior Shawna Bell may be a fullback, but her ability to consistently drive the ball a long way fuels the Central High School attack.

And it resulted in the game-winning goal in Central’s 2-1 triumph over Winthrop in their Eastern Maine Class C field hockey semifinal Saturday.

Kristina Gallagher chased down a long clear from Bell and converted on a breakaway with 16 minutes remaining to snap a 1-1 tie and send second seed Central (13-3) into Wednesday’s Eastern C final against defending state champ and top seed Dexter.

“Shawna is awesome. She’s the best driver I’ve ever met,” said Gallagher.

“It takes a lot of practice,” said Bell. “It comes with time.”

Gallagher got a step on a Winthrop defender as she raced down the right flank and then cut in on goalie Tabitha Therrien, the only senior on the Winthrop roster.

“I was looking to put it on the other side of the goal, but then I just shot it,” said Gallagher. “Her foot lifted up and it just went in.”

“It hit my foot, bounced over, and went in,” said Therrien, who made four saves on 15 shots and helped keep her team in the game in the Central-dominated first half.

Winthrop took control of the game in the second half and deservedly answered Casey Davis’ first-half goal with one off the stick of Kenzie Demkowicz with 22:40 remaining in regulation.

Demkowicz sent a penalty corner to Nicole Emery, ran to the front of the net, and deflected Emery’s shot behind Central goalie Tiffany Tilton, who finished with three saves on 12 shots.

Gallagher’s goal came on Central’s first shot in the second half.

“We did a little cherry-picking,” said Central coach Diane Rollins. “If Kristina Gallagher can get it on her stick, she’ll have a breakaway. And she did.”

Third seed Winthrop (13-3) outshot Central 10-3 in the second half after Central had held a 12-2 edge in the first half.

“It took us a little while to warm up. We rode all the way up here,” said midfielder Demkowicz. “We played pretty well in the second half. We just couldn’t get the last one in.”

The Ramblers pressed for the equalizer and had a promising opportunity in the final minute when Mary Zimmerman ran onto Elyse Cole’s long pass and appeared to have plenty of open real estate in front of her as she raced down the left wing.

But Caitlin Elliott cut across and was able to knock the ball away before Zimmerman reached the circle.

“I was very thankful I was able to get that stop. I hadn’t had many in the game,” said Elliott. “I figured our sweeper, Shannon [Clukey], had gotten the ball, but she didn’t. So I beat feet back and I got it pretty clean.”

Goalie Tilton admitted, “I was very nervous” until Elliott prevented the potential breakaway.

Davis staked Central to a 1-0 lead with 7:40 left in the first half as she cut right to left across the circle and redirected a Jenny Rollins flip past Therrien, who had no chance.

Winthrop coach Sharon Colton said her team has a lot of first-year varsity players and was a “bit nervous in the first half.”

“We had a lot of good shots in the second half. Their goalie made a couple of nice saves. The rebounds came right back at us, and I was hoping we could have popped it in,” said Coulton.