BELFAST – Late first-half goals can alter the complexion of a game.

That’s exactly what happened during Belfast’s hard-fought 3-2 win over Rockland in their Eastern Maine Class B field hockey championship game Wednesday.

Brittni Reed’s goal with 2:35 left in the half broke a scoreless tie and Jill Ross and Heather Reed expanded the lead to 3-0 before the determined Tigers caused some serious seat-squirming on the Belfast sidelines when Lindsay Barnes and Caitlin Hynes scored 56 seconds apart.

Hynes’ goal came with 2:29 remaining.

But the Lions held on to provide coach Allen Holmes with his ninth Eastern Maine championship in 32 seasons.

Belfast faces 14-2-1 York in Saturday’s 2 p.m. state championship game at Portland’s Fitzpatrick Stadium.

“The first goal was the digger for us. I felt my stomach drop and I saw their [her players’] heads go right down to their toes,” said Rockland coach Sue Rogenski.

“We were worried because we didn’t score for a while and then Brittni got that first goal and that was a big momentum-changer,” said Ross.

Reed’s goal was set up by Kallie Aldus, Jamie Flagg and Skye Ellis.

Aldus sent a long pass up to Flagg, who carried it into the circle and took a shot that was kicked out by freshman goalie Dana Clark.

The rebound landed on the stick of Ellis.

“Skye passed it to me and I put it in,” said Reed. “I was off to the side. I cut in behind one of their players and knocked it in. The goal was pretty open at that point.”

There were few good scoring chances in the first half but the top-seeded and 17-0 Lions, energized by the goal, dominated the first 20 minutes of the second half and produced the goals by Ross and Heather Reed.

Ross scored with 26:27 remaining off an Aldus pass.

“I deflected it. It was a nice pass,” said Ross. “I wasn’t even thinking about shooting it as much. I was thinking maybe Brittni Reed would hit it because she was on the post and she gets a lot of goals that way. I was glad it went in.”

Sweeper Heather Read scored her first goal of the season and it proved to be the game-winner with 14:12 remaining. Kelsey Jackson fed the ball into her and she converted.

“It was a special play for her. It was the third one we have in our sequence,” said Holmes. “There was some confusion and Heather stayed with it. We felt that spot was going to be open at that particular time and she made it be open. She popped the ball on the other side of the defense and took the shot and it went in.”

Despite the deficit, the second-seeded Tigers kept working hard and were rewarded.

Barnes swept home a shot from the circle with 3:25 left and Hynes scored off a wild flurry in front of Belfast goalie Lizzy Anderson, who made three consecutive saves. Whitney Rossiter picked up an assist.

“With 10 minutes left, we knew the game wasn’t over with. They were shutting us out but we stuck with it,” said Tiger senior link Nicole Clark.

“That was really scary,” said Ross. “They got the momentum and they’re a good team.”

Anderson finished with four saves on 12 shots while Clark registered five on 15 Lion shots.

Rockland wound up 15-2 with both losses coming to Belfast.