WESTBROOK — They were against the ropes, but like Rocky Balboa, the Sanford girls soccer team fought back.

And, in their most desperate hour so far this season, the Redskins pulled out a win.

Down 1-0 with a mere 14 minutes left to play, Sanford knocked in two goals in an 11-minute stretch to beat Westbrook 2-1 on Tuesday night. The victory lifted Sanford to a 5-1 record.

And in getting Westbrook’s best effort, the Redskins may now realize that, due to their record, they have a target on their back.

“I’ve tried to tell the girls to prepare themselves the same way, no matter who the opponent is, to not take any teams lightly,” Sanford head coach Kendra Brown said. “Even though a team is behind us in the standings or hasn’t won a game, it doesn’t mean they’re a bad team or can’t put the ball in the back of the net. We have to be prepared for every team, the same way.”

What’s more, the Redskins won the contest without the help of their best player, as Taylor Littlefield missed the contest due to a concussion.

Littlefield, who has four goals on the season, has missed the last two games. But the Redskins have moved forward and continued to win with a collection of players, including Katelyn Fink, who had a goal and an assist on Tuesday night, and Allison Legere, who scored the game-winning goal with four minutes to play in the contest.

Legere, a junior, has a team-leading eight goals on the season, and has now scored in all but one of the Redskins’ six games this season, which happened to be the only loss for Sanford thus far, a 5-4 defeat to South Portland on Sept. 17.

Sanford has used a strong mixture of both offense and defense, outscoring opponents by a 31-7 margin.

Westbrook (0-5), broke open the scoring two minutes into the first half, when Emily Thornton found herself with the ball in front of the net and slipped a shot past Sanford goalkeeper Kellie Tovey to take the 1-0 lead.

The play of the Blazes in the first half was not lost on the Redskins.

“I think Westbrook played great,” Brown said. “They came out, and in the first half, we gave them the confidence to think they can beat us. It’s difficult to bounce back from that, because they have all the momentum. We needed to have a momentum shift into the second half, which I think we did.”

Sanford continued to put the pressure on the Blazes, but Westbrook goalkeeper Sammantha Russell did well to keep the ball away from the net, and the Blazes defense did just enough to move the ball out of their end of the field, and kept the 1-0 lead heading into halftime.

“I more or less laid into my team and told them their efforts were not enough,” Brown said. “They were being dominated in every facet of the game whether it was headers, offense, defense, we were completely dominated. I just told them to look within themselves and ask, ”˜what can I do better to make my team better?’”

Westbrook did a good job of keeping the pressure on early in the second half, but momentum eventually swung back to the side of Sanford. With 14 minutes left in the contest, Fink chased down a loose ball near the net, and kicked it past Russell to tie the game at 1-1.

Ten minutes later, Fink sent a beautiful, arching pass near the net to Legere, who slid to kick the ball past Russell and take the 2-1 victory.

Though his team lost the contest, Westbrook head coach Andy Lefebvre said he was happy his young team, made up mostly of sophomores and juniors, put forth its best game so far this season.

“I’m proud, that’s the best effort we’ve had all season,” Lefebvre said. “It’s disappointing that we lost 2-1, but it’s a good sign that we’re headed in the right direction.”

Sanford hits the road on Thursday to Waterboro to take on rival Massabesic.

— Contact Dave Dyer at 282-1535 ext. 318 or follow on Twitter @Dave_Dyer.