SACO — Not much has stood in the way of the Thornton Academy girls soccer team this season.

Not even the fear of the unknown.

The No. 4 seeded Golden Trojans defeated No. 5 seed Greely 3-2 on Wednesday night at Hill Stadium in a Western Class A quarterfinal game. The game was sweet revenge for the Trojans, who the Rangers knocked out of the playoffs last season with a 2-1 win in the semifinals.

The two teams, though close together in the standings, had not met during the regular season, allowing for the Trojans to think on the fly strategy-wise during the contest. Greely (13-3) became the first team to score two goals on Thornton this season, but the Trojans (13-1-2) kept to their simple strategy of scoring often and making enough plays defensively to get the win.

“We usually play against (Greely) in the summer,” Thornton co-captain Jamie Durie said. “But we usually don’t play as well against them. For me, I’m not good at remembering teams in the first place, so I just go into it like every game.”

The Trojans will once again have to get by a team they have not seen this season, as they hit the road on Saturday to play No. 1 seed Gorham (15-0) for the right to play in the regional championship.

“It’s easier in some ways,” Thornton head coach Chris Kohl said. “There’s no preconceived notions. They know the playoff, and they know the history and things like that, so it’s good for them to do that. We scrimmaged (Gorham), but we’ve got to just keep on plugging and, in some ways, the unknown kind of keeps it fresh.”

Offensively, the Trojans’ two top scorers, Durie and Amanda Arnold, led the team. Durie had two goals and an assist, leading the team with 15 goals on the season. Arnold, a sophomore, is one goal behind, as she scored her 14th of the season Wednesday night.

Thornton jumped out to a 1-0 lead within the first 56 seconds of the game when Arnold sent a shot from the left over the head of Greely goalkeeper Caton Beaulieu.

From there, the rest of the first half was a back-and-forth defensive battle. The Rangers had a scoring opportunity when Audrey Parolin found herself in a one-on-one situation with Thornton goalkeeper Emily Richard, but Parolin kicked the ball over the net and out of bounds. Thornton headed into halftime with a 1-0 lead.

Greely kept the pressure on Thornton to start the second half, and Parolin, the Rangers’ leading scorer, had another opportunity within the first five minutes to score again, finding herself in another one-on-one situation. But Richard, who entered the game with nine shutouts on the season, made the save, keeping the lead. Just one minute later, Durie scored her first goal of the game, taking a pass from Katelyn Pierson, beating a defender and knocking a rocket shot past Beaulieu into the left corner of the net to give Thornton the 2-0 score.

But the Rangers did not go away easily. With 20 minutes left in the game, Thornton was penalized on a trip, and granted a penalty shot, Libby Thomas took advantage, knocking the shot past Richard to cut the lead in half to 2-1.

“We knew we were excited (coming into the second half), but we knew it wasn’t the end of the game,” Durie said. “We knew they were going to come out 20 times stronger, because they want to win, too.”

Just minutes later, the Rangers had the opportunity to tie the game, as Richard, making an aggressive play toward the ball, was knocked down in a group of players, moving a loose ball toward Parolin. She had an open shot at the net from just 10 yards away. Parolin fired, but her shot went wide left.

The Trojans took advantage, as Durie scored her second goal of the game with 12 minutes left in regulation, taking an Arnold pass before slipping her shot past Beaulieu, giving Thornton the 3-1 lead.

Parolin finally scored the goal she had been looking for all night long just 30 seconds later, cutting the lead to 3-2. But it wasn’t enough, as the Trojans held on for the win.

“That’s a playoff game,” Kohl said. “That’s a Greely game, and that’s what you’re going to get. We had a plan, the kids executed it really well offensively. I thought we played a good defensive game, they have a ton of awesome scorers. You’ve got some of the top scorers in this game, you don’t expect it to be a 1-0 lead. I’m just glad we got that two-goal lead. We gave up that goal, but we kept our composure, and we didn’t break.”

Thornton will once again enter the unknown on Saturday, but the strategy will continue to stay simple.

“Just go in there and want it more,” Durie said.

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