Richmond-Burton too strong for Burlington C.

The Burlington Central girls soccer team might have been unlucky to only be up 1-0 after 10 minutes Tuesday evening.

Central could have used another tally or two.

Richmond-Burton scored 3 unanswered goals to leave Burlington with a 3-1 victory and the lead in the Big Northern East.

“(Central) is really good moving without the ball and that first 10 minutes we had to figure out how to defend that,” R-B coach Chris Wagner said. “Once we started talking and communicating, it kind of shut them down and frustrated them a little bit.”

Five minutes into the match, Maddie Stoneman’s header of a Camille Dela Cruz cross appeared to be past R-B goalkeeper Hannah Koenig, but Koenig was able to recover and make the save. Dela Cruz gave Central, which also hit the post in the opening 10 minutes, a 1-0 lead with 32:35 remaining in the first half with a 25-yard right-footed shot off a feed from Alyssa Messina.

“We’ve got to learn from experiences like this,” Central coach Mike Gecan said. “It ended up being more of an individual thing where a couple of individuals changed the game, offensively in particular.”

R-B (13-2-1, 5-0) controlled the play for the final 70 minutes. It tied the match at 1-1 with 11:22 left in the first half. Central (10-6-1, 4-1) failed to clear a cross from Amanda Hoglund. R-B’s Jessica Guenther controlled the loose ball in the penalty area and scored past Central goalkeeper Caitlin Solberg, who had seven saves.

Another Central defensive miscue led to go-ahead goal. A clearing attempt went straight to R-B’s Hannah Condit, who fired a blast from 25 yards out and about even with the edge of the penalty area extended out. The shot was placed over Solberg’s head and into the far corner for a 2-1 R-B lead with 21:51 remaining.

Condit struck again less than 2 minutes later on a free kick from outside the penalty area.

“The free kick was amazing,” Gecan said. “Condit just played well today.”

The two teams will meet again two weeks from today.