TORRINGTON – The Torrington High School boys’ soccer team extended its winning streak to five straight matches following a pair of weekend wins over the Newcastle Dogies on Thursday and the Riverton Wolverines on Saturday.

On Thursday, for the second time during the week, the Blazers defeated Newcastle.

Torrington looked to put away the visitors early by not wasting any time getting on the scoreboard with a goal in the fifth minute by junior Deagan Keith, en route to a 4-1 victory.

Two minutes later, Newcastle tied the match at one apiece.

“We had a little higher expectation for that game. We did get the win, and at this point in the year, we’ll take it,” THS coach Gabe Bartlett said. “I think the kids tried a little too hard to score as many goals as possible.”

Finally, in the 20th minute, junior Kieser Wolfe broke the tie, putting the Blazers back in front 2-1.

Torrington’s slim lead remained that way through the remainder of the half.

“Overall, in the first half, they were pressing. In the second half, we played better as a team,” Bartlett said.

The Blazers got two quick goals to start the second half to pull away from the Dogies.

Senior Durward Randall netted the first of two goals in the second half in the 43rd minute.

Five minutes later, junior Chase Miller found the back of the net for the match’s final goal.

On Saturday, the Blazers traveled to Riverton and faced windy conditions on a tricky artificial turf field.

“It was quite a day,” Bartlett said.

Riverton led 1-0 at halftime before senior Ty Prall tied the match in the second half.

The score remained tied at one throughout the second half, ultimately forcing the game to head into overtime.

Nearing the end of the first 10-minute overtime period, Prall netted his second goal of the match, putting Torrington in front for good in the 2-1 overtime victory.

“Then we went into overtime and went through the first overtime with one second left, Ty Prall put one in the back of the net to give us a 2-1 lead,” Bartlett said.

Torrington was able to hold on for the final 10 minutes of the match.

“It was a fun game. It was intense. Riverton has improved over the last time we played them. They played a lot more possession instead of just kicking it down the field. Credit to them on that,” Bartlett said. “Our kids hung in there. It was miserable. We got down, and they could have packed it in. They kept fighting.”

The Blazers (9-2-2 overall and 7-0-2 in the 3A East Conference) wrap up the regular season on the road at Rawlins (5-4 and 3-4) on Friday. Action is scheduled to kick off at 5 p.m.

“We are excited for that,” Bartlett said. “If we go and win that, and if Douglas doesn’t lose, we’ll let the chips fall where they may.”

Even though Torrington has its ticket punched to state, they are treating it like a big game in hopes of a possible one seed for the state tournament.

“We have a good idea of what they can do and how to play them,” Bartlett said. “This team is finally coming together really well.”