LISBON FALLS — When you’re the defending state champion, there’s no room for anything other than your best effort.

That was the message Julie Wescott was sending her team Thursday afternoon. Her Lisbon field hockey team had muddled through a good first half, but it wasn’t good enough as far as the Greyhound’s coach was concerned.

“We played a little panicked and a little excited in the first half,” Wescott said. “That can be expected, but we play a better game when we’re calm rather than panicky and too fast for ourselves. Once we calmed down and settled in the game, we really started to flourish after that.”

Lisbon used a dominant second half to finish off a 5-0 win over St. Dom’s to win its Western C quarterfinal. The top-seeded Greyhounds (12-2-1) advance to Saturday’s semifinal against Dirigo at 1 p.m.

Lisbon scored two goals in the first half but still didn’t play as well as it could have. The Greyhounds’ play was chaotic and scattered. In the second half, Lisbon controlled play completely and outshot the Saints 17-0.

That followed a rousing halftime speech by Wescott to fire up the squad.

“When a team gets overconfident, it’s over,” said junior forward Arianna Kahler. “She makes sure that doesn’t happen. We know what we have to do. We know we always need to play our best. Playoffs are definitely not the time to slack.”

Kahler had two goals for Lisbon. Sarah Craig and Molly Nicholson each had a goal and an assist. Hanna Jordan also scored for the Greyhounds, which beat Dirigo 4-1 and 3-2 in the regular season.

The Saints’ junior goalie Taylor Bergeron put in a great effort against the Greyhounds. She made 20 saves and got some help by a scrappy defense and freshman defender Sarah Clark, who made some saves her own.

“We knew it was a challenge,” said St. Dom’s coach Brian Kay, whose team lost to Lisbon 7-1 in the regular season. “The kids played the best they could. That’s all you can ask for.”

Lisbon got the first goal at 6:40. Craig set up Kahler in front. Her shot went in off Bergeron’s pad.

“Our first goal always gets us excited,” Kahler said. “We know we can do it. We just keep going until we get it.”

Lisbon outshot the Saints 11-3 in the first half but didn’t get the second goal until 7:50 remained in the half. Nicholson fed Jordan for a shot and the 2-0 lead.

The Saints (4-12) got some nice pressure from Callie Greco up front but didn’t get a true scoring bid until late in the half.

“The first half, we were right with them,” Kay said. “We slowed their offense down. We’ve practice a lot of defense, and it worked. We let up a couple of soft goals at the beginning. Once they got the third goal, it was tough.”

Lisbon wasted little time in the second half to crank things up. Kahler scored her second of the game at 4:56. Cutler had a shot from the outside. Kahler was in front to steer in the rebound.

“We always go in with a 0-0 mentality,” Kahler said. “Halftime, beginning of the game, everything, it always gets us going. We definitely didn’t want to let them get any breathing room. Once they get that spark, they’re on it.”

Lisbon displayed a controlled and persistent attack in the second half. The Saints could barely push the ball upfield to counter let alone change the momentum.

With 20:06 left, Craig redirected a shot in front by Olivia Harrington. Then with 10:02 remaining, Nicholson finished off a breakaway.

After a slow start, the second half was just the kind of response Wescott wanted to see. It was the kind of effort her club could build upon Saturday.

“That was my hope,” Wescott said. “I said to them ‘it wasn’t our prettiest game but you prevailed and hopefully we’ll play better next time.'”

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