BRADFORD — Oxbow girls soccer coach Shannon Gould’s voice boomed from the sideline.

“Come on, Davis,” she shouted. “Lock it in.”

Sophomore Mackenzie Pearl had just driven a ball that split Paine Mountain’s two central defenders, and Kayleigh Davis was through on goal.

The freshman forward took a couple of long touches before toe-poking the ball past the outstretched arms of Paine Mountain goalkeeper Hazel Knox, who had hesitated before coming off her line to meet the striker darting toward her goal. Four minutes into the game, Oxbow led 1-0.

Davis ultimately bagged a brace in the Olympians’ 4-1 win on Tuesday evening. The victory pushed Oxbow to 3-2-1 on the season, just two wins shy of tying last season’s win total.

“She’s quick, she’s strong, she’s athletic, very coachable,” said Gould, espousing Davis’ best traits. “She’s just a delight to have on the field. You say something to her, she listens and she does it. She tries as hard as she can and it’s just wonderful, especially being a freshman, I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

When her deeper-lying players collect the ball, Gould wants them to pick their heads up and send a ball toward the corner flags, which provides her strikers ample time to give chase and run onto the pass. Davis has blistering pace, and Gould wants to exploit it.

The Oxbow coach has been praying for times like this. She’s been imploring her team — including some players for nearly three seasons — to take advantage of their athleticism and play with increased physicality. She’s been waiting to see a complete performance like the one Tuesday, where her players are the first to 50-50 balls and get stuck in on tackles.

And it starts with her back-line pairing of juniors Natalee Spear and Tessa Cook; Gould has been playing them together since their freshman season.

Employing a sweeper-stopper diamond defensive shape, Spear serves as Gould’s no-nonsense center back at sweeper, with Cook slotting in at right outside back. Cook, who originally started as a striker for Oxbow, and Spear “grew up together” and have an unparalleled level of communication and rapport, Spear said.

The pair’s deep connection is evident on the field, as the duo frequently stymied Paine Mountain’s attacking threats in the right and central channels. They can also provide a scoring threat from set pieces.

After Davis drew a penalty in the 36th minute, Cook calmly stepped to the spot and buried the spot kick past the diving Knox to hand the Olympians a 2-1 advantage heading into halftime.

Deep into the second half, it was Spear’s turn to put her name on the scoresheet. Standing over a free kick a few yards beyond the box, the two-time first team all-state honoree lifted a ball over the Paine Mountain wall and just beneath the crossbar, securing the 4-1 scoreline.

Spear said she knew she was going to score the moment she kicked the ball.

“I felt pretty confident,” she said. “I don’t even know how to explain it. I just have this feeling of when it goes off my foot correctly, I know that it’s going to go in.”

Spear’s goal occurred moments before the game was called with less than six minutes remaining. Three Paine Mountain players had been injured in the contest with apparent leg injuries after collisions with Oxbow players, the last of which prompted the match’s conclusion.

Gould said Paine Mountain coach Stephen LaRock told her the game’s early finish “had nothing to do with” Oxbow and that her players had done nothing wrong on the tackles. LaRock added that he didn’t “have anybody else to put on the field” and didn’t want to risk another potential injury, but complemented Oxbow on “a great game,” according to Gould.

As the Olympians huddled together postgame, Gould, now in her third year helming the program, had one message for her team: keep playing the way you are.

“I keep telling them, ‘I have 100% confidence in you. I know how good of a team you are. Now I need you to have the confidence in yourself,’ ” Gould said. “And they’re starting to, you can see it.”

Alex Cervantes can be reached at acervantes@vnews.com or 603-727-7302.