FARMINGTON - The Plymouth girls soccer team doesn’t need any help to win soccer games, as evidenced by its undefeated record.

Saline spotted top-ranked Plymouth the first goal in the Division 1 regional semifinal at Farmington High School and was never able to recover in a 3-0 loss on Wednesday.

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Early in the first half, Plymouth’s University of Michigan-bound senior forward Madi Lewis took a shot that Saline goalkeeper Sophia Sweier easily saved. As Lewis began to jog into position, she was unexpectedly swarmed by her teammates who informed her that Sweier had inadvertently knocked the ball into the goal.

“I thought the goalie had it. I have no idea how it even happened,” Lewis said.

Less than a minute-and-a-half later, Plymouth (21-0-1) scored again when a scramble in front of the Saline net left University of North Dakota-bound senior Zoe Foster open at the mouth of the goal.

Suddenly the Hornets were looking at a two-goal deficit against the top-ranked team in the state.

“You’d like to have them earn the goals and them not be two kind of soft goals, which they were,” said Saline coach Dana Restrick. “The score’s reflective. They were the better team. They are the better team, but the first two goals definitely hurt.”

Saline trailed 2-0 at halftime and desperately needed a quick goal to get things going to start the second. The Hornets received the opposite as Miami University-bound Plymouth senior Stephanie Dillon buried a rebound in the opening minute.

“That (second goal) gave us a little padding, but at halftime we were like ‘Don’t let them get the next goal,’” said Plymouth coach Jeff Neschich. “The next goal was the important one and we went out there and scored it.”

Saline’s comeback attempts led to a few scoring opportunities in the second half, but with Dillon controlling the midfield and Lewis a constant threat up top, it was tough for the Hornets to get much going.

“Our team’s on a different level when those two are working together with their touches,” Neschich said.

Altogether, Restrick was pleased with her team’s season - a 14-9-1, competing atop the SEC Red all year and a winning a district title - but that didn’t make the loss sting any less.

“We graduated 11 last year and 7-8 of them were starters, so we knew it was going to be a bit of a rebuild,” Restrick said. “I think we had a good season for what we were rebuilding with, but we will definitely miss the seniors that will leave this year.”

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at petercunningham@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.