BURLINGTON — Slow starts have become a bit of a regularity for the Walpole field hockey team over the last couple games of this state tournament, almost as regular as its tenacity to – for a fourth straight year, pull within one win of yet another Div. 1 state title.

After a shot-less first quarter and a scoreless first half in a Div. 1 state semifinal Wednesday night at Burlington High School, the second-seeded Porkers (21-0-1) unleashed an offensive fury to bombard No. 11 Winchester in a 3-0 win.

Isabella Bogovich (19 saves) was sensational for the Red and Black (15-7) in their first state semifinal appearance, but Walpole’s unrelenting attack produced three second-half goals and its defense allowed just two shots on net to get back to the Div. 1 state final.

Senior Jenna Wong had two goals, while Kate Schneider added a goal and assist.

Walpole will face Andover for a fourth straight year in the state final, which it won last year after losing to the Golden Warriors in 2021 and 2022 at Burlington.

“You’ve got like, Caitlyn Naughton has been there four times,” Porkers head coach Jen Quinn said. “That’s pretty cool. It is awesome for me too, I’m not taking anything away from that. But it’s them. It’s about them. And she’s, four straight years in a row, as a starter, as a key player from her freshman year, and she’s going to be back there again.”

Winchester’s strong defensive group did well to keep Walpole out of the circle for much of the first quarter, and Bogovich stopped all six of the Porkers’ shots on goal in the second quarter.  But Walpole dialed up the pressure a little more in the third quarter, and two of its nine shots finally got past Bogovich.

Schneider sent a through-ball to Wong in front for a goal and a 1-0 lead. Shortly after, she scored herself for her 100th career point.

Walpole’s Emily Hagan shoots the ball against Winchester’s Isabella Bogovich during Walpole’s 3-0 state semifinal field hockey win. (Photo By Matt Stone/Boston Herald)

“It just says a lot about them,” Quinn said. “It wasn’t our best game. It wasn’t the prettiest game. When things get difficult, you can go the wrong way, but they didn’t. They just kept getting better and better. … They made the adjustments and they kept plugging.”

Winchester answered with a few rushes, only to be defused around the circle. Seven more Walpole shots on Bogovich led to another goal, as Wong’s second made it 3-0 in the fourth quarter.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game, but we wanted it more and it just showed on the field,” Wong said. “Once we got that first shot, it really clicked, and we all turned it on and were kind of like, ‘Yeah, we got this.’ ”

Quinn feels she’s past the point of focusing on superstition and exorcising ghosts, so she put little into finally winning at Burlington after two heart-breaking losses to Andover in the state finals.

“It was mentioned. I think someone posted, ‘This is the field that we lost,’ ” Wong said. “We were kind of like, ‘This isn’t going to be the same. This is where we turn it around.’ We didn’t want the same ending.”