NAPLES — Liam Bell might not have even been born when the Wells boys soccer team last made the playoffs, but the freshman striker is a big reason the Warriors are headed there this year. Bell scored four goals on Monday night as the Warriors finished off their regular season with a 6-1 victory over Lake Region in a WMC clash at Kilborn Field.

Bell opened the scoring just 7:36 into the game, as a free kick from midfield went to Hatim Sharaf, who headed the ball down to Bell. The freshman took two touches in the box before blasting a shot past Lakers (1-13) goalie Michael Rust.

Bell and the Warriors (6-6-2) struck again just over four minutes later, as a corner kick from the right side off the foot of T.J. Wright found the head of Bell, who redirected it into the top-left corner of the goal.

“I was thinking I was trying to put it back post, and trying to put it away from the goalie,” Bell said of what went through his mind as Wright’s kick approached.

“He’s really incredibly opportunistic. And his goals seem to come from him making sure he’s in the right place at the right time,” Wells head coach Sean Bishop said of Bell.

The lead was cut in half less than five minutes later as Lake Region’s Tristen Chaine was taken down in the box and the Lakers were awarded a penalty kick. Rust, a senior playing his final high school game, was chosen to take the kick, and he buried it into the left side of the net.

That was the high point of an otherwise rough night for Rust. He took a point-blank shot off the face on a delayed offsides call with 19 minutes left in the first half, causing him to miss three minutes of play while getting checked out by a trainer. Rust finished the game with 24 saves, but his night was ended prematurely, as he was out with 7:26 left in the game after being on the wrong end of an aggressive tackle in the box by Wells’ Reed Norton, who was given a yellow card on the play.

Bell’s memorable night continued with his third goal late in the first half, as Alec Pinette fed him off a throw-in and Bell needed just one touch before beating Rust for another goal.

“We’ve been having good passes between us, we’ve had a good triangle going,” Bell said of the Wells attack, which has scored 20 goals during a season-ending four-game winning streak.

Bell finished his scoring 6:18 into the second half, as he was in the right spot to bury a rebound off of a Dan Quint shot.

Peter Valentino and Pinette rounded out the scoring for the Warriors, who have scored 20 goals during a season-ending four-game winning streak. It’s a streak that saw them go from the outside looking in on a postseason berth to nearly earning a home playoff game in the first round.

“It’s big for us,” said Bishop. “This is my fourth year, we haven’t been to playoffs. I don’t think we’ve been to playoffs since before 2000. What we’re trying to do here is kind of change things from being a losing culture to putting a winning program together.”

The Warriors and their 11 seniors set out to accomplish a goal of making playoffs ”“ and were hoping for at least one game at home ”“ and it took a full team effort to do it, said Bishop.

“We kind of embraced our style of play. We’ve been working on it all season ”“ we were kind of reluctant to actually adapt to it ”“ and that’s basically just trying to possess the ball,” said Bishop. “Offense comes with that. It doesn’t seem like that to the kids at first. Just having a team effort as opposed to an individual effort produces better results.”

Bishop said how the team does in the playoffs will depend on which team shows up: The team that struggled to a 2-6-2 record through 10 games while searching for an identity, or the team that finished with four-consecutive wins while embracing what Bishop was trying to instill in his players.

Bishop for one said he hopes it’s the latter of the two.

“We’re doing well. I feel like we’re hitting our stride at just the right time of the year,” he said.

— Staff Writer Wil Kramlich can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @WilTalkSports.