BEDFORD – Even before Sunday’s Division III field hockey championship, top-ranked Mascoma knew there would be no easy way to beat Hopkinton goalie Maddie McCluskey.
“This was definitely one of the best goalies that we faced,” Mascoma coach Jennifer Hammond said. “So we knew going into it that for us to score we would have to pull it out wide and then switch fields quickly and try to score in the open net, because she is such a strong goalie.”
McCluskey was as good as advertised, coming up with 17 saves, many of them stealing sure-fire goals from the Royals. There was one she couldn’t stop though, a hard shot from Katie Pushee that Mackenzie Labrie, who was stationed on the post in front of McCluskey, tipped home with 7:08 left on the clock. That was all Mascoma needed to claim a 1-0 win and the D-III crown.
“It was tipped right in, it was a perfect goal,” McCluskey said. “I tried as hard as I could to stop it, but I just couldn’t.”
While it seemed incredible the Royals beat McCluskey at all, the goal and the game’s result were well-deserved. Mascoma (16-1) controlled the majority of the contest and finished with significant advantages in shots (18-2) and corners (9-4).
When the Royals had possession, they pressured the Hopkinton backline and peppered McCluskey with shots. When the Hawks (14-3) had the ball, the Royals swarmed until they got it back.
“By far,” Hopkinton coach Patty Connolly said when asked if Mascoma was the best team the Hawks have faced this season. “They put on so much offensive pressure and I don’t know if we ever really tested their goalie … they were all over us.”
The Royals pressured from the opening whistle, forcing McCluskey to make a pair of good saves just five minutes into the game. Hopkinton’s Julia Baer did a nice job carrying the ball upfield on counters, relieving some of the pressure on her defense, but the Mascoma defense, led by Bella Kondi, who also sang the national anthem, ended the threats quickly and put the Royals back on the attack.
Hopkinton defenders Chloe Wood, Clara Walling, Caroline Barrett and Katelyn Bouchard all made plays to stop fast breaks or break up scoring chances in the circle. But when they couldn’t, McCluskey was there with quick pads, smart decisions and, if needed, the spectacular.
“For a senior in her last game, she put it all out there,” Connolly said of her goalie. “She was phenomenal.”
McCluskey played six years of field hockey before moving into goal for her last six years playing the sport. She made the switch because knee problems make it hard for her to run, and there’s no doubt she’s made the most of bad knees.
“I love playing goalie and saving everything, it’s amazing,” McCluskey said.
The game wasn’t quite as lopsided in the second half, but McCluskey was still called on to make six saves while Mascoma’s Abby Duhaime didn’t have to make any.
“That was the most saves I’ve made in a game this season by far,” McCluskey said. “That was a lot of work.”
The Royals finally got to her off a corner, the set play leading to Pushee’s shot and Labrie’s perfect, game-winning, championship-clinching tip. Despite all the wins this season, Mascoma hasn’t been good on corners, so the team has spent extra time on them in recent practices.
“We’ve had so many corners this year and I think we’ve only scored off three of them, so the past week or so we’ve really been working on what we have to do to execute these corners,” Hammond said. “So to be able to score off one like that was absolutely huge.”
The Hawks kept pushing to the end. They earned two of their four corners in the final three minutes, but they couldn’t generate a shot off either corner and had to settle for the runner-up hardware that Mascoma took home last year after losing to Newfound in the final.
“Last year it was just huge for us to be here, but this year we didn’t want to settle for second,” Hammond said, “and these girls didn’t.”
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341 or tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20)