The first was improvised, the second went exactly as planned, and both set plays worked for the Concord High field hockey team.
The No. 5 Crimson Tide turned a pair of penalty corners into a pair of goals to claim a 2-0 win against No. 4 Londonderry in Friday’s Division I quarterfinals. Concord will play next in Tuesday’s 7 p.m. semifinal in Exeter against No. 8 Merrimack, which posted a 2-0 upset against No. 1 Pinkerton.
The Lancers (11-4) had more of the ball in a scoreless first half, but the Tide (11-4) roared out of halftime. Concord immediately pushed the ball into Londonderry’s end, earned a penalty corner and grabbed a 1-0 lead 1:54 into second half when Maria Armaganian’s hard shot from long range found its way past Londonderry goalie Riley Walter.
That was the improvised goal.
“I was supposed to slip it left, but I messed up and I didn’t know what to do, so I just shot,” Armaganian said. “It wasn’t supposed to happen, it was supposed to be a pass, but then I saw the defender come out so I just moved it around and took a shot on net.”
The goal gave Concord even more energy, which the Tide used to earn two more corners, which turned into one more goal.
This time, Armaganian slipped a backhand pass to Ella Doherty, who blasted a shot from distance that hammered into the back of cage to make it 2-0 at 4:14 of the second half.
That was the exactly-as-planned goal.
“They executed a really good corner,” Concord coach Andrew Briers said. “It was by design. It was slightly risky, but it paid off well and it was really good to watch. Credit to them because you can draw it up all you want, but until it gets done you never know how it’s going to look, and obviously it looked pretty good.”
After that, the Lancers re-established control of possession. They looked ready to score on multiple occasions, but the Tide defense wasn’t having it. Junior Grace Leonard was scrappy in the final minutes, goalie Felicity Wheldon was confident between the pipes and came off her line as needed, and senior captain Sam Ossoff was, once again, the unblinking foundation.
“She was a rock on defense today,” Briers said of Ossoff. “Her speed is terrific and she made very few errors. I think she has played every single minute of every single game this season, so that’s a testament to how important she is at the back.”
All told, Londonderry had the clear edge in possession for the game. The opposite happened on Oct. 16 when these two met in Concord. The Tide had the edge in possession in that one, but it was the Lancers who walked away with a 2-0 win.
“Today they were keeping us on the left-hand side which is obviously the weaker side in field hockey, so it made our life difficult and their life a little more easy,” Briers said. “(Londonderry) played well, they played hard, too, so we had to be quick.”
The coach thought his team was a step slow when it faced the Lancers during the regular season, but that wasn’t an issue on Friday.
“They sharpened up. It’s playoff hockey,” Briers said. “When you’re in the regular season and you’ve had lots of games it gets a little bit dreary, and now when you just have one game at a time, it lights a little more fire.”
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341 or tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20)