MANCHESTER – It took a few minutes before Hopkinton found its footing on the field at Memorial High School.
Nine minutes, to be exact.
All season long, the Hawks haven’t taken much time at all to score goals in any of their matches. When nine minutes feels like an extended period of time, that’s certainly a positive.
But nine minutes in, senior defender Maddie Carmichael broke the zeroes on the scoreboard with her goal and opened up the offense in No. 1 Hopkinton’s latest girls soccer win – a 5-2 final over No. 5 Derryfield in the Division III semi-finals.
Carmichael’s goal came off an opportunistic play. Senior Ashlee Brehio kicked a ball on net but her shot was blocked away. Carmichael was able to fight through the Cougars’ defenders and head the ball in, narrowly beating goalie Ashley Hardner to the ball.
With the goal, the Hawks’ potent offense began to take shape. Brehio scored her first of three goals in the 15th minute after she sent in a line-drive shot to the center of the goal. She followed that up with another attempt from out wide in the 27th, where once again rather than catching the ball, Hardner tipped the ball back into play. Brehio took advantage of the opportunity and followed through on the rebound for the Hawks’ third goal of the night.
Fellow senior forward Loren Charron scored four minutes after Brehio’s second goal, and Brehio completed her first-half hat trick with six minutes left in the first half.
If it took the Hawks’ 31 minutes to score five goals, one can only imagine how out of hand it could be if they had been operating on schedule. Coach Mike Zahn was quick to attribute the slow start, however, and it wasn’t a pesky or stout Derryfield defense.
It was simply the field itself.
“We’ve only played one game on turf this year, and it was in the middle of the season,” he said. “It was much different than grass. Once we knocked in a goal, I think we settled down a bit.”
Zahn spoke on how much more space there is on a turf field compared to a grass field and that at times, those large amounts of space can be a bit overwhelming to fill. The Hawks, however, after a brief introductory period, appeared to figure it out, and now with a championship game on Sunday, they have opportunities to practice on the artificial surface.
With a commanding 5-0 lead entering the second half, Hopkinton continued to play its starters for another 10 minutes before it pulled all but two of them – goalie Emily Fleegle and defender Kally Murdough.
Derryfield took advantage of the opportunity and it scored two goals in the final 15 minutes of the game, closing out the season by avoiding a shutout.
The Hawks (18-0) will play in Sunday’s championship game against No. 3 St. Thomas Aquinas back at Manchester Memorial. Hopkinton previously defeated the Saints, 4-0, back on Sept. 25.
Sunday’s championship match is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m.