The John Stark seniors have spent a lot of time on their home field and they wanted their final game on it to be a victory.
The Bears held the Generals scoreless in the first half, but junior Zoe Lawson and senior Caylin Worthen scored in the second to lead the No. 3 John Stark field hockey team (14-1-2) to a 2-0 victory over No. 6 Hanover (11-6-0) in Sunday’s Division II field hockey quarterfinal.
The Generals controlled the tempo of the game for the majority of the 60 minutes, garnering a 13-3 advantage in penalty corners, but it wasn’t until the second half that one of them led to a goal.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the cage that Stark was attacking in the second half is the same cage that the Generals practice corners on.
“This is our side in the second half. This is where we work on our corners,” John Stark head coach Cassidy Toms said. “We had a lot of intensity the whole game. Struggled in the first half a little bit to get to the back of the net, but executed in the third and fourth quarter.”
Hanover managed to temporarily clear the ball from its circle on Stark’s ninth penalty corner, but junior defender Maxine Lundeen sent it right back to Lawson in the middle of the circle, who fired a shot past Bear goalie Harper Rogers-Regenthal, who finished with eight saves.
That goal put the Generals up 1-0 five minutes into the third, but Hanover responded well. Junior goalie Rowin Ledy went through long stretches without having to do too much, but she made three of her four saves in a flurry midway through the third quarter to keep Hanover off the board.
The Bears had all three of their corners in the third frame, but couldn’t sustain the same attack in the fourth.
Worthen fired a shot from the top of the circle that deflected off a Hanover defender and redirected it past Rogers-Regenthal for a 2-0 lead with 2:40 left in the game.
“Caylin had a heck of a shot. Defense tipped it in, it was perfect,” Toms said.
The victory meant that John Stark’s four seniors — captains Worthen (forward) and Claudia Dustin (midfield), defender Kaitlin Dennis and forward Ava Friberg — ended their high school careers with a perfect season on their home field.
Those four were also key in Toms’ transition into the program as a new head coach.
“Great group. I’ve had them for four years. Great leaders,” Toms said. “All four of them played the full 60 minutes, every game.”
The Generals will play No. 2 Bow in Thursday’s semifinal at Bill Ball Stadium at Exeter High School. The teams have matching 14-1-2 records and tied 2-2 on Sept. 8.
“We need to utilize our speed and stop those big hits that Bow likes to utilize, especially on their midfielders,” Toms said. “Really man-marking and watching Peyton Vaughn on the right side. She’s very fast, we’ll need to keep an eye on her.”
The winner of that game will play the victor of the second semifinal between No. 1 Souhegan and No. 4 Oyster River in Saturday’s championship game at Bedford High School.
“We’re not done yet,” said Toms. “They want to keep going.”
