EXETER — Bow High junior Peyton Vaughn was knocked down time and time again. Fighting through sickness and wear and tear, she made sure to get back up for her team.
Her two goals and an one assist were enough to push the Falcons through.
No. 2 Bow defeated No. 3 Hanover, 3-1, in an NHIAA Division II field hockey semifinal at Exeter High’s Bill Ball Stadium behind strong defensive performances and Vaughn’s Tuesday night heroics.
With her team ahead in the second quarter, 2-1, Vaughn exited the game after a hard fall, her chest burning as she recovered from rolling her ankle. She re-entered in the third quarter and scored a diving third goal to secure the win with 12:34 remaining in the fourth.
“I saw the goalie stick on the ground and I was just like, ‘Dive for it, just give it everything you’ve got,’ because I knew that goal would seal the game,” she said after the win.
Few teams had held their own against Bow (16-1-0) this season. Hanover (13-3-1) was one of the few that took the Falcons to the wire, falling in a 5-4 nail-biter in early September. Two months later, neutral ground would host a winner.
Despite conceding two goals early, Hanover’s deficit barely reflected the control it imposed in the first half. The Bears hunkered down in the midfield and largely controlled possession after Bow’s first goal. A few shots missed just wide, and Falcons senior goalie Aubrey Merrill notched crucial saves on shots by Hanover’s Greta Mancini, Anna Farrell and Joia Collins.
Mancini would break through after Hanover settled into the second quarter and earned a penalty corner. With senior Collins on the precise insert, Mancini gathered the pass outside of the circle and shot with power into the bottom left.
“We focused a lot on shutting down and blocking the center of the field and moving things out wide,” said Hanover coach Mallory Mackenzie. “We definitely tried to do that, but Bow was also trying to do that and used the sideline a lot of the game.”
Hanover tried to exert the same kind of control in the second half it had in the first but was unable to break through an adjusted Bow defense.
The Falcons’ win was anchored by some early offense on the counterattack.
Vaughn set up Bow’s opening goal, carrying the ball through the middle, driving past multiple defenders and firing a shot from the top of the circle. Hanover goalie Ruby Lintner did well to stop the shot, but as the rebound bounced up in the air, Bow senior forward Shire Kelley corralled it and shot low and precisely to put the Falcons in front.
Bow’s second goal was all Vaughn. She won the ball about 35 yards out from goal and carried it all the way down the right sideline. As she approached the circle, she cut toward the middle of the field and got under the trailing defender to shoot the ball into the bottom right corner against a recovering Lintner.
The Bow defense allowed just two second-half shots on Merrill’s goal.
Seniors Madelyn Hebert and Vera Virta and sophomores Avery Ayers and Cadence Malone held down the back, aided by midfielders Elise Jacques and Kaylee Jacques. The combined unit cleared five of Hanover’s six corners and held possession well down the stretch to secure the win.
“I told them to just keep their composure and lock in and just get the ball out. It doesn’t even matter how they do it,” Merrill said she told her defense.
The Falcons now goes into a déjà vu championship rematch against No. 1 Souhegan.
Bow fell to the Sabers (16-0-2) in last year’s title game, 2-1, and lost to them again in the regular season, 2-0. This year’s Sabers have been formidable, with defeats of three Division I teams on their docket.
Coach Sarah Vaughn and the Falcons know what awaits in Bedford on Saturday. The Falcons will have a chance at redemption after a long season.
“We’re going to give it everything we have, and every high school playoff game is a new game,” the Bow coach said.
Meanwhile, Mackenzie — Hanover’s fourth-year head coach — said the Bears struggled to keep up mentally in the game after trailing so early. The hunt for the equalizer was high-energy but also exhausting down the stretch.
With a talented senior class — highlighted by Collins, Greta and Sophia Mancini, Iris Chestnut and Anya Nyhan — graduating, next year will take some adjustments.
“This was the culmination of all of our efforts. I was really hoping we could stretch it one more game but couldn’t quite make that happen,” Mackenzie said.