EXETER – Gwen Barrieau may have missed her junior season as goalie for the Bow High School girls soccer team with a knee injury, but she finished her career with a pair of lifetime moments within the span of a few minutes in Friday night’s Division II championship game.
Barrieau stuffed Hollis-Brookline’s Livia Ward in the second overtime and made the only save in a 5-4 penalty kick round to lift No. 2 Bow to a 1-0 victory over top-seeded Hollis-Brookline for its second straight Division II championship at Exeter High School’s William Ball Stadium.
“We struggled a bit in the first half to find our feet, but once we did, I thought we controlled the second half and both overtimes,” Bow coach Jay Vogt said. “And we almost lost it, but Gwen came up big for us. Then the five girls we had shooting PKs were outstanding.”
Bow junior defender Zoey Lupien booted in the final PK to give the Falcons the lead before Barrieau made the final save.
“I feel like our team is such a great group of girls; we’ve been playing for over eight years together, which is insane. I just had a good feeling about today’s game that I had my keeper back here working her butt off. We just believed in everyone and I’m just so glad we could go back-to-back,” Lupien said.
This was the rubber match of the three-year championship rivalry between the teams, as Hollis-Brookline (16-2-1) won in 2024 before Bow (15-1-3) won last year.
“It was a great championship game like the way it should be,” Hollis-Brookline coach Peter Clarke said. “This team peaked at the right time and this was our best performance tonight against great competition.”
Barrieau made 14 saves on the evening, but none were bigger than when she was left in a one-on-one situation with the dangerous Ward. She stepped and smothered the shot to prolong the second overtime.
“I was just thinking I don’t want my season to end right here and I’m not letting it happen,” Barrieau said. “I don’t know what internal instincts came in me, I was like Spiderman. I was just thinking to myself “I’m not ending here.”
It was a testament to how strong Bow’s goalkeepers were, too. Vogt alternated between Barrieau and senior Sierra Scull game to game. Scull kept Bow ahead in the semis and Barrieau had her clutch performance in the championship.
“She saved our butts there,” Lupien said. “She was a complete powerhouse in the back of the net.”
Each team’s first four shooters in PK’s were successful, as Marissa Reyes, Brylie Gelinas, Jolee Tudel and Jaeden Kennedy scored for Bow. Ward, Samantha Disco, Adrienne Thibault and Kai Swart were successful for Hollis-Brookline.
That brought up Lupien, who buried the shot to the left past Hollis-Brookline goalie Mya Blackman to give Bow the 5-4 PK advantage.
“I love taking PKs, it’s one of my favorite things to do and I feel like when I feel the pressure, it makes me want it even more,” Lupien said. “I had to put away for my team and my keeper for how much they have worked this whole entire season.”
Then it was Barrieau’s turn, and she closed it out by stopping Madelyn Reardon’s shot in the middle of the net.
“Before I was just guessing which way, but that time I told myself that I have to read whatever she’s doing and go off of her kick and that’s exactly what I did,” Barrieau said. “And then the rest is history.”