Scholastic Notes

New England region

MASSACHUSETTS

DESPITE SPLIT RESULT, POWER OF HERGET CONFIRMED

As the 2005 Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association tournament drew towards its conclusion, two teams destined not to meet were the story.

For it was Walpole (Mass.) and Dedham (Mass.) who dominated the state scene, splitting thrilling games in the Herget Division of the Bay State Conference -- oddly enough, winning on each other's home field.

But when the tournaments concluded in Worcester, only one of the two had the championship trophy: Dedham took the Division 2 crown with a 2-0 win over Warren Quaboag Regional (Mass.).

The Division 1 crown was won by Worcester Notre Dame Academy (Mass.) with a 2-1 win over Lincoln-Sudbury (Mass.). It was Lincoln-Sudbury which had defeated Walpole's offensive machine with a four-goal outburst over the last 11 minutes of the D-1 semifinals in one of the most unbelievable, impossible dreams of a comeback ever seen in state tournament play.

Walpole, you must remember, beat Notre Dame Academy 6-0 in early October. NDA thanked Lincoln-Sudbury for the early holiday present by outshooting the visitors 17-3, and outcornering them 15-4.

A hollow victory, this was not.

"“This feels great, with three in four years we’re a dynasty,” Rebels captain Erin Iandoli tells The Boston Herald. “This one means the most to me because I’m a senior and I loved this team. I loved all the teams I played on at Notre Dame, but this one really came together. All 25 girls on this team bonded and cared for one another. It was special.”

Iandoli and Emily Egan had the NDA goals, the latter in the 39th minute to cement the victory.

In Division 2, Dedham held up the Herget honor with a 2-0 win over Quaboag. And, as has been the case much of the year, Kara Kelley and Katie Kelly were the difference in the game. Katie Kelly got the Marauders off to a hot start in the fifth minute, taking a Kara Kelley feed for the goal. After the interval, Kara Kelley set up Katie Kelly at the top of the circle for an open shot and a 2-0 lead.

"We've been playing together for so long that I get a sense of where she is going to hit it," Kelly tells The Springfield Republican.

Quaboag's best chance came 20 minutes from time, but a penalty corner shot was ruled to have been taken outside the circle.

The Marauder goalie Kathryn Kelley stopped two shots to earn the shutout. It was their 23rd win of the season with a single loss at home to Walpole.

WALPOLE SEASON HINGED ON 11 FATEFUL MINUTES

It was all there for the Walpole (Mass.) to get to another state championship final. After all, what lay ahead of them was a Worcester Notre Dame (Mass.) team which had fallen 6-0 to the Porkers just six weeks previous.

Walpole had taken a 3-0 lead over Lincoln-Sudbury (Mass.) into the final quarter hour thanks to its turbo-powered attack, with a flair matched only by the likes of North Caldwell West Essex (N.J.), or Palmyra (Pa.). But the rearguard was exposed to the tune of four goals, all scored in the 49th minute or later, as the Warriors beat Walpole 4-3.

''These girls have worked so hard to compete," L-S head coach Vicki Caburian tells The Boston Globe. "They never gave up. They just never gave up."

Anne Niemi had the key goals: the opener with 10:45 left to give Lincoln-Sudbury hope; the game-tying goal at 3:46, and the game-winner at 2:31. Bridget Griffin's penalty stroke at 9:48 was the other Warrior goal.

“I think we realized that we had this opportunity, and we weren’t going to let it go without giving 110 percent,” Niemi tells The Boston Herald. “We’ve come so far. We’ve been preparing for this since the beginning of the summer. If you go this far, you go all the way.”

BRIDGEWATER-RAYNHAM WIN IS SIGNIFICANT

Not since a big-hitting all-rounder named Kristen Holmes patrolled the Bridgewater-Raynham (Mass.) pitch had the Trojans been able to say that it had gotten past the first round of the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association tournament.

But that's what happened when Carolina Gonzalez smacked in a loose ball in the 50th minute of an opening-round match with Dighton-Rehoboth.

"She knows how to be in the right place at the right time, and the pass coming in was great" head coach Joan Casabian tells The Brockton Enterprise, "From the sideline to the midfielder and right to Carolina's stick, it was beautiful and it went in."

About 10 minutes later, Dighton-Rehoboth put a shot into the goal cage, but it was ruled to have come outside of the scoring circle.

"We didn't take advantage of the opportunities we had. We should have gotten a better shot, but there was no doubt in my mind that we were going to come back and score a goal," D-R head coach Roberta Cordeiro tells The Enterprise. "And It's kind of disheartening that we didn't. Sometimes, you play and can't believe it didn't go into the net."

WALPOLE, DEDHAM SPLIT BAY STATE CONFERENCE MATCHES

Walpole (Mass.) has won nine Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association titles. Dedham (Mass.) has won only one. But in the Bay State Conference, it seems both are always near the top of the league table.

In 2005, something very unusual happened: the teams were able to split their two conference matches with each other, winning on the opposition's home field.

It is the second of the two matches that may define the two schools' seasons, though. That's when Dedham, facing a 4-2 deficit at three-quarter time, came back for a 5-4 win at the Porker Pen. It was the first Dedham victory at Walpole in the 16 years that head coach Frank Barbuto has been coaching at the South Shore school.

``You say this to kids all the time, sometimes they understand, sometimes they don't, if you don't quit in this game,'' Barbuto tells The Needham Daily News-Transcript. ``That's what happens to most teams: you go up one or two goals and emotionally they lose it, then the dam breaks. If you play for 60 minutes and you keep coming back, you'll get your share of chances, and the ball went in for us today.''

That certainly happened after a late timeout, after which the Marauders' passing started exposing the Walpole rearguard. In the 49th, a long pass from Christine Kenney was redirected by Katie Kelly off a Porker back into the cage, followed by a second Kelly goal in the 51st on a neat high-low feed from Emily Stefans.

Kenney slipped a rebound over the line on a penalty corner in the 59th to give Dedham the win and a tie for the Bay State Conference lead with three games to play for each squad.

The Porkers, to their credit, almost tied the match on an untimed corner at the end of regulation. Left wing Hillary Zysk sent the ball into the cage, but the umpires disallowed the goal on an advancing call.

In the reverse match several weeks earlier, Walpole had taken a 5-2 victory despite being outshot 25-17. The difference had been goalkeeper Betsy Norberg, who thwarted 23 shots.

"She was outstanding," Walpole coach Marianne Murphy told The News-Transcript. "She has gained more and more confidence. She works hard everyday in practice and she worked hard in the offseason to get better. Today was a good game for her because she never lost composure."

That first game experienced wild shifts in momentum during the second term after Walpole had the lone brace at the interval. After Dedham tied the match in the 33rd, senior Meg Sweeney scored twice to bring the score to 3-1.

Dedham's Jenny Boudrow brought the score to 3-2 in the 47th, then almost equalized a minute later, but the Marauders scuffed a chance in the circle.

But Kim Cunniff (52nd) and Sweeney (58th) had late scores to give Walpole a massive road win.

"We wanted this more than anything," Sweeney told The News-Transcript. "This senior class has never won here. We knew we had to work as a team, it had to come from within. It was an amazing win."

DUFOUR CONJURES UP MORE THAN GOOD PLAYS FOR MAGICIANS

Purists may regard Marblehead (Mass.) senior Jess Dufour as the ultimate example of overprotection in the game of field hockey.

A decade after helmets were tried by one team in New England, Dufour is wearing headgear in 2005 -- but for a very pertinent reason.

Dufour is fighting the effects of postconcussive syndrome, brought on by a collision in a 2004 match as well as a severe auto accident over the summer.

She failed several neurological tests in the aftermath of the crash, during which she blacked out.

But she has returned to the lineup -- helmet and all -- and is amongst the Magicians' leading scorers.

"She needed to create goal-scoring opportunities," head coach Linda Rice-Collins tells The Marblehead Reporter. "She needed to break up the field when the other team had the ball on the strong side. She has been extremely effective. She really understands the game. She gives them space and cuts them off. She gets the ball in position to either score or get the ball to someone else to score."

IN REMATCH, WALPOLE KNOCKS DOWN NOTRE DAME ACADEMY

During a late timeout called in the field hockey match between Walpole (Mass.) and Worcester Notre Dame (Mass.), a cold, stiff gust of wind knocked papers, water bottles, and anoraks off the team benches and pinned them against a retaining fence around the Worcester State College pitch. It was a picture reminiscent of a climactic scene in the film "Superman II."

The gusting winds were a symbol of the utter domination on the part of Walpole, and not just mere huffing and puffing, during this rematch of the 2003 Division I state championship game.

Walpole, which won the game 6-0, has its own version of Ursa, Non, and General Zod. That trio is the front line of Hillary Zysk, Meghan Sweeney, and Tacy Zysk, which had five goals and three assists in the game.

Sweeney, who had two assists on the day, was the catalyst of much of the attack. Playing a point-forward position, she attacked the heart of the Rebels' defense with near impunity. One first-half fake, during which Sweeney almost appeared to go through an opponent, elicited a long "whoooooaaaa" from the host of onlookers, a reaction usually reserved for an Allen Iverson crossover dribble.

Sweeney, who played a season for the nascent Walpole girls' ice hockey program, showed all the skills and vision with the Zysk sisters that made the Porkers the No. 2 team in the TopOfTheCircle.com Top 10 in mid-October.

Left wing Hillary Zysk, who had four goals against Notre Dame Academy, knows that the script could change depending on the team's execution or what a defense would allow.

"Our forwards, and everyone on the right side, did awesome getting the ball up the field, and the passes couldn't have been better," said Zysk.

The score could have been much more lopsided but for the utter heroics of NDA goalkeeper Courtney Kelley, who had an outstanding performance with 21 saves.

"The ball was on our side of the field most of the time," said the junior. "In order to win, you need shots on goal. And they had more."

The result was a little surprising given the fact that both teams had an involuntary six-day layoff of competitive hockey. Heavy rains in New England the week before the showdown forced both teams off their home grass pitches.

"Monday, we were playing in the rain, and we were in the gym most of the week," Murphy says. "Given the fact that we were in a small space, it was really hard to get up for the match. But they played about as well as I have seen them play."

There was even the possibility that the Notre Dame Academy match would not be played because of Governor Mitt Romney's declaration of a state of emergency, a power outage that blacked out Worcester State over the weekend, or the windstorm that tossed around all of the sideline gear during that late timeout.

NORTH MIDDLESEX, LEOMINSTER ARE ALL OUT FOR WIN

How badly did did Townsend North Middlesex (Mass.) want to beat visiting Leominster (Mass.)? The Patriots' Nikki Flanigan broke the ball. Seriously.

You see, there's a little family tension when these teams meet. North Middlesex head coach Jane Powers has a daughter, Jill, playing for Leominster.

Naturally, in these situations, blood is definitely thicker than water -- especially if you're the Patriots' Natalie Blood. Her goal in the 56th minute of the game gave the hosts a 1-0 win.

"We were able to get the ball down the field and I was able to just tap it in," Blood tells The Fitchburg Sentinel and Enterprise. "Everyone played a great game and we worked really hard tonight."

I-91 CORRIDOR SHAKEN A BIT

This year, the rivalry between Greenfield (Mass.), South Deerfield Frontier Regional (Mass.), and Hatfield Smith Academy (Mass.) is beginning to take on a different dimension.

That's because other teams are no longer fearing the I-91 stalwarts. Longmeadow (Mass.), the defending West Division I champion, may again be vaulting itself into contention, thanks to a goalless draw at Smith Academy.

Smith, maybe playing its best hockey since the matriculation of Kelly Dostal, had pounded opponents for 21 goals in three varsity matches to begin the 2005 season. But Shannon DiStefano made nine saves for Longmeadow, giving her side a chance to win the match in the 50th. However, attacker Amanda Bolduc rang the post.

Earlier in the season, Amherst stole a 1-1 draw from Frontier Regional. The Hurricanes' Hanna Bohan had given her side the lead in the 11th minute, only to see Frontier's Kristyn Grybko level the score in the 20th.

WHITHER FAIRHAVEN?

Fairhaven, Mass. is a small town just a peninsula away from Buzzards' Bay and a stone's throw from the Rhode Island border. But in June 2005, the town became the center of an uproar regarding its school sports teams.

Owing to the failure of a measure to override a portion of Proposition 2 1/2, a law which restricts the amount of property tax increases, the town's school board voted to cut roughly 10 percent of its budget.

The fallout: cutting 17 teachers, closing one school, and eliminating a number of sports, including field hockey.

But, as the New Bedford Standard-Times pointed out, the football team would be kept.

"How is that determined to be equitable?" Ann Ponichtera Denardis told the town's school committee. "I just think that is an outrage, that is an insult to every female in this room. Shame on you."

The high school, which has about 690 students in grades 9-12, will retain at least two sports per gender per semester.

"If we don't have sports, we are not going to have any students," Chairman Andrew B. Tillett told The Standard-Times.

LONGMEADOW TRIES TO RELOAD

Longmeadow (Mass.) has won three Division I Western Massachusetts championships the last three seasons, which would normally give a coaching staff the confidence to repeat, given the fact that the West division is the smallest of the four quadrants that make up Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association field hockey.

But head coach Ann Simons has a lot to do to even get a sniff of a state championship. That's because the Lancers graduated half the team, including eight starters.

"For us, it's a rebuilding season," Simons tells The Springfield Republican. "But it is different from some other teams because our junior varsity program has been so strong under Cliff Hedges."

But the goals are lofty, especially in a region that has such strong programs as Greenfield (Mass.), Hatfield Smith Academy (Mass.), and South Deerfield Frontier Regional (Mass.)

"Our goals are still to win Western Mass. and go on further," sophomore goalkeeper Shannon DiStefano tells The Republican. "I learned a lot last year from the older players and I know this year I have to be a leader on the defense."

MAINE

MAINE FINALS NOT LACKING IN SUSPENSE

At Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland, the last day of the field hockey season saw three different ways that drama can be played out.

In the Class C match, the drama came not only from the climax, but from a gripping epilogue-as-denouement (if you don't know what that means, consult your Shakespeare teacher).

In any case, Bethel Telstar (Maine) was defending its goal in the final minute of play holding fast to a 1-0 lead. But the Telstar defense, having scored a mere six minutes earlier, cracked and yielded an untimed penalty corner at the end of regulation to East Corinth Central (Maine).

After one corner was played out, a second was awarded for a defensive foul, on which a neat "around-the-horn" corner play saw Caitlin Elliott's hard pass find Rachel Trafton flashing to the goal.

In overtime, Hilary Haney ended matters in the final minute of extra time. It was Central's first state title since 1983.

"Thats the type of team weve been all season," Central Diane Rollins told The Portland Press-Herald. "We play hard to the end. This means so much to our community, our players, our school." In the Class B final, the drama came right at the end as York (Maine) earned five corners in the final three minutes of play, but couldn't solve Belfast and goalkeeper Lizzy Anderson as Belfast held on for a 2-1 win.

"We werent going to lose," Belfast midfielder Jamie Flagg tells The Press-Herald. "We came in with that attitude and we left with that attitude."

The Lions also came and left with their 39-game win streak intact. It was the longest current win streak in the country by the end of October 2005.

The style of drama that Skowhegan (Maine) showed in Class "A" was how it would handle the role of heavy favorite.

But the Indians won in style, beating Standish Bonny Eagle (Maine) 4-0 to be the first Maine high-school team to win five straight state championships.

"This means everything to everybody," said Courtney Veinotte, who had two goals in the match. "Its really more than we can ask for. I just think everyone put their best into this game. It wasnt just one or two people, it was everybody."

The Indians, playing in their eight title match in nine seasons, finished with a 17-1 record.

"You know, were still a very young team," Skowhegan head coach Paula Doughty told The Press-Herald, pointing out that her team had just three seniors. "And you never know how young players are going to react emotionally in a game like this. You never know how theyre going to stand up. Five minutes into the game, I knew they were fine."

Even through the Scots threatened early, Bonny Eagle could not send the ball into the cage thanks to the goalkeeping of Megan Smith, who was outstanding.

TEACHER : FATHER :: PUPIL : DAUGHTER

Allen Holmes has coached field hockey for 33 seasons at Belfast (Maine), enough to win eight state championships and the respect of his peers -- including his daughter, Rockport Camden Hills Regional (Maine) coach Jan Holmes-Jackson.

After a 3-0 win by Belfast in the regular season, little was going to stop the Huskies from dominating the Windjammers in a Class B quarterfinal match. Brooke Reed saw to that in a 5-0 win, scoring two first-half goals. Belfast held the nation's longest winning streak (34 games) at the time the game was played.

"It's really special," Reed tells The Bangor Daily News. "It's kind of intense because we know everybody is gunning for us because we have such a long undefeated streak, but I think we have a really good chance."

MESSALONSKEE SUFFERS SETBACKS APLENTY AGAINST SKOWHEGAN

It was bad enough that Oakland Messalonskee (Maine) lost 6-2 to Skowhegan (Maine) late in the 2005 regular season.

But injury was added to insult. Two major head injuries -- neither of which would have been ameliorated by eyewear mandated elsewhere in New England -- were suffered on the part of the Eagles.

In the second minute, Lauren Veilleux collided with her marker and suffered a broken nose. And goalkeeper Beth Ridley was knocked out in another collision just before the interval.

"Beth got taken out and got hit so hard that her helmet moved out of position," Messalonskee coach Heather Merrill tells The Kennebec Journal. "So when her head hit the ground again, it wasnt fully supported. I just dont think theres any place in the game for that."

In addition to the head injuries, defender Avery Richter went out with a knee contusion.

The hurts could not come at a worse time, since only a few days of rest are available before the Eagles' Eastern A quarterfinal match.

WINTHROP TAKES ADVANTAGE

When Katie Bell suffered a head injury in a preseason scrimmage, nobody at Farmingdale Hall-Dale (Maine) expected much mercy on the part of the opposition.

And Winthrop (Maine) wasn't about to oblige. The Ramblers took a 4-0 win against a Hall-Dale side that misfired on 11 short corners.

"We try to tread water," Hall-Dale coach Ellen Vickers tells The Kennebec Journal. "I think if we could have kept the game close, or if we could have scored one early, I think we could have been OK. We just have to play really solid field hockey and not make the mistakes that we made in the circle."

TWO GOALIES ARE BETTER THAN ONE

Georgia Smith has had a different role for Rockport Camden Hills (Maine) in 2005 than she has at other points of her field hockey career.

For this year, Smith has doffed the goalkeeping gear and is playing a field position, leaving the netminding duties to her former understudy, Dale Winsper.

Good thing, too. Winsper stopped two penalty strokes and Smith's assist to Megan Bauer in the 16th minute gave the Windjammers a 1-0 win over Thorndike Mount View (Maine).

NEW HAMPSHIRE

NEW HAMPSHIRE FINALS SEE OLD FRIENDS AND NEW

A number of field hockey teams across the United States have shown great resilience in 2005 after shock opening-day losses.

Take, for instance, the case of Bow (N.H.), which stumbled out of the starting gate in a loss to Concord Bishop Brady (N.H.). But the Falcons ran the table, concluding with a 1-0 win over Lebanon (N.H.) in the Class I state final.

The fourth-minute game-winner came off the stick of Brianna Roberge, who had scored the game-winner in extra time against Amherst Souhegan (N.H.) days earlier.

"The overtime goal was big, but this is the championship," Roberge told the Concord Monitor. "Any goal is big, but this was huge."

It was Bow's first state championship in field hockey.

In Class L, Salem (N.H.) beat Goffstown (N.H.) 2-1 thanks to, of all things, a piece of paper.

That paper was a note, written by Salem head coach Carol Merchant to forwards Cassie Able and Amy Dolce. The note said, "I would love for it to be you to score."

The Blue Devils had gotten plenty of goals from COlleen Wilson and Laura Malloy as they racked up a 14-1-1 record coming into the state final, but the need was there for more support to beat a tough Goffstown team.

And there was a definite need to execute on penalty corners, which happened in the 12th (Abel on a deflection) and the 52nd minutes (Dolce on a rebound).

"That's the first time they have worked all year. I have to be honest," Salem head coach Carol Merchant tells The Manchester Union Leader. "I'm disappointed as a coach."

There was no such disappointment on the Berlin (N.H.) bench after a 1-0 win over Manchester Derryfield School (N.H.) in the Class M-S final.

The Mountaineers had taken a 33-game unbeaten streak into the final, mindful that Derryfield was the last team to beat them.

It was Heidi Roy's goal in the 53rd minute that gave Berlin a 1-0 win.

"I'm proud of them," the Derryfield coach Lenny McCaigue tells The Concord Monitor. "It's a harder task for a small school to reach the M-S final than for a larger school."

Ultimately, the Cougars could not overcome its inability to execute on corners. A first-half corner ended with the ball in the Berlin cage, but the umpire's arm was pointed away from the cage to signify a foul.

And in the final minute of play, a Derryfield corner fizzled out on the insertion.

BOW STARTS, ENDS SOUHEGAN'S SEASON

For 15 games, since a season-opening loss to Bow (N.H.), Souhegan (N.H.) has been looking forward to a rematch. And under the lights on the turf in Manchester, the two teams played a splendid goalless draw over regulation, plus a spectacular end-to-end overtime session.

That is, until the final minute of extra time.

Sometimes, in that final minute, when you know that a five-minute break ensues, followed by the post-overtime tiebreaker (in this case, alternating penalty corners), a team might take the proverbial air out of the hockey ball and just while away those few seconds.

Somebody forgot to give that gamesmanship lesson to Briana Roberge. The junior slipped the ball over the goal line to give Bow a 1-0 win.

''Both teams worked really hard and should feel really good about themselves,''Bow coach Tracy Berube told The Nashua Telegraph. ''I know its tough to lose, but we knew this would be an evenly matched game.''

Too right. Chance after chance was squandered by these Class I powerhouses. Posts were rung, goalies faked, but the ball didn't find the hardwood until the 90th minute.

Despite the loss, Souhegan junior goalkeeper Kelly Sullan was magnificent, making 18 stops which, according to head coach Jim Rines, was her season high.

''I've never seen the players on our team play so well,'' Sullan tells The Telegraph. ''It was absolutely amazing. Our players are awesome and we just got unlucky. And Bow is awesome too.''

The win sends Bow into the Class I state final against fifth-seeded Lebanon (N.H.), a 1-0 upset winner over top-seeded Kingswood. But the memories of this semifinal are likely to remain long after the cheering and applause is over.

''(Sullan) was amazing, so many saves, I never thought we would get one in,'' Roberge said. ''All I know is I saw the ball, shot it at the net, and just hoped it would go in,'' Roberge said. ''It's always a really good game when we play them.''

WINNACUNNET FALLS JUST SHORT

The field hockey team at Derry Pinkerton Academy (N.H.) has a state championship heritage anyone would be envious of.

But nibbling on the Astros' heels in 2005 has been Hampton Winnacunnet (N.H.), whose leading scorer, Mallory Anderson, broke a school scoring record that had stood for 37 years.

Playing at home, Winnacunnet believed it had its best chance ever to break through to the elite of Class L field hockey in New Hampshire, but the Warriors will rue a first half in which Pinkerton got goals from Kellie Cunningham and Lauren Chooljian five minutes apart in a 2-0 win.

''The difference was the first step, and Pinkerton has the first step on us and that happened throughout the whole game,'' Winnacunnet coach Linda Osborne tells The Hampton Union. ''We need to learn to play to that level. We knew the last two weeks would be tough and a good warm-up for the tournament, and we have to learn from that.''

Winnacunnet had only given up two goals all season in posting a 10-0 record, but the first term was its undoing, thanks to a swarming Astros front line.

''We knew they were good and we had all the respect in the world for them,'' Pinkerton coach Denise Roux told The Union. ''We just came out and played our type of game, and I think we matched their speed. Defensively, we did a great job of not letting the ball in. Winnacunnet is a great team, and they'll be a big factor in the playoffs.''

The win puts Pinkerton and Salem (N.H.) at the top of the statewide standings for Class L heading towards the last fortnight of the regular season.

VERMONT

VERMONT FINALS ALMOST TOUCH GREATNESS

The Vermont Principals' Association Division III field hockey tournament could have been the greatest story in American scholastic field hockey in 2005.

Perhaps the legend of Manchester Burr and Burton Academy (Vt.) will become part of scholastic lore if enough people retell the story.

For Burr and Burton, had they won the state championship, would have been perhaps the greatest upset in the history of American high-school field hockey. The Bulldogs had come into the state tournament with a 2-9-1 record.

That's not a misprint, folks. Two wins.

But in a state tournament bracket of eight teams, you only need to win two games (albeit both on the road) to have a shot at the state championship.

Still, it was a lot to ask of B&B, having never played on artificial turf before. And even more was asked when senior fullback Sarah McKeever left the game with a head injury when her twin sister, goalkeeper Megan McKeever, cleared a high ball off her head.

The Raiders took full advantage, striking for two second-half goals against a clearly tiring Bulldog bunch.

"It was a good game, I'm very proud of my kids," Burr and Burton coach Julie McGraw tells The Montpelier Times-Argus. "Losing Sarah right off was a big blow to us."

But B&B, to its credit, hung with 13-time champion Stowe through the first term, stopping eight penalty corners and one penalty stroke.

Five minutes after the interval, however, Stowe would strike on a well-taken corner. The defense, led by junior goalie Kristin Taylor, would take care of the rest.

Taylor has given up just a single goal in 2005 while leading the Raiders to a 16-1 record.

As for that "1", that was a 1-0 win by BenningtonMount Anthony Union (Vt.), which won the Division II championship 2-1 over Jericho Mount Mansfield Union (Vt.). The game-winner game 11 minutes from time on an opportunistic strike from Chelsea Jipner. It was her second of the contest.

"This year I felt I needed to step up," Jipner tells The Burlington Free Press. "I felt a little more pressure."

As if. Jipner is one of those prime-time performers who plays bigger in important matches. She had the state championship-winning goal as a sophomore, and assisted the game-winner as a junior.

And if Chelsea Jipber's heroics weren't enough, consider that the restart leading to the Mount Anthony goal was taken by sophomore Shannon Jipner, her little sister.

"Everybody contributes so much on this team," Eagle coach Mary Stetson tells The Free Press. "They just really believe in themselves so much. These kids are committed to working. They go watch hockey. They play hockey. That's not my choice. That's not me telling them they need to do that. They choose to do that. That's why they're good."

Indeed, the bar has been raised; Mount Abraham has won five titles in six years, all in Division II.

Mount Mansfield tried to seize the momentum gained on its early goal, but squandered any chance when it was reduced to 9 field players on a yellow-card suspension.

It was a similar tense match when South Burlington (Vt.) edged Hartford (Vt.) in the Division I final. It was the third meeting between the two schools since 2002.

South Burlington had both of its goals in the first half -- the second in the best possible juncture: the final minute. Psychologically, it deflates an opponent. And for the goalscorer, senior Lea Sporzynski, there was special meaning.

"Three years ago to this day my dad passed away, so just scoring that for him was so incredible," Sporzynski tells The Burlington Free Press. "I was so happy when the goal went in."

"That was a great game. Both teams played really well. I thought both teams adjusted really well (to the turf) and good effort all the way around," South Burlington head coach Anjie Soucy told The Free Press. "This year the girls knew what the job was. They made the adjustments today and it was great."

Hartford, to its credit, swarmed the circle in the second half, but senior goalkeeper Jamie Sheehan was equal to the task. She did give up a late stroke goal to Kyle Lyons, but South Burlington came away with its second state championship, but first outright.

"It took a while for us to figure out turf but we realized we were the underdog," Hartford coach Heather Scudder tells The Free Press. "Really, we lost the first half and we won the second half. I would have liked to have seen a tying goal but it wasn't today. It wasn't for a lack of effort or heart. We really had a great season so I'm proud to be here."

RHODE ISLAND

BARRINGTON, WARWICK MAKE HISTORY IN FINALS

Any time a field hockey team wins a state championship, it builds on personal, school, and state histories.

But when you haven't won a state championship since 1982, well, there's a time for a little extra celebration as well as relief.

Barrington (R.I.) salted away the Division I state championship final against Lincoln (R.I.) with a pair of second-half goals off the sticks of Heidi Grossman and Julie Ruggieri.

"We are going down in history," Ruggieri tells The Providence Journal. "It feels awesome to beat Lincoln. They are our toughest competitor. This is awesome."

"They work very well together," Barrington coach Lee Markowski tells The Bennington Times. "They’re the epitome of a team where everybody came up big. Our offense obviously dominated, our defense came up big, our goalie came up big. Everybody came up big when we needed them to."

Especially Ruggieri, whose steal drew the penalty corner that gave the Eagles the lead.

"I think the girls were really determined," Markowski said. "They went out there and they wanted to win. I don’t think they particularly wanted to go into several overtimes, so they dug deep for that second half."

But perhaps the biggest story in the Division I ranks was who didn't make the state final. Lincoln had downed three-time defending champion North Kingstown (R.I.) in the semifinal round four days earlier. That same day, Barrington took down Tiverton (R.I.), which had won four straight Division II titles from 1998 to 2001.

In the Division II title match, Warwick (R.I.) Veterans Memorial bested Woonsocket (R.I.) 1-0 to give the Hurricanes their first state championship.

The 1-0 scoreline was familiar to Warwick fans; the Hurricanes won eight 1-8 games; five others were one-goal wins. And all three state tournament matches featured -- and were decided by -- one goal. But importantly, one of the games not decided by one goal in 2005 was a 5-1 drubbing by Woonsocket on Sept. 13. It would be Vets' only loss of the season.

“It is an incredible experience,” head coach Jim Areson tells The Warwick Beacon. “This is the first time in my 12 years that we’ve been in the state championship. They always make plays; it is unbelievable. The kids were talking and we were kind of hoping that [we would see Woonsocket again]. We played incredible defense. We won the last three playoff games, 1-0, and we have played phenomenal defense all year.”

"This team kind of depends on one goal and then they play strong defense," Woonsocket head coach Pam Paige tells The Woonsocket Call. "That’s exactly the game that they played. They got the early goal and then they played strong defense against us. My team went into a panic mode and started to make some foolish mistakes that they hadn’t made all season."

Such as pushing too far forward and leaving the flanks exposed. The Hurricanes got the only goal they needed when sophomore Allyson Green, taking advantage of space deep behind the Woonsocket rearguard, sneaked the ball inside the post in the 17th minute.

"We were all just going down the field," Green tells The Call. "You’ve got to play with your heart in this game, like Areson says, and that’s what I did."

It was the Hurricanes' only shot of the first half while the Villa Novans threw 10 shots on Cilley, who earned the starter's job late in the season.

"We should have been winning," Moretti tells The Call. "We should have put one in. We couldn’t."

CONNECTICUT

CONNECTICUT FINALS SEE PROMISES REALIZED

Greenwich (Conn.) had seen a pair of early losses -- one to Greenwich (Conn.) Academy in a scrimmage and a regular-season loss to Norwalk Brien McMahon (Conn.) put a dark cloud over its 2005 season, one in which it was acclaimed as the finest public-school team in the state.

The team had a six-year title drought since winning the Class L championship in 1998. And after a frustrating loss in the 2004 final to Fairfield Warde (Conn.), there was frustration in the Cardinals' camp. What would it take to win again?

What it took, in the 2005 title match, was a complete and utter territorial domination of Cheshire (Conn.). The Rams had no shots and no corners against Greenwich; all it took was a 49th-minute chance as junior Marlotte VanDenBergh, playing a high-pressure line, made a scintillating steal and score to provide the offense in a 1-0 win.

"The girls hadn't forgotten about last year," head coach Christina Needham tells The Greenwich Time. "They had gotten a taste, so taking that next step this year was their goal. We got better and better as the season went along. I'm very proud of them, especially for our seven seniors who set the bar pretty high in their last season."

It must also be said that VanDenBergh set the bar pretty high as well. The junior's effort reminded fans at the game why she was chosen as a regional high-school All-America as a sophomore.

"We had plenty of chances so it seemed like it only a matter of time," said VanDenBergh told The Time. "Their defense was amazing, but we had to get one in sooner or later. I got the ball and took a shot to the inside post. Fortunately, it got by their goalie."

In Class S, the winning chance for both Burlington Lewis Mills (Conn.) and Haddam-Killingworth (Conn.) never came. The teams played a double-overtime draw, after which the teams were declared co-champions.

"We deserve to be champions and that's what we are," Mills head coach Maggie Tieman tells The Waterbury Republican-American. "This is the first field hockey title Mills has ever won, and two weeks from now nobody will remember that we shared it with Haddam-Killingworth."

But what Mills fans will remember is the 80th minute -- which might have been the longest minute in the history of high-school field hockey.

That's because Haddam-Killingworth, culminating more than an hour's worth of sustained offensive pressure after Lewis Mills opened the scoring at quarter-time, earned four untimed corners at the end of double overtime.

Sarah Beattie, the sophomore goalkeeper, withstood all four chances, as well as a 63rd-minute breakaway in which she slide-tackled the ball away from the onrushing (and open) Haddam-Killingworth attack line.

"I've prepared for facing one-on-one's," Beattie tells The Republican-American. "It happened to me once during the regular season and I didn't handle it. This time I knew what to do, which was to come out and play it aggressively."

The only goal Beattie yielded was a stiff cross converted by Leslie Zules.

The game represened a triumph of sorts for Tieman, who played her high-school ball at nearby Litchfield (Conn.), and made a name for herself in softball as a member of the legendary Brakettes amateur softball franchise in the early 2000s. But her legacy now extends to the hockey pitch.

In Class M, the question was which player would go out and become a heroine for Branford (Conn.) as they played Madison Daniel Hand (Conn.) for the third time in 2005.

As it happened, heroism found Kirsten Auer ... twice.

Auer, Branford's sweeper, made a key defensive play on the line in the first half, stopping a sure goal with her stick. Minutes later, her 23rd-minute corner blast -- her first penalty corner goal of the season -- was the only goal in a 1-0 win over Hand.

"I've been practicing those," Auer tells The Hartford Courant. "The team worked really hard to get that corner."

Branford made that goal stand up for the school's 10th state championship, most in the state of Connecticut. It also gave head coach Cathy McGuirk her 391st coaching win.

But the win was not without some drama at the end. Hand earned two penalty corners in the final minute of play, and Hand head coach Sue Leckey used a timeout to set up the final corner.

Hand, however, was called for being in the circle before the ball was inserted, and the game ended.

"It's a legitimate call, but they've never made it all season long," Leckey tells THe Courant. "It's an unfortunate way to end a close game, although it would have had to be a great corner to come up with a goal. But it would have been nice to play that corner so you could leave with a better taste in your mouth."

FOR HOTCHKISS, FOUR MEANS MORE

People who follow the New England Prep Schools Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) "A" Division often can tell you three members of the semifinal bracket even before the season plays itself out.

That's because Lakeville Hotchkiss (Conn.), Watertown Taft (Conn.), and Greenwich (Conn.) Academy have dominated New England private-school hockey the last decade or so. And, true to form, all three made the Final Four in 2005.

Hotchkiss found itself having to play only one of its main rivals, however, since Taft and Greenwich Academy were on the other side of the bracket.

That was fine with Hotchkiss head coach Robin Chandler. If there ever was a time to meet Taft, it would be in the NEPSAC final. That's because the Rhinos laid a 2-1 loss on Hotchkiss towards the end of the 2005 campaign.

"My seniors had never lost at home," Robin Chandler said. "Our motivation was to remound and play our best hockey of the season.

That, they did. Consecutive 3-0 shutouts over Andover Phillips Academy (Mass.) and Dedham Nobles & Greenough (Mass.) were followed by a 2-0 win over Taft in the finals. It was the fourth straight title for the Bearcats.

"We controlled and dominated that game," Chandler said. "When you're in Taft's position (coming into the title match), the tables switched."

For last year's notes, click here.