HOLDEN — For the second consecutive year, the Wachusett Regional High girls varsity field hockey team has punched its ticket to a berth in the MIAA Division1 Tournament Final 4, this time with a 4-2 victory over visiting Central Catholic High on Nov. 10. The third-seed Mountaineers (16-2-4) moved on to face Andover Nov. 15 at Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School in Marlboro.
That game will be in the books by the time this issue of The Landmark reaches readers.
Against Central Catholic, Wachusett connected for three fourth-quarter goals to rally from a 2-1 deficit that had the Raiders on top entering the final quarter. But this intrepid band of Mountaineers would have none of it. The green and white chipped away, with junior Emmy Johnson scoring twice and adding an assist while the senior twins, Kaleigh and Lindsey McGurl, continued to lead this group with hustle and determination from start to finish. Lindsey would connect for a goal and an assist in the waning minutes of the game, while senior Jordan Jarvi scored the game’s first goal midway through the opening quarter.
“I really wanted this game. I have a cousin on this team (Ella Perry), and I really wanted this bad for the seniors, and I worked my butt off to win this game,” said Johnson in the middle of the vocal on-field celebration. “This is a very surreal feeling. I’m very proud of this team and all that we’ve accomplished. I’m so proud of this team and myself, because I’ve worked so hard for this.”
“This is great. Last year it felt great, and this year feels even better,” echoed teammate and senior co-captain Ella Perry, who will be playing for Endicott College after graduation. “This is so rewarding with all the work we’ve put in. We had a couple of tough losses, but I think we’ve really found our flow and worked together for this one. There are no words to describe this feeling.”
“I’m so happy and proud of this team. It literally brings me to tears,” said an emotional Lyndsey McGurl. “We were down at one point, and the fact that we were able to come back as a team and get the win is just amazing. I love this team so much. I couldn’t be any more proud of this team. It’s like a dream to come this far for two years in a row.”
“This is so surreal. It’s like the best thing I could ask for to be here two years in a row,” added Kaleigh McGurl, all smiles. “We’ve worked our butts off to get here. We practiced sometimes all week putting in the grind, and that’s what we did to get here.”
The McGurls will be attending UMass Lowell and play for the River Hawks next season.
“When you get to this level, everyone’s nerves are up,” explained Wachusett head coach Kerry Berry. “We played them during the season, and it was a (1-1) tie. We scored first and I thought that was great, that we’d pour it on. When we came into the fourth quarter down one, I told the kids that they don’t want this to be their final 15 minutes of play. They put a lot of work in during the season. You can’t give up. If you’re not sprinting, you’re not doing your job. I told them to give it everything they had, and they did.
“Our seven seniors have been here two and three years, and they’ve wanted to get back to where we were last year. To have been knocked out this year would have been devastating. They didn’t give up. They wanted it, and they just knew they had to keep the momentum up, and they did it.”
There’s something about the depth of this Mountaineer squad that indicates just how much talent is spread across their roster. Lilly Chaisson, Lili Mitchell, Lilly Staiti, Emmy Johnson and Halle Remillard all scored goals for Wachusett, proving that there is a balanced lineup every time this squad takes the field. It’s a sight that made Berry quite pleased to see as her team defeated visiting Barnstable High, 5-2, to advance into the Division 1 quarterfinals on Nov. 10.
“Five girls scored for us tonight. They executed well and had good passing,” said Berry. “They never give up. I’m so proud of them. I did believe that they would make it this far. Absolutely. You have to remember going into each game it’s one and done. You have to go into each game with the mentality that you can’t give up, because if you make mistakes you’re gone.”
“It’s an amazing team. We’re all very close,” said Remillard, a junior. “We talk a lot on the field. We all boost each other up after a bad pass. After a goal comes in, we just get more fired up and move on. There’s a lot more stress in a playoff game, but it makes me work 10 times harder because I know we want to continue on. If we lose a game, we’re out, and nobody wants to see that happen.”
“We were pretty confident that we were in this game,” added Johnson. “We’re all very close, and we wanted to beat our record from last year. We have a little bit more anxiety coming into a game, but we know that if we work together, we’ll go far.”
Members of the 2023 Wachusett Regional High varsity field hockey MIAA quarterfinalists are Kaleigh McGurl, Lindsey McGurl, Ella Perry, Teaghan Steele, Sydney Marshall, Lillianna Mitchell, Somer Staiti, Lillyana Bumpus, Kendall Grady, Ella Guertin, Emerson Johnson, Halle Remillard, Lily Saben, Lily Staiti, Annabel Stow, Lillianna Chaisson, Jordan Jarvi, Julia Kirton and Lizzie Sawyer.
