{"id":41406,"date":"2022-11-17T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-17T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=41406"},"modified":"2022-11-17T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-11-17T11:00:00","slug":"wachusett-field-hockey-advances-to-final-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2022\/11\/17\/wachusett-field-hockey-advances-to-final-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Wachusett field hockey advances to Final 4"},"content":{"rendered":"
By John Orrell Landmark Correspondent<\/i><\/div>\n

HOLDEN \u2014 Wachusett Regional High\u2019s Hal Lane Field has been a venue that has treated spectators to some remarkable Mountaineer sports victories over the years. It\u2019s now time to add the 2022 varsity field hockey\u2019s Veteran\u2019s Day matinee contest on Nov. 11 to that ever-growing list of fan favorites on the hill.<\/p>\n

No. 4 seed Wachusett hosted 5-seed Franklin High on Friday, with the winner advancing to the Division 1 semifinals. With it all on the line, it was a certainty that these two squads would scratch and claw their way up the ladder in this year\u2019s MIAA tournament. Neither side would disappoint, but it was Wachusett who would prevail in a nail-biter, eking out a 2-1 victory. The Mountaineers move on to face top-seed Walpole High at a date and time to be announced as of press time. With the victory, Wachusett upped its seasonal record to 17-3-2.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis (victory) is exciting. These kids have worked so hard,\u201d said WRHS head coach Kerry Berry. \u201cWe had a game plan for today\u2019s game against Franklin, and we implemented it. We broke down a little bit but persevered and stayed strong. I\u2019m so happy for all of them because they wanted it. They knew what they needed to do, and they did it.<\/p>\n

\u201cFranklin was fast, and they were strong, and they were right on us anytime we had the ball. Even after we scored twice, they didn\u2019t let up. They were gritty, but I have to say that our girls were grittier.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis win feels great. We\u2019ve been working so hard,\u201d added junior center\/forward Lillian Chaisson, who scored the first goal less than three minutes into the game. \u201cWe all wanted it really badly because we\u2019ve gone this far. We just have to keep it up, keep playing hard and keep the momentum up. It\u2019s really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wachusett would score a pair of first half goals and never look back. Lindsey McGurl scored what would be the game-winner prior to intermission.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a corner (pass), and we\u2019ve been practicing on me getting the post slot, since I\u2019m the inserter,\u201d McGurl, also a junior midfi elder, explained. \u201cIt was a deflection off Ella Perry, and I was just at the right spot at the right time and we were able to get that goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels really good. We were playing it like it was just a normal game. That way we were able to work together as a team and treat this win as a team and not just an individual thing. We\u2019ve grown as a team through each game, and we don\u2019t look at the next game. We look at it that this is the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI told the girls that we wanted to score two goals in the first quarter, and they did it,\u201d said Berry as to her coaching approach to the game. \u201cThat was huge because if we had to come back, it would have been tough. I would have liked a couple of more goals for insurance, but to come right out and score two goals was huge. Franklin has just one loss (Walpole), and they\u2019re used to being the ones on offense and scoring. Our scoring early probably threw them off their game, which was part of our game plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

The game developed into a spirited clash, with Franklin trailing 2-1 as a result of an early second half goal. Mountaineer goalkeeper Julia Kirton was a rock in net stopping shot after shot (10 on the day), including a body-sacrificing save on a one-on-one breakout. Her stoutness in net was of MVP caliber.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was motivated to not let it in, so when the ball came near me, I had to put my game face on. I made myself look big and scared them a little bit,\u201d Kirton explained. \u201cIn the second half, I was so worried that one goal would make it a tie. I might not have looked so nervous on the outside, but I was so nervous on the inside.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJulia has come on so strong in the second half of the season,\u201d said Berry of her junior goalie. \u201cThat save on that breakaway was amazing. I\u2019m so happy for her and so happy for us. She had a diving save on a corner right after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both teams fought mightily until the final buzzer, which unleashed a fan frenzy on-field celebration with hugs, high fives and pictures aplenty. Another game highlight was senior Kathryn Guertin executing an endline inside-the-goal save in the last 90 seconds to help preserve the win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HOLDEN \u2014 Wachusett Regional High\u2019s Hal Lane Field has been a venue that has treated spectators to some remarkable Mountaineer sports victories over the years. It\u2019s now time to add the 2022 varsity field hockey\u2019s Veteran\u2019s Day matinee contest on Nov. 11 to that ever-growing list of fan favorites on the hill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41409,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}