{"id":46900,"date":"2023-11-16T18:12:34","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T18:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=46900"},"modified":"2023-11-16T18:12:34","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T18:12:34","slug":"wachusett-field-hockey-advances-to-miaa-final-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2023\/11\/16\/wachusett-field-hockey-advances-to-miaa-final-four\/","title":{"rendered":"Wachusett field hockey advances to MIAA Final Four"},"content":{"rendered":"
By John Orrell<\/em>
\nLandmark Correspondent<\/em><\/div>\n

HOLDEN \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

That game will be in the books by the time this issue of The Landmark reaches readers.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s first goal midway through the opening quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d said Johnson in the middle of the vocal on-field celebration. \u201cThis is a very surreal feeling. I\u2019m very proud of this team and all that we\u2019ve accomplished. I\u2019m so proud of this team and myself, because I\u2019ve worked so hard for this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is great. Last year it felt great, and this year feels even better,\u201d echoed teammate and senior co-captain Ella Perry, who will be playing for Endicott College after graduation. \u201cThis is so rewarding with all the work we\u2019ve put in. We had a couple of tough losses, but I think we\u2019ve really found our flow and worked together for this one. There are no words to describe this feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so happy and proud of this team. It literally brings me to tears,\u201d said an emotional Lyndsey McGurl. \u201cWe 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\u2019t be any more proud of this team. It\u2019s like a dream to come this far for two years in a row.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is so surreal. It\u2019s like the best thing I could ask for to be here two years in a row,\u201d added Kaleigh McGurl, all smiles. \u201cWe\u2019ve worked our butts off to get here. We practiced sometimes all week putting in the grind, and that\u2019s what we did to get here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The McGurls will be attending UMass Lowell and play for the River Hawks next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get to this level, everyone\u2019s nerves are up,\u201d explained Wachusett head coach Kerry Berry. \u201cWe played them during the season, and it was a (1-1) tie. We scored first and I thought that was great, that we\u2019d pour it on. When we came into the fourth quarter down one, I told the kids that they don\u2019t want this to be their final 15 minutes of play. They put a lot of work in during the season. You can\u2019t give up. If you\u2019re not sprinting, you\u2019re not doing your job. I told them to give it everything they had, and they did.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur seven seniors have been here two and three years, and they\u2019ve wanted to get back to where we were last year. To have been knocked out this year would have been devastating. They didn\u2019t give up. They wanted it, and they just knew they had to keep the momentum up, and they did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cFive girls scored for us tonight. They executed well and had good passing,\u201d said Berry. \u201cThey never give up. I\u2019m so proud of them. I did believe that they would make it this far. Absolutely. You have to remember going into each game it\u2019s one and done. You have to go into each game with the mentality that you can\u2019t give up, because if you make mistakes you\u2019re gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an amazing team. We\u2019re all very close,\u201d said Remillard, a junior. \u201cWe 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\u2019s 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\u2019re out, and nobody wants to see that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were pretty confident that we were in this game,\u201d added Johnson. \u201cWe\u2019re 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\u2019ll go far.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Orrell Landmark Correspondent HOLDEN \u2014 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46901,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46900","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=46900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}