ORANGE — Just when it looked like the Mahar field hockey team was getting ready to pull off a come-from-behind victory, Turners Falls’ Laken Chessie showed up to spoil the party.
Tied 2-2 in the fourth quarter, the Senators pushed hard to the go-ahead goal to open the frame but to no avail. Pressing ahead, the Thunder got the ball back and counterattacked, leading to Chessie finding the back of the cage off an assist from Avery Tela to put Turners ahead with 10 minutes to play.
The goal stood until the final whistle, with the Thunder pulling out a 3-2 Valley League victory on Wednesday at the Woodward Complex to close out their regular season.
“It feels like everything we’ve been working on actually means something,” Turners coach Renee Tela said. “It shows them everything we’ve done means something in the end.”
Chessie — an eighth-grader — is an example of a player who is making the most of the opportunity on a young Thunder squad. With the Western Mass. tournament fast approaching, every win matters and Tela was proud of the way her young team stepped up to get a victory.
“Last year, it was 7-on-7 and we had nine seniors so the young girls didn’t get to play,” Tela said. “For them to go out there now and try their best is awesome. We were dangling on the edge of making it into the Western Mass. tournament, so this was a must win. This was a good win against a good team who we feel competitive with.”
Turners (2-10-2) took a 1-0 lead in the first quarter off a corner. With the ball in the circle, Chessie dished to Avery Tela who found the back of the cage to give the Thunder the lead.
The score held until the third quarter, when the Thunder advanced their lead. Hannah Marchefka tossed a pass to Ella Guidaboni in front of the cage, where the freshman smashed it in to give Turners a 2-0 lead.
Then, the Mahar (1-14) offense came to life. Off the opening draw after Guidaboni’s goal, the Senators raced down into the Thunder circle. Sophia Whitman found Caroline Chase who put it home to assure the Turners’ two-goal lead would last less than one minute.
With just three minutes to play in the third quarter, Mahar found a way to tie the game. Kaitlyn Murray got the ball on her stick after a corner and took a shot that rose up, going high and over the stick of Thunder goalie David Stowe to bring the game even, 2-2.
“The ball movement was phenomenal today,” Senator coach Laurie Saisa said. “This was our third game in three days, so we were getting a little tired there at the end. We had great momentum, our give-and-go’s were outstanding today. You could see the team effort. They played together as a team, the communication was phenomenal and things are finally coming together.”
Mahar had a few chances late to tie the game after Chessie’s strike but were unable to get any more shots past Stowe, who finished with 10 saves. Savannah Von Schmidt, filling in for starting goalie Bella Bisceglia, made five saves for the Senators.
Tela was proud of the resiliency of her team, fighting back to pull out the win even after the Senator scoring run in the third quarter.
“We have that conversation about learning how to win a lot,” Tela said. “The older kids know what it’s like but the younger kids don’t know what it’s like to go to the playoffs, go to the tournament and win a lot of games so this feels really nice.”
Mahar hasn’t been able to practice with the amount of games its had the last two weeks, with Saisa gathering her team before the game to go over strategy to try to iron out issues. The Senators worked on corners on Tuesday and saw success with them in the game.
“That was nice to see,” Saisa said. “We met before the game and we went over corners before we started. I was calling corners that worked during warmups and they did. It looked solid.”
Mahar finishes its regular season on Thursday, hosting rival Athol at 6 p.m.