Bishop Brady makes Hicks’ goal stand up against Mascoma Valley to win D3 field hockey title (video)

BEDFORD – If the Bishop Brady High School field hockey team had been participating Sunday in some extreme sports, Giants coach Kelly Owen would have been nervous.

Playing in the Division III championship game? Owen felt confident enough in the Giants that there were no nerves.

No. 3 Bishop Brady rewarded its coach’s belief, making a lone goal by Libbey Hicks early in the second half hold up in a 1-0 win over No. 5 Mascoma Valley at Bedford High School. The title is the first for the Giants in their first appearance in the championship game.

Hicks’ goal came less than five minutes after halftime on a penalty stroke and goalie Julie Blais made eight saves, as Bishop Brady (16-2) overcame a first half in which Mascoma (14-4) had eight penalty corners, including four in the first five minutes.

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“They were very calm,” Owen said. “I had no worries. Even (Sunday), someone asked if I were nervous. I’d be nervous if I had to go cliff jump or sky dive. I have no nerves whatsoever. We know what our objective is and it was just a matter of executing it.

“We came up big with two huge stops (in the first half). Julie had the game of her life. We worked on block tackles the other on the artificial surface, and we had a couple of those.”

Emilie Conrad had five saves for Mascoma, which finished with 14 penalty corners. But the missed opportunities early in the game, when the Royals’ experience – they were playing in their third straight title game – appeared to be a big advantage, came back to haunt Mascoma.

“We didn’t execute,” Mascoma coach Jennifer Hammond said. “It can be hard because then they start to get frustrated with themselves and then go back on their heels. They just started getting frustrated and once they got in their heads, it was downhill from there.”

The Royals had two shots on the four early corners, but both were deflected by Bishop Brady and cleared out of the circle. Moments later, Mackenzie Labrie sent a pass to an open Amelia Wilson, but her one-timer hit off the post for the Royals.

Bishop Brady got its first good chance midway through the first, getting a couple of shots off on its first corner, but the Mascoma defense was able to keep the ball from getting on goal.

Mascoma had a great chance late in the half, when a shot by Nicole Williams was deflected right to Natalie Poitras, but Blais was able to get over to make a save and the Giants cleared the ball.

Bishop Brady came out strong to start the second half, getting two quick corners. On the second, the Giants fired three shots on goal, and while Conrad stopped the first two, the third one got trapped between her feet and Bishop Brady was awarded a penalty stroke.

Owen didn’t hesitate in sending Hicks out to take the stroke.

“She doesn’t second guess herself in that situation,” the coach said. “We had a couple of times last year, when she was a freshman, that we chose her, and for some reason (Sunday), I said right off the bat, Libbey is going to take the stroke if we get one. It happened and we’re here because of that.”

The Giants’ confidence in her helped Hicks as she lined up to take the shot.

“It was an intense moment,” Hicks said. “I saw the goalie and I knew she was ready. But my team backing me up behind, they had faith in me. You’ve just kind of got to go for it. You’ve got to know what they do throughout the game.”

Hicks’ goal gave Bishop Brady the lead with 25:51 remaining and it seemed to energize the Giants, as they got two more corners right after the goal and finished the half with eight. Mascoma was able to respond with about 17 minutes to go, but couldn’t break through against Bishop Brady’s defense.

“They did come back and play tough,” Hammond said. “I think we were a little too late, so to speak. We had a lot of corners and we didn’t execute.”

The Royals hard three corners in the final two minutes, but after a couple of fouls on the Giants, Blais came up with a save to preserve the win.

“A little stressful,” Owen said of the finish. “That’s where those kids came together and worked together as a team. It wasn’t any one person. It was them collectively there together.”