Butler’s goal gives Windham field hockey win over Derryfield in D2 title game

BEDFORD – To hear Paige Butler describe it, the goal that won Sunday’s Division II field hockey championship sounded so easy.

It took a long while for the Windham High School field hockey team to set it up.

After withstanding a few golden opportunities by top-seeded Derryfield in regulation, the No. 2 Jaguars got a perfect chance of their own.

Butler made it count, scoring with under five minutes to play in double overtime, to give Windham a 1-0 win and its second division title in four years at Bedford High School.

The goal came off a penalty corner, Windham’s fourth of the two overtimes, after Bri Langlois was able to tip the ball across the front of the cage to Butler on the far side. The sophomore was able to tap the ball in before Derryfield goalie Greer Woolley was able to get to that side.

“I was frustrated a lot because I had a lot of chances to tip in and I missed,” Butler said. “It was so frustrating, but I really made up for it at the end. It was so easy to just go tap, tap, tap, I don’t know why we couldn’t do it the whole game. They’re a very strong team and they were very hard to get through. It was very evenly matched.”

The teams had almost the same amount of corners in regulation (8-7, Windham) and a similar number of chances, with the Jaguars (15-2) getting more of the opportunities in the first half and the Cougars (15-2) finding them in teh second.

“We had three or four set pieces where their goalie made really good saves,” Derryfield coach Lenny McCaigue said. “We felt that if we could get the first goal, we could win it and maybe even get a second goal. When it’s 0-0, it’s anybody’s game. Even going into overtime, I felt that we had the players who could win the game for us. It doesn’t get any closer than that.”

Windham had a chance at the end of regulation to win it, as the Jaguars were awarded a corner with no time left on the clock, but were unable to get a shot off.

The teams went back and forth between the circles for most of the first overtime, with neither side able to establish much on offense.

“In warmups, defense looked solid and they continued it through the whole game,” Windham coach Katie Bourque said. “Great for them. We say if it goes in, it goes through all of us. If it goes in for us, it goes through us. Each goal is a team goal. The defense stepped up and did their part, and the offense finished it off in the end.”

Moments before the goal, Windham’s Devon Hamilton had a chance that Woolley was able to knock aside, setting up the first of two straight corners for the Jaguars.

And on the second, Butler ended the game.

“Bri (Langlois) had a nice tip to me and I just tapped it in on the post,” she said.