DANVERS — So much of what made the Masconomet Regional field hockey team successful this season was the belief that the group had in each other. Call it a pack mentality that worked best towards its on-field success.
So when overtime began Thursday night at Deering Stadium, with the Chieftains and visiting Westwood Wolverines moving to 7-on-7 play for 10-minute sudden death overtime, head coach Vanessa McGuire felt her club could be at a disadvantage.
She was right. Westwood won the faceoff to start the extra session, moved the ball downfield quickly and scored when sophomore Ellie Harrington tipped home a pass from captain Bridget Hughes at the near post just 22 seconds in. Masconomet suffered its first, and only, loss of the 2025 campaign as a result, 1-0.
“We’re an 11-v-11 team for sure. That’s when we’re at our best,” said McGuire, the team’s first-year head coach and former assistant who led Masconomet to the Northeastern Conference title. “I knew that wasn’t good when we lost players off the field like that.”
As the No. 7 seed in the tournament, the Chieftains ended the year at 17-1-2.
Visiting Westwood, the Tri-Valley League titlists, held the edge in shots on goal (7-2) and corners (5-1). But Masconomet held firm defensively at key junctures of the evening, turning away several scoring plays before the Wolverines finally knocked home the game-winner in OT.
The Chieftains asked the referees if Harrington’s tally actually went into the back of the cage off her foot (as opposed to her stick), but that appeal was denied.
“I told the team that overtime could take 10 seconds or 10 minutes; it was up to them,” said Westwood (12-6-2) head coach Heather Joyce, who is nearly nine months pregnant and due to give birth to a son next Thursday. “We want to win the coin toss, so to speak, and get possession right away and go to the net aggressively. At that point, it’s ‘Can you play the best field hockey of your life over the next 30 seconds? I know you can.’ They just went out and executed it.”
Junior goaltender Sabrina Cafarelli of Masconomet, who had missed the previous two games with in injury, returned to the lineup without practicing beforehand and made six saves.
“Sabrina was amazing, especially just jumping back into the lineup like she did,” said McGuire. “Their keeper (senior Moira Kenneally) made some big saves, too.”
Clearly, Westwood had done its homework beforehand in terms of scouting the Chieftains, who came into the contest having scored 79 goals in 19 games. The Wolverines did a solid job shutting down the reverse chips that Masco likes to deliver from the left side of the field, where scoring star Ava Gauvain (32 goals this season) tends to generate most of her chances.
Gauvain and the Chieftains did have two excellent scoring chances during the first half. In the first quarter Gauvain blew by a Wolverine defender down the left sideline and fed a reverse chip across the field backdoor to teammate Olivia Tsoukalas, but the ball skipped over her stick before she could attempt to tip it in.
Gauvain then worked herself free in the middle of the field in the second quarter and let go a blast from 15 yards out that Westwood goalkeeper Moira Kenneally had to instinctively kick aside.
Westwood, which had both four corners (all in the second quarter) and four shots on net in the half, saw its best chance to get on the scoreboard on the third of those corners as time expired before the break. Twice they got solid whacks at the ball out front, and twice Cafarelli was there to deny the bid.
It was the second-ever postseason meeting between the two schools; the first came in the 2022 Division 2 state quarterfinals when Masconomet prevailed, 4-0.
With 11 seniors graduating next spring, McGuire thanked them and their teammates for welcoming her as a first-time head coach this season and providing a two-way support system, as well as her assistant coaches for doing likewise.
Contact Phil Stacey
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