SALEM, N.H. – Back in August, before the season opener at Bedford, Salem High field hockey coach Mikayla Ramsdell dropped the pregame warning.
“I remember coach making the announcement, ‘Z’s new,’” said Blue Devils senior Zeynep Yildirim.
“But I shocked everyone. I had like 20 saves, and I had that (penalty) stroke save on their captain. Everyone was amazed.”
A 3-0 loss never felt so good. Salem, despite graduating a legend – four-year starter and two-time Division I all-stater Lyndsay Troisi – had found a goalie and thus would have a season.
Fast forward to this past Wednesday, no longer “new Z,” delivered a legendary effort of her own, stopping six of seven Winnacunnet one-on-one shootout attempts to propel Salem to its first field hockey state playoff victory since 2017. Saturday afternoon (2 p.m.), the No. 12 Blue Devils look to topple another high home seed, Pinkerton Academy in the Division I state quarters.
“She is absolutely amazing, having her this year has been insane. She just came out of nowhere and stepped up,” said senior captain Ella Mosto. “She’s the hockey goalie and the lacrosse goalie. And she said she’d try it (in field hockey).
“And the whole game, she’s diving everywhere. She’s made so many saves when our defense has let her down, she’s all by herself, but she still makes the save and gets it out.”
When Ramsdell used the word, “new,” she was not exaggerating.
Yildirim had exactly one season of field hockey under her belt, sophomore year when she tried defense at the request of former Blue Devils coach John Gatsas.
That didn’t go very well.
“I did not like it,” Yildirim said.
But a solid group of classmates returning this fall had seen the way she handled things on the ice and in lacrosse. The sales pitch began last winter.
“During ice hockey season, some of the varsity players asked me to be goalie for them, and I said no. I didn’t like field hockey at all,” she said.
But the heat was on, and the pressure was amped up. Yildirim finally gave in. And the rest, as they say, is history.
“We knew in the spring it was happening,” said Ramsdell, who played on the last Salem team to reach the state semis in 2013. “It really shows a lot. She was putting herself out there. And she’s just grown the entire season.”
A true neophyte in the sport, Yildirim is a natural – athletic with the basics of goal-keeping in the other sports helping her along the way.
She’s also zoned into the moment, understanding exactly what is at stake.
“I think about it all the time, it makes me sad. (Wednesday against Winnacunnet), I was just thinking if I just let one ball in, it’s over forever. I’ll never be in my goalie pads again,” she said.
The amazing news for Salem was that moment never happened, and in the postgame celebration, Yildirim’s true joy showed through.
“I have no words, I’ve never been so pumped up playing a sport,” she said. “(In the overtime shootout), I just said don’t think about it, just go for it. They don’t expect anything from me. It was amazing.”
Yildirim has big plans, not just coming up on the ice and in lacrosse, but in the future.
Athletics may not be part of them. She’s looking to study at a major university and UNH and Vermont are at the top of her list.
First things first, though. Pinkerton Academy awaits. For Yilidrim and the Blue Devils, Saturday afternoon can’t get here fast enough.