November 10, 2024 – Story and photos by Joshua Ross
There’s a good possibility that Hingham’s field hockey team will win a championship in the near future, whether it’s this year or in few years. If and when that happens, they very well might look back at yesterday’s 3-0 win over Notre Dame Academy as the catalyst that put them on top.
Notre Dame Academy is a perennial championship contender. They only lost two games this season. They were the third-ranked team in the tournament who are well coached and have talented players up and down the line-up. And they were totally outmatched by the Harborwomen in every aspect of the game.
Hingham came out from the first touch with the mindset of “we are not going to lose this game.” Almost of the play in the first half was in the Cougars end. The team in red dominated time of possession, take-aways, penalty corners, and shots on goal. Hingham was awarded a penalty shot in the first quarter and senior captain Siena Brackett didn’t waste the opportunity firing the ball past the goalie to the back of the net. Junior Sam Ruddick made it 2-0 soon there after and freshman Libby Baxter extended the lead to three before the end of the half.
In what continues to be the trademark of the this team, every goal was scored by a different goal scorer for the third straight playoff game. The only thing more impressive than the goal distribution is the defense. NDA recorded only one shot on goal…for the entire game. The goaltending and back line continue to frustrate and force teams to do things they don’t want to do causing turnovers and mistakes. This combination of offensive talent and defensive dominance is going to be very tough to beat.
Head coach Susan Petrie leads her team back to the Final Four for the second time in as many years and credits two unlikely sources for yesterday’s big win.
“It was amazing,” Petrie says after the game. “I don’t have words. That was incredible. I knew it was going to be a good game but I first have to give credit to my coaching staff, who was amazing. We coached them so well for this team. But the fans were huge today. I can’t thank them enough. The amount of support from all the kids really got our kids fired up. It’s nice they feel so much pride and seeing the students support them means the world to me.”
In what may have been fueled by some friendly online banter between fan bases resulted in a literal and figurative “Red Army” of 90 or so students marching out of the woods cheering and blasting music. It was a home away from home game for the Harborwomen.
But before the Harborwomen took the 10 minute bus ride across town, Petrie knew they were ready.
“We were warming up and hitting the ball around our field before we even left and they were so relaxed and so excited and they just knew it,” explains Petrie. “They believe in each other and the chemistry is unbelievable.”
As with any sport come playoff time, benches get shortened real fast. Subbing in and out is limited and conditioning becomes a huge factor in these games. Put another check in Hingham’s column in this aspect as well.
“I was so, so impressed with the fitness level of our kids,” she goes onto say. “Some of them going every minute of that game running end to end was pretty incredible. I have to give a ton of credit to Maggie O’Neill who was on JV and just played every minute of that game. We pulled her up just for the tournament and made some adjustments for the teams we were playing and she just held her own out there. I know she’s exhausted but they just all fought hard.”
Now the Harborwomen look to do something that has never been done in program history, make it to the Championship Game. Opponent and game details to be determined later today.
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