BEDFORD, N.H. — The unbeaten Stevens High Cardinals are on the precipice of a perfect season after advancing to the NHIAA Division III championship game with a 1-0 victory over the St. Thomas Aquinas Saints in a semifinal at Bedford High on Tuesday night.
A goal from freshman Liza McManus, assisted by junior Payton Ferland, with 13:26 remaining in the first half, proved to be the difference in lifting the Cardinals over St. Thomas.
Tuesday’s win was a vindication of sorts for the Cardinals. The Saints entered Tuesday as winners of the last two D-III state titles, having defeated Stevens in the finals last season and in the semifinals in 2023 en route to those championships.
“St. Thomas has run this division for a long, long time, kind of been our nemesis for a while, got us the last couple of years, so it was nice to kind of get over that hump a little bit,” Cardinals’ Head Coach Tim St. Pierre said.
From the jump, the Cardinals turned up the heat in search of the game’s first goal.
Stevens drew three corners within a span of about 15 minutes to start the game, but was unable to break through.
One of Stevens’ best chances came with about 26:00 left in the first half when a ball got past Saints’ junior goalie Grace Cayer-Salema, but a hustling defender was able to keep it from crossing the line.
The Saints had their opportunities early on as well, but struggled to put shots on net.
Then came the heroics from McManus and Ferland.
“It feels really good to know that we have a team that’s really good about sharing the ball and doing all that and just connecting with each other,” the freshman McManus said after the game. “We knew going in it was going to be tough, but we knew that we could handle it and that it was going to be a game to remember.”
Following the goal, Stevens’ defense and goaltending faced sustained pressure from the Saints to close the first half.
“We played scared for about 20 minutes after we scored, and our defense was giving a cushion,” St. Pierre said. “We don’t want to defend them at the penalty line; we want to defend them up here, we don’t want them crossing midfield.”
Ultimately, the Cardinals’ defense and senior goalie Audrina Pelton refused to yield under the Saints’ pressure and Stevens went into halftime with a lead.
While the Saints had some chances in the second half,
After what St. Pierre described as a “mentality shift” at halftime, the Cardinals had much better success containing the St. Thomas attack.
“We made them look really good in the first half because we gave them time and space,” St. Pierre said. “Once we got a little bit more focused on it and started to apply that pressure, I thought in the second half we started to wear them out a little bit.”
The Cardinals, which have allowed just three goals all season and none in the playoffs, shut the door on any hopes for the Saints in the final minutes with their trademark defense, making it difficult for St. Thomas to cross midfield.
With the win, Stevens is 19-0, including playoff victories, and will face Raymond High fior the state title. The two teams did not face each other in the regular season and the Rams are also 19-0.
St. Pierre said Saturday’s championship game will come down to “hard damn work and organization.”
“We had the hard damn work today, but we were pretty disorganized in the first half, and it ran our legs off,” St. Pierre said. “Raymond is so, so good that if we’re not organized, the 80 minutes is just going to be too much for us.”
The D-III state title game is set for at 3 p.m. Saturday at Bedford High in Bedford, N.H.
