LACONIA, N.H. — The Stevens High girls soccer team had destroyed nearly all comers in the regular season, the Cardinals’ first year back in NHIAA Division III after a two-year stint in Division II. Stevens scored 72 goals and allowed just four in 16 games, opened the playoffs with a shutout of Belmont, then got past four-time defending champion Hopkinton in a penalty shootout to advance to the final four.
But against a Gilford team that had just as dominant a regular season — not to mention one that was playing less than a 10-minute drive from home — the third-seeded Cardinals’ offense never broke through. A Golden Eagles corner kick with five minutes left in the first half led to the game’s only goal as Stevens was eliminated, 1-0, in the semifinals at Laconia High.
“When you have two teams separated by a half-point playing in the semifinals, you expect there are going to be limited chances,” Cardinals coach Tim St. Pierre said. “Whoever makes the most of those is going to win, and that’s kind of how it played out.”
No. 2 seed Gilford controlled the game early, with the Stevens defense and senior goalkeeper Hailey Knight keeping the Golden Eagles off the board. The first offensive threat for the Cardinals (16-2-1) came in the 15th minute when junior forward Maddy Minckler got the ball behind the defense, but she was ruled offside. In the 27th minute, junior midfielder Maya Rice drew a foul in the attacking third, but Gilford goalkeeper Margaret Cummings made the save on the resulting free kick.
The Golden Eagles got the break they needed in the 35th. Millicent Caldon left the ball off to an open Allison Kenyon to her left, and while Knight got her hand on Kenyon’s shot, she was only able to deflect it behind the baseline for a corner. Kenyon, who had taken a ball to the mouth early in the game, sent the corner kick straight into the head of Gracey LeBlanc, who did the rest to give Gilford the lead.
“We started the first 20 minutes scared to death,” St. Pierre said. “It was a big moment for us, it was a long ride. We just started slow. It was because we were tentative, not because the kids didn’t want to win.”
Stevens came out much stronger in the second half, getting an early shot on goal by sophomore midfielder Brianna Marsh. Minckler, who scored 15 goals in the first seven games of the season, nearly had a shot on an empty net in the 52nd minute as Cummings came away from the net, but she gathered it in before Minckler could fire away.
Eleven minutes later, Minckler had perhaps the Cardinals’ best shot of the night, but a strong save by Cummings kept the Golden Eagles in front.
“We talked at halftime on how we just had to make one play,” St. Pierre said. “I was so proud of them because we did tilt the field, and that’s a really hard team to tilt the field on. Urgency sometimes leads to recklessness, which leads to lack of precision, so that’s not always getting you to the end goal. We were really good with urgency but not losing composure, which is a really tough balance.”
Stevens will lose Knight, Aidan Antonivich, Tori Dalke, Stella Lavertue and Alyssa Paquette to graduation. Those five seniors helped the Cardinals reach the semifinals for the first time since 2019, their last season in Division III before this year.
“I’ve coached over 400 varsity games, and (their class) is the new standard,” St. Pierre said. “We were never an underdog this year, and to me, that’s the truest sign of greatness. It was a lousy way to end a spectacular season.”
Benjamin Rosenberg can be reached at brosenberg@vnews.com or 603-727-3302.