LACONIA, N.H. — When teams that have seen each other as often as the Stevens and Hopkinton girls soccer squads have lately, tactics can go right out the window. Sometimes spirit ends up carrying the day.
On Monday night at chilly Jim Fitzgerald Field, the sixth-seeded Hawks had more of it.
Hopkinton scored once in each half and limited the Cardinals’ handle on the ball, combining all of it for a 2-0 NHIAA Division III semifinal victory. The Hawks (15-4-0) used their speed on both goals and through the midfield all night; second-ranked Stevens (14-3-1) had too few answers.
“I think we gave it a good effort; it just seemed that Hopkinton wanted it a little more than we did,” Stevens coach Tom Belaire said. “We tried to switch things up at the end to get a little pressure on them, but it still didn’t work. For whatever reason, we weren’t generating a lot of offense tonight.”
Because of that, Stevens goalkeeper Fionah Carbee and her defense had to play large all night. Carbee was a picture of confidence in making seven saves, and center backs Alexis Aiken and Zahna Race repelled wave after wave of Hopkinton attack. Without offensive support, however, the Cardinals were doomed.
“For us, it’s just a matter of using our speed on the wings against them,” Hopkinton coach Mike Zahn said. “Their center back (Rice) is really good, and anything down the middle, she just eats it up. I guess that’s a strategy, to try and stay away from her as much as possible.”
Hopkinton, which ended the Cards’ bid for a first state girls soccer crown since 1988 in last year’s overtime final, outshot Stevens on the night, 18-3, and didn’t allow a ball to get to goalkeeper Emily Fleegle. Still, it took time for the Hawks to warm up on a 47-degree night.
Carbee saw her first sustained action in the 15th minute. Freshman Paige Martin got a head to a ball returned into the mixer following a Stevens clearance, and Carbee raced off her line to gather the attempt.
Brooke Carlson got behind the Cardinals’ defense in an attempt to latch onto a Maddy Carmichael cross in the next minute only to be ruled offside. Carmichael ripped a 14-yard drive across her body from the right side a minute after that, the ball whistling just wide of the left goalpost.
“When we did win the ball, we just seemed to give it right back to them for second and third opportunities,” Belaire said. “With a team like that, you can’t do that.”
Hopkinton earned its first corner kick in the 33rd minute — after Carbee got a piece of an off-target Loren Charron shot — and made Stevens pay with the game’s first goal.
Charron left the ball short for Annie Higginbotham, who tiptoed along the right-corner goal line with little attention from the Cardinals. Higginbotham’s line-drive cross found Elise Miner free inside the 6-yard box for the one-time conversion at 32:21.
“We do that a lot; we do that every single game,” Zahn said. “The reason I do that is because I have a couple of girls that do the short corner and play it very well. … I leave it up to them. I give the girls the choice. I don’t tell them what to do and what not to do.”
Stevens assistant coach Stephen McManus called the 1-0 halftime deficit a “moral victory.”
“We kept them at bay,” McManus said. “They definitely could have had a lot more scoring opportunities.”
Rice, Aiken and fellow defenders Brynn Murphy and Riley Murphy combined with Carbee to limit Hopkinton through the second half. Belaire pulled one defender into the midfield and inserted speedy wing Angelina LeClair to try and boost the Cardinals late, but the Hawks wouldn’t let Stevens close to its goal.
Midfielder Caitlin Clark ended it for the Hawks in final minute of regulation, taking a Carmichael breakaway pass and lining a shot off Carbee’s foot at the left post.
“This was very typical; they possess well,” Belaire said of Hopkinton. “The way they possess the ball, you get to chasing it and it tires you out in a hurry.”
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Corner Kicks: Jenna Bonneau, Tori Dalke and LeClair had Stevens’ only shot attempts, none of which went on goal. … Hopkinton’s D-III title game defeat of Stevens came one year ago to the day on Monday. … The teams split two regular-season matches, each winning on the other’s home field. … Belaire said the Cards drew a large crowd for Saturday morning’s quarterfinal with Raymond at Kimball Union Academy, a game rescheduled from Friday because of a waterlogged home field. The throng included at least one hunter who hit the woods, bagged a deer and arrived at Pope Field with his prize in the back of his truck. … The Cards graduate Carbee, Sydney Miller, Elle Grenier, Aiken, Tanner Brown and Jasmine Gleason.
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.