LACONIA, N.H. – For the first time since 1999, Stevens girls soccer will be heading to the State Championship. The Cardinals have had a stingy defense all year, and Tuesday’s semifinal game was no different, as they held Campbell to a single goal en-route to a 2-1 win and a trip to the championship game on Sunday.
The Cardinals jumped out to an early lead while Stevens coach Tom Belaire made the right adjustments to secure the win.
With Kaitlyn Chambers in goal and Leeann McCarthy, Alexis Aiken and Zahna Rice forming a strong last line of defense, the Cardinals just needed some scoring punch to get things rolling and Jenna Pond supplied the firepower.
Midway through the first half, Pond was hunting from the far wing when the ball came out of the pack and squirted onto her foot. She dipped her shoulder under the defenseman and darted toward goal and fired off a blast that found the far upper corner to put Stevens ahead 1-0.
“I knew I had a small opening and ripped off a shot and when it found the net, it was such a relief,” said Pond after the game. “I was so nervous at the start of the game and that kinda let things settle down.”
That confidence grew as Stevens began pushing play and finding openings on the wings with Ellee Grenier and Pond finding room to work.
“We were definitely forcing play with Brooke and Tanner feeding the wings and the crosses were right where they should be,” said Stevens forward Sydney Miller after the game.
One of those crosses found the hand of a Cougar defender later in the opening half, forcing a penalty kick. Miller spotted the ball and when the whistle sounded, her hit was strong, ending up in the top right corner to put Stevens ahead 2-0. Stevens held onto that lead into the half.
In the second half, Julia Belaire and Pond were driving deep into the corners but Campbell started to crowd the middle of the field and began to break out with numbers. With more Campbell players in attack mode, a deep cross from the far sideline from Schultz came across the goal box and onto the loaded foot of Autumn Thompson who redirected the shot past Chambers to cut the lead in half, 2-1 with 27 minutes remaining.
“I was so mad that shot got past me, I told myself, that’s it… no more,” said Chambers after the game.
Through much of the remaining time in the second half, both teams saw multiple scoring chances, but to no avail, and Stevens escaped with the close victory.
“That was a rough and tough game,” said Aiken, as Campbell threw everything at the Stevens defense with time winding down.
Stevens’ Chambers played so well down the stretch to hold off the Cougars that her teammates mobbed her after the time expired.
“We have so much confidence in Kate and our defense has been strong all year and tonight was no exception,” said McCarthy. “We overlapped, closed space well and didn’t let the middle of the field hurt us.”
After the field had cleared, McCarthy joked, “At the start of the season we all made a pact to either dye our hair red or get matching haircuts if we got this far and we’ll just have to wait and see how things turn out,” she said.
Stevens will face Hopkinton on Sunday at 4 p.m. in Laconia for the right to be named NH D-III State Champions.
Hopkinton defeated Raymond 3-0 in the late game Tuesday night. Stevens split the regular season matchup with Hopkinton, winning 1-0 at Hopkinton and the Hawks besting the Cardinals 3-1 at Monadnock Park later in the regular season.
Stevens won their last championship in girls soccer in 1988 while coming up short in 1992, 1994 and 1999.
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