Dover field hockey beats Exeter, to play for Division I state championship

EXETER – Exeter and Dover came into Tuesday’s Division I field hockey semifinal with very different histories, but both teams had the same goal – a trip to the Division I championship.

Fourth-seeded Exeter, the two-time reigning state champion, entered with a young team and a pedigree for success. Top-seeded Dover is a senior laden team that was looking for its second championship game appearance in 48 years.

It was Dover, powered by a pair of Audrey Carter goals, that came away with the win, and now the Green Wave will face No. 2 Windham (16-1-1) on Sunday at Bedford High School at 4 p.m. Dover improved to 17-0-1, while Exeter closed at 12-5-1.

“We had to play for a full 60 minutes against a team like Exeter,” said Dover head coach Sarah Michaud. “They are very comfortable on the turf. They are very confident, and calm, cool and collected. I never felt comfortable until the very end.”

Carter’s first goal came on a first quarter penalty shot, and she added an insurance goal with 8:50 left in the third.

Here are five takeaways from the game.

Carter shines in win

Carter and her teammates want to make history, and Carter made a major impact, not only scoring both goals, but also controlling the center of the field, and making it very difficult for Exeter to maintain possessions.

“(Carter) is a gamer,” Michaud said. “She’s going to give 110 percent no matter what we’re doing. Tonight she showed up in a big way and I’m really proud of here. She’s a special one – program changer.”

Carter said while her penalty shot goal in the first gave the Green Wave the start they needed, the insurance goal in the third was, perhaps, even more important.

“It's obviously a good thing to get on the board first,” Carter said. “I think that first goal got us going and our defense did a great job defending what we got started. On the second (goal) everybody said I needed to deliver a nice crispy rip at the top of the circle, so there it was. That goal was really important because it gave us some breathing room.”

Missed opportunity for Exeter to close the third quarter

Sometimes the goals a team scores change a game, but sometimes it’s the goals they don’t score. With no time on the clock at the end of the third quarter, Exeter had a penalty corner, and a chance to cut the lead to 2-1.

Although the Blue Hawks kept the opportunity alive for several seconds, they couldn’t find the back of the net, missing out on an opportunity for a big momentum shift entering the final quarter.

“We thought for sure we would score at that moment,” said Exeter coach Deb Grott. “Then, when we didn’t we had to keep the momentum going, getting back on the field. They obviously weren’t happy they weren’t able to get the ball in the net. We tried to keep it positive, but it also let it light a little fire under them.”

Michaud said surviving that moment allowed her team to maintain confidence entering the final quarter.

“That was big,” Michaud said. “If they score there it makes our job a lot more difficult.”

Churchill keys defensive effort

Leyden Churchill was a thorn in the side of the Exeter offense all night long. While the entire Dover defense was strong, every time Exeter appeared to be mounting a scoring opportunity, Churchill would flash through the play, disrupting or intercepting passes and changing the direction of the ball to thwart Exeter's advances.

‘Rylen (Gray) and (Churchill) are athletes – they play the ball, they play the girl and they don’t really get beat,” Michaud said. “That’s so crucial on defense. Matching the speed of the person you’re defending and making sure you don’t get beat.”

Churchill said faith in her teammates, and the chemistry of the team allow her to be aggressive defensively.

“I used to play offense more, so my mindset is, ‘they’re not going to score,’” Churchill said. “I need to lock it down. I need to get there, and I need to get there first. I do kind of blackout a little bit and just run, get to the ball, match speed and defend.”

Blue Hawks show heart of a champion in loss

After two consecutive Division I state championships, people could be forgiven for expecting 2023 to be a rebuilding season for Exeter. Instead, the Blue Hawks continued to perch among the top teams in Division I, and they battled right to the final whistle against Dover, something that didn’t surprise Grott at all.

“That’s how we've played all year,” Grott said. “They don’t take plays off. They are always working hard, whether they are winning, or losing. I am so proud of them.”

Grott said she was really happy with her team’s tenacity and effort, they just couldn’t muster enough offense to reach their third straight championship. Despite the offensive struggles, the Blue Hawks continued to pressure Dover right down to the final seconds, something that bodes well for next year and beyond.

“We emphasize that in all of our levels of play,” Grott said. “Until the last second clicks off that clock, you just never know what can happen in the game of field hockey. So we tell them, ‘you’ve got to play to the whistle. Don’t hang your heads low. Just get up and keep playing.’ And these girls do that.”

Dover defense stifles Blue Hawks

Dover goalie Heyley Tosh stopped six shots, but she had a lot of help from her friends in pitching Dover’s 14th shutout of the season.

The defensive quartet of Churchill, Gray, Kaela Robins and Aaliyah Stancil made it difficult for Exeter to even get shots through to Tosh. The rest of the Green Wave brought offensive players back to try to crowd the area in front of the net even more, making Exeter fight for every inch of ground.

“Our defense, as a unit, was very connected tonight,” Michaud said. “We had a little pow-wow in the locker room with just the defense. We talked about our goals and said, 'these are the things that need to happen,' and they executed.”

Dover has gotten a lot of attention for its offensive prowess, but Michaud said the defense has been the “unsung hero” for the team, which has 14 shutouts in its 17 wins.

“People see we score seven goals (in a game), but we also didn’t let any scores in,” Michaud said. “Our team defense has been good all season long, and it was great tonight.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Dover field hockey beats Exeter, to play for Division I state title