'We want that feeling again': Natick girls soccer is going back to the state final
BOSTON – Take away the thundering aircraft above and the field and Morrissey Boulevard may as well have been the barn on Causeway Street. The Bruins’ goal music blared all evening long.
Natick High girls soccer made the song “KernKraft 400” by Zombie Nation all their own when the Redhawks converted three corner kicks into goals during a 5-2 victory in the Division 1 state girls soccer semifinals at BC High.
And, yes, the playing of “Dirty Water” and a goalie hug (Liesl instead of Linus) completed the scene when the Redhawks stormed the field to celebrate their second trip to the championship game in three years after a wild win over Bay State Conference rival Brookline on a blustery evening.
Cassidy Moriarty scored twice and added an assist to propel top-seeded Natick (20-1-1) into Saturday’s title game against No. 2 Bishop Feehan, which ended the Redhawks’ season a year ago in the Elite 8 by a 2-1 score.
“Honestly, it’s our revenge game,” Moriarty said. “We lost last year, so we do it for the seniors from last year. We made mistakes last year and we won’t make those mistakes the next game.”
Feehan (20-0-1) bested previously unbeaten Hopkinton, 1-0, to start the evening to reach the final for the first time since 2019, when the Shamrocks defeated Westfield.
“We’re going to have to go home,” said Natick coach Dave Wainright, “and let this settle in for an extra day and then we’re going to get educated on how we’re going to approach it. I would tell you this: we know how good they are historically. They’re big, they’re athletic and we know them from years back.”
More: Hopkinton girls soccer suffers first loss to Feehan in D1 state semifinal
Feehan won when Maddy Eddy’s left-footed corner kick midway through the second half went directly into the Hopkinton goal. Just four minutes into the nightcap, Natick’s Abby McCauley, on the same end of the field and with the same foot, lofted a corner into the Brookline net for a quick 1-0 lead.
McCauley nearly popped in another corner, but hit the crossbar. After Moriarty and Brookline’s Amara Ukomado traded goals, Ashlynn O’Donnell scored on a corner kick and Moriarty later converted on Kendall Hacker’s corner to finish the scoring.
“We’ve always been good, but we’ve been sloppy this season,” Moriarty said of Natick’s work on corners. “So it feels really good to get those in the back of the net today.”
“It’s not been our strong suit,” added Wainright. “This is something we emphasized the past week. Thank God we were able to get some finishes because Brookline is a dangerous team. At no time whatsoever did we feel we had control of this game.”
The Warriors, the only team to defeat Natick this season, trailed 2-0 and 3-1 before Emma Eisenhauer scored after a Brookline corner to bring her team to within one at the half.
Going against the wind after the intermission and surviving four consecutive Brookline corner kicks, Natick went back up by two when Olivia Penn scored. Moriarty put the game away on her header with just over 14 minutes left before the Redhawks paraded onto the field to surround keeper Liesl Niedermeyer in a jumping group hug.
Natick won its first state title two years ago against previously undefeated Hingham. Moriarty, who was a sophomore in 2021, is among the many Redhawks who want to win the championship again.
“We all know the feeling of being at that final stage and winning, so we know we want that feeling again,” she said. “We know how important the next game is.”
Tim Dumas is a multimedia journalist for the Daily News. He can be reached at tdumas@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @TimDumas.
This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Natick High girls soccer faces Brookline in Division 1 semifinals
