From left, Alicia Papineau, Katie O'Hara and Kati Sousa celebrate Hollis/Brookline's win over Oyster River. For more photos, check out the Photo Album.
MANCHESTER – The Division III high school girls lacrosse semifinals were postponed on Sunday because of thunderstorm and tornado warnings.
On Monday, it was the sun wreaking havoc on the field at Southern New Hampshire University, specifically during the first half of the second semifinal game between No. 1 Hollis/Brookline and No. 4 Oyster River.
Bobcats’ goalie Kara Pavlidis had to deal with the setting sun for the entire first half while trying to stop a Cavaliers’ offense that averaged 15 goals a game during the regular season.
Pavlidis didn’t make her first save until about nine minutes remained until halftime. By then, the Cavs already led 6-0.
Despite a second-half comeback by the Bobcats, H/B advanced to the Division III final with a 16-10 victory. The Cavs (14-0) will take on No. 2 Kearsarge, which defeated No. 6 John Stark in the other semifinal, at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at SNHU.
Jennifer Naylor led H/B with three goals, while Alicia Papineau, Nina Hawxhurst, Hanna Mazzola, Caitlin Sweeney and Julie Worthern each had two scores. Kati Sousa, Emily Lombardi and Katie O’Hara also had a goal apiece.
Rebekah Schuman led all scorers, getting four goals for Oyster River, while Carol Messier and Kaylie Igoe had two each.
“They stepped it up,” H/B coach Jack Taber said of his players. “Oyster River’s comment was, get up early and hold on. Ours was get them down early and hold them and we did.”
The Cavs scored four goals in the first 4:07 of the game, taking advantage of the field position.
H/B's Hanna Mazzola looks for an opening in the Oyster River defense.
“We got lucky on that because they called it and they lost the coin toss,” Papineau said. “We got to pick the side that we wanted and that helped. (Pavlidis) is a good goalie. We played her in the regular season and she stopped a lot of shots. It would have been a lot closer if we had had the sun.”
Oyster River coach Casey Reynolds thought that after a couple of goals it might have been more than just the sun.
“I think it almost gets into your head as much as visual problem,” she said. “I think it was a little nerve-wracking. She kept us in the game. They could have walked all over us in the first half.”
H/B had a 10-2 lead at halftime and increased it to 12-3 with 20:08 left in the game. But Oyster River regrouped and scored the next four goals to cut the lead to 12-7 with 12:12 to play.
The Cavs called a timeout after the Bobcats’ sixth goal to talk over what was going on.
“We just had to settle down and play our game,” H/B goalie Lorin Field said. “Don’t let it rattle us and go back to the way we were playing beforehand. They got a couple of good fastbreaks on our defense. We just weren’t back enough a couple of times.”
Sousa and Hawxhurst scored 27 seconds apart to make it a 14-7 game and from there the Cavs did what they had done in so many other games this season – they ran out the clock. But instead of shortening the game with a double-digit lead, H/B was trying to keep Oyster River from scoring again.
“It’s a lot different,” Papineau said. “Since we practice it so much it’s easier. If we hadn’t been practicing moving the ball around all season, we would have dropped it and they would have gotten more goals.”
Goalie Lorin Field holds the ball after making a save.
The 10 goals scored by the Bobcats were the most the Cavs had allowed to a divisional opponent this season, one more than Oyster River scored against H/B when the teams play in the regular season.
Now the Cavs will get a rematch of last year’s final and a chance to win their second-straight championship.
“I can’t wait,” Field said. “This is what we’ve been waiting for all season. It’s a nice little rivalry we have with them. They definitely want it, because we beat them last year, and we want it again. It’s going to be a good game.”