Bedford field hockey gets past Londonderry to advance to D1 quarterfinal (video)

BEDFORD - The Bedford High School field hockey team was aware of what it was in for Wednesday against Londonderry.

It had been just nine days since the teams played in the regular season, and the Bulldogs knew that if they were going to keep their season alive, they had to play their game, and that meant their passing had to be on point.

It was and No. 6 Bedford took full advantage of it, getting goals from five players on the way to a 6-0 win over No. 11 Londonderry in the Division I preliminary round. The win sends the Bulldogs to the quarterfinals, where they will face No. 3 Exeter at 3 p.m. Saturday at Bill Ball Stadium in Exeter.

Maddie Kiely had two goals and two assists, Eloise Montagano added a goal and an assist and Teagan O'Donnell assisted on each of Bedford's first two goals, as the Bulldogs (13-3-1) led 2-0 at halftime and pulled away in the second half.

"All year, we’ve been talking about passing," Bedford coach Kate Gaudreau said. "It’s so important and it’s something I have a real passion about, which sounds silly. The girls have bought into it and they’re doing a good job with that. I knew if we could just play our game, it would be a good game."

Mary Lenti, Amelia MacDonald and Ella Putney also had a goal apiece, and Bedford might have more if not for Londonderry goalie Molly Tharrington, who finished with 16 saves for the Lancers (6-11).

"When we played them last time (on Oct. 14), to a 2-1 overtime game, Molly was lights out that night," Londonderry coach Nichole Treadway said. "She is young, too, she’s a sophomore. She has really stepped up and I’ve seen her mature a lot. When she is on, she’s lights out."

Tharrington played that way in the first quarter, keeping Bedford off the board on its first six penalty corners. But on the seventh corner of the opening frame, O'Donnell sent a reverse pass to Montagano, who fired it into the cage to the right of Tharrington to make it 1-0 with 1:56 left in the quarter.

Bedford's offense continued to pepper the Londonderry goalie with shots over those final moments, but Tharrington was able to make stops to keep it a one-goal game.

The Lancers came out strong to start the second, getting three corners of their own in the first five minutes and keeping the ball in the Bulldogs' end. But Londonderry was unable to get a shot on goal and Bedford quickly changed fields.

Kiely got the ball near midfield and advanced it to O'Donnell, who sent the ball into the circle, where it deflected off the stick of a Londonderry defender and up into the air. With no one around, Lenti batted the ball into the goal to give Bedford a 2-0 lead with 7:19 left in the first half.

"The first part of the second, we dominated, and then they got that wonky goal, and those are hard," Treadway said. "It started to unravel a little. When it’s 1-0 and then that second goal goes through, I felt like the energy was kind of flat."

Gaudreau liked that, despite being pinned in their own end for a while, the Bulldogs kept their composure in a stressful situation, and after, when they transitioned into the goal.

"You can’t be too high and you can’t be too low, you have to be consistent with how you play," she said. "If we’re too high, then you’re frantic and you miss something. If we get down, we’re going to be on our heels. After that, they just maintained consistency and they did a great job."

Bedford made it 3-0 off a corner early in the third quarter, when MacDonald redirected a shot by Kiely past Tharrington with just 2:28 gone in the second half. Then Kiely got a goal of her own just 32 seconds later, scoring off an assist from Montagano.

Putney came off the bench in the fourth quarter to make it 5-0 with 7:35 remaining and Kiely closed out the scoring with her second goal late in the game.

"Five girls scored six goals," Gaudreau said. "I have girls, when they are here, they have so much respect for the game and each other, regardless of their field hockey background. They do a nice job together."