Bedford forged its own path to Division I girls lacrosse championship

EXETER - Every season comes with expectations, and for the Bedford High School girls lacrosse team, this year started with high ones, from both inside and outside the program.

There was good reason for that. The Bulldogs returned to the Division I championship game last season for the first time in four years, and despite coming up short, were returning almost everyone from that team.

Whatever was said from the outside, Bedford found ways to ignore it or set it aside and focus on the task at hand. The Bulldogs accomplished that task, going undefeated against in-state competition, including a 14-10 win over Portsmouth to win the D1 title.

"We worked hard on identifying ourselves and not allowing anyone else to identify who we are as a team," Bedford coach Christine Hodgdon said. "We just had to come out and perform and show up for each other, and not care what parents or community or other teams (said). The outside voice, we had to shut that out."

By shutting out the noise, the Bulldogs were able to focus on improving their own play.

"It’s so key," Bedford senior Sydney Grogan said. "You’ve got to focus on yourself. You can’t worry about what the lacrosse community is thinking, what the parents are thinking. We’re focusing on ourselves every single game and making strides and improving on ourselves."

Those improvements might be tough to see when looking at Bedford's season on paper. The Bulldogs went 18-1 on the season, their only loss coming on the road against Lincoln-Sudbury (Mass.), the only game this season they also failed to score double digit goals.

Bedford finished the regular season with a goal differential of plus-144, or plus-9 goals per game, and outscored its three playoff opponents 49-14. That included a shutout of Nashua South in the semifinals, a performance that was as good as any this season to Hodgdon.

"We really worked this season on a ‘we’ mindset," the coach said. "We have to play defense together. As good as Sydney Grogan is, there are other high-caliber players in the state and we can’t count on her to shut down everybody. With Syd and Liv (Matthews) and Eli (Enners) and Sabrina (Tipping) working together, bringing that team defense, that is something we worked on really hard and it paid off."

Playing more team defense led to other players having to step up for the Bulldogs, despite maybe not getting the recognition that others on the offensive end might receive.

"I think our defense has unrecognized heroes," Grogan said. "We have so many offensive dominators, the defense is kind of in the shadows, but they all step up, whether their role is to stop the back 1-v-1, crashing, picking up loose balls, they’ve been non-stop amazing. They’ve been rocks when the offense isn’t working."

Leading the way in that regard was Matthews, who, as a junior, took on a bigger role on the defensive end this season and improved her all-around game throughout the year.

"Every week, she just got a little bit better," Hodgdon said. "Her (lacrosse) IQ came through and the maturity, the composure, the leadership, she was the difference.

"It’s really hard (to track her shot) because she has a little bit more like a boys release, where it’s hard to see and hard to track. It’s coming from low to high and it’s hard for goalies to stop. The skill is there, the work ethic is there, but we got the leadership and the IQ from Olivia this season and that’s brought us to this level."

Matthews finished the playoffs with 13 goals in three games, including a game-high five in the championship game. That came after a five-goal performance in the semifinals where she also was matched up defensively with South's Ella Benzekri and helped keep the Panthers scoreless.

"She’s a very skilled player and she has a very hard shot," Portsmouth coach JoJo Curro said of Matthews. "I think not everyone is expecting it’s going to come. She has a good eye for the back of the net and if you give her one step, she’s going to rip it. We tried to stay as tight as we can on her and make sure we’re on that stick, and sometimes when we did that, it didn’t go our way."

After years of dominating in Division II, the Clippers were in their first season in D1, and despite not taking home another title, Curro felt that getting to the title game was a big step for her program.

"We learn from it, but we’re also happy," she said. "First time in D1 and we made it all the way to the championship game. Other teams have been fighting for this for years and we were able to do it in our first year.

"It’s not going to be the last time we’re here. We’re going to get other chances and we’re going to learn from it and grow from it."

The senior class goes out having won back-to-back titles in D2 and only losing two division games in three years, with both of those coming against Bedford this season.

For the Bulldogs, their seniors had tasted similar success, but getting to the championship was a gradual progression, as they made the semifinals in 2021 as sophomores and then reached last year's final as juniors.

"I couldn’t be prouder of everyone else," Grogan said. "The past couple of years, it’s been building to this end result. Every year, we’ve been getting better and better because it’s been the same group of amazing girls. We’ve really had the same core group of girls the last three years and I’m just so proud. We’ve just been working toward this goal and I’m so happy this is the end result."