Bedford girls lacrosse finds a way in 4th quarter to beat Dover in D1 playoffs

BEDFORD - With one quarter left in Tuesday's Division I girls lacrosse first-round playoff game, Eloise Montagano knew it would be final time she stepped on the field at Bedford High School.

And unless the Bulldogs picked up their energy for that final 12 minutes, the senior also knew it might be the last time she and her classmates might be representing Bedford period.

Montagano scored early in the fourth quarter to give the No. 8 Bulldogs the lead for good and added another goal in the final frame to help Bedford hold off No. 9 Dover for a 10-7 win. The win sends the Bulldogs to the quarterfinals, where they'll face No. 1 Portsmouth at 3:30 p.m. Thursday on the road.

“I feel like the fourth quarter, we all kind of realized, especially the seniors, this is our last home game,” Montagano said. “I know for me and (senior) Carly (Hodgdon-Rogers), we were like, OK, let’s get after it like it’s our last game together.

“I kind of stepped on the field and was just focused on all the things we’ve been working on. Just the simple things, like passing to my teammates, finding the open cutter and driving when I had the drive.”

Montagano had three of her five goals in the second half, helping Bedford (9-8) come back from a two-goal deficit in the first quarter and a 6-5 deficit at halftime.

“I feel like she was a little off (Tuesday) and she still scored five goals,” Bedford coach Christine Hodgdon said. “We expect a lot of her and she usually comes through. It took her a little while to warm up and I feel like we didn’t support her well and then we kind of settled in as the game went on.”

Hodgdon-Rogers added three goals and Mary Lenti scored twice to go with a strong performance on the draw, which helped the Bulldogs take control of the game in the final quarter.

Bedford was able to keep the ball away from Dover (6-10) for the first seven minutes of the fourth quarter, scoring three times to break a 6-6 tie. The Green Wave had a couple of chances during that stretch to get out of its own end, but struggled to clear the ball down the stretch.

“Those four clears at the end really got us,” Dover coach Gabbie Haug said. “If those didn’t happen, I’m sure we would have stayed right with them to the end.”

The finish overshadowed a solid day from Dover goalie Leighton Kelly, who came up with nine saves, including a handful in the first half that allowed the Green Wave to keep the lead.

Khloe Healy finished with four goals for Dover while Kyra Small, Kaitlyn Bastille and Declyn Mangum had a goal apiece. The Green Wave got out to a 2-0 lead early and were up 3-1 going into the second before the Bulldogs got going on offense.

Montagano and Hodgdon-Rogers scored to tie the game and Hodgdon-Rogers added another goal with 8:18 left in the half to put Bedford up 4-3. Dover answered moments later, after a save by Kelly turned into a goal by Bastille, and then with 3:41 remaining until halftime, Small cashed in on a Bulldogs turnover to make it 5-4 Green Wave.

Lenti tied it back up less than a minute later but Mangum gave Dover a 6-5 lead, scoring with 2:03 left in the half.

“I think that we kind of didn’t have a lot of energy to begin with and they weren’t holding each other accountable,” Hodgdon said. “We had a few people stepping up and doing their assignment, but we didn’t have a lot of communication.”

That improved in the second half, along with shot placement for the Bulldogs.

“I feel like as a team, we always like to shoot low,” Montagano said. “I think it’s just a lot harder for the goalie to save, but (Kelly) just did a really good job at saving it low. We either had to fake it high, then shoot low, or just shoot it high, or to bounce it.”

The Bulldogs move on to face a Portsmouth team that has won 42 games in a row and the last two D1 titles.

“They’re so deep, it’s just hard to matchup,” Hodgdon said of the Clippers. “We’re going to give them our best game and do what we can do.”