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# Big second half sends Derryfield field hockey past Pelham, into D2 title game (video)
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/big-second-half-sends-derryfield-field-hockey-past-pelham-into-d2-title-game/
- Published: 2018-10-25T12:14:15.000Z
- Updated: 2018-10-25T12:14:15.000Z
- Description: EXETER – The opportunities were there the entire first half for the Derryfield School field hockey team. The Cougars had 13 corners in the opening 30 minutes and limited Pelham’s chances, but when the teams came out for the second half, it was still a scoreless game. Lindsey Stagg changed that in a
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Division II, Derryfield, field hockey, Pelham, playoffs, slider, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

EXETER – The opportunities were there the entire first half for the Derryfield School field hockey team.

The Cougars had 13 corners in the opening 30 minutes and limited Pelham’s chances, but when the teams came out for the second half, it was still a scoreless game.

Lindsey Stagg changed that in a matter of moments.

The Derryfield junior scored two goals less than three minutes apart early in the half and Katharine Gage rounded out the scoring with 10:01 to go as the No. 2 Cougars knocked off No. 6 Pelham 3-0 in the Division II semifinals Wednesday at Bill Ball Stadium in Exeter.

The win sends the Cougars (14-1-1) the championship game for the second time in three years, where they will try for their first title since 2012 against No. 4 Hanover at 11 a.m. Sunday at Bedford High School.

Stagg scored her first goal off a corner, blasting a shot from inside the circle that was deflected by a Pelham player high, just under the crossbar to give Derryfield a 1-0 lead with 19:10 left in the game.

Moments later, she found some space inside the circle and blasted a shot into the far corner to make it a two-goal game with 16:46 remaining.

“She takes a shot and sometimes she might overelaborate a little, but she has a rocket shot, and it deflected off the defender’s stick and in, so that’s a legal goal,” Derryfield coach Lenny McCaigue said. “It was in under the crossbar. The second one was a rocket shot in the bottom corner. It was the determination to just get the shots away.”

That determination was what was lacking in the first half, according to Stagg.

“I think we didn’t connect the way we did in the second half,” she said. “We just pulled it together and everybody was focused in and we were just able to finish there.”

Gage’s goal came off a corner that McCaigue drew up at halftime to try to counter what Pelham was doing defensively on the Cougars’ set plays.

The pass in came to Stagg at the top of the circle, she passed it to her left to Sydney Socha, who then sent it down toward the goal to Charlotte Rohlfs.

With the Pelham defense coming toward her, Rohlfs slid a pass across to Gage on the other side, who put it in the cage to make it 3-0.

“The second corner, we drew it up at halftime based on how they ran out, and it worked,” McCaigue said. “That was a killer one, to get the third goal.”

Gage nearly had a goal in the first half, when she had a clear shot on a corner, but Pelham’s Ryan Atkins made the save. The rebound went right back to Gage, but Atkins made another stop and a pass across the circle went out.

Atkins played a big part of keeping Derryfield off the scoreboard in the first half, and at the start of the second, as the senior goalie made five saves back-to-back on the Cougars’ first corner to keep it scoreless.

“We had good shots in, but they just blocked them well,” McCaigue said. “They played well defensively and blocked them.”