Bishop Brady overcomes rough start to beat Stevens, return to D3 field hockey final

EXETER - The first five minutes of Thursday's Division III semifinal couldn't have left anyone associated with the Bishop Brady High School field hockey team feeling good.

After colliding with two Stevens players, Giants senior Libbey Hicks limped off the field in obvious pain. As Hicks headed to the sideline, the Cardinals got the ball into the circle and were awarded a penalty corner, and Bri Frisbee scored moments later to give Stevens the lead.

Hicks returned to the field after the goal, and after fighting some nerves in the first quarter, No. 6 Bishop Brady found its footing in the second, scoring three times to take control of the game on the way to a 4-1 win over No. 7 Stevens at Bill Ball Stadium in Exeter.

The win gives the Giants a shot at their third D3 title in a row, as they'll face No. 1 Hopkinton at 1:30 p.m. Sunday at Bedford High School.

"It is super exciting," Hicks said of getting back to the final. "When we lost eight seniors last year, we were like ‘ok building year.’ Now we’re here, we’re in it, we have that momentum, it’s incredible and it’s going to be a great experience for our younger girls."

It was Hicks leading the way, as she scored all four goals for Bishop Brady (14-4), with Mieke Rentsch assisting on two of the goals. Goalie Julie Blais came up big for the Giants late in the third quarter, helping to keep Bishop Brady up by a couple of goals.

But just a few minutes into the game, it looked like Bishop Brady could be in trouble. Hicks returned to the game after the goal by Frisbee gave Stevens (11-5-1) a 1-0 lead with 10:23 left in the first quarter, but it still took the Giants a while to get going.

"A lot of these kids are newer kids, they needed to get their feet under them," Bishop Brady coach Kelly Owen said. "That first 15 minutes, they adjusted.

"We’ve been handed some adversity, how are we going to dig through it? I absolutely expected them to respond. They know it and they put that upon themselves."

And early in the second quarter, the Giants broke through, as Rentsch brought the ball into the Cardinals' end and dished to Hicks, who put a shot off the pads of Stevens goalie Ashley Michaud. But the ball had some spin on it and bounced back into the goal to tie the game just 1:16 into the quarter.

"Normally when we’re down like that, we wait until we get that first goal, and after that, we’re smooth sailing," Hicks said. "We have a lot of young girls out there. When you look at them, you could see they were a little tense. It was just some reassurance, just that we’re in a game, don’t even look at the crowd, just be present in the game."

Hicks added two more goals off penalty corners in the final six minutes of the half, including a rocket shot that found the far corner of the goal to make it 3-0 with 3:34 remaining.

The Giants continued to keep the pressure on the Cardinals' defense to open the second half, getting eight corners in the third quarter and forcing Michaud to come up with a handful of saves.

"We made sure we were still out of our comfort zone," Hicks said. "(Stevens) had a great game against Gilford (in the quarterfinals). We knew what they were capable of and we had to keep that in our minds. We had to be ready for that, to keep it going."

But with about three minutes to play in the third, Stevens almost turned the tables, clearing the circle on another Bishop Brady corner and getting ahead of the defense. Frisbee raced down field with the ball, and when Blais came out to play the ball, the Stevens senior sent a centering pass right to Richelle Girard.

The ball caught Girard at an awkward angle and she wasn't able to get it to the right side of her stick before the Giants' defense was able to recover. By the time Stevens got a shot off, Blais was back in position to make the save.

"It took everybody," Owen said. "We had to have a sense of urgency."

Hicks added another goal with 1:30 to play to make it 4-1 and secure the Giants' spot in the final.