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# Dover field hockey beats Windham to capture first title since 1975 (video)
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/dover-field-hockey-beats-windham-to-capture-first-title-since-1975-video/
- Published: 2023-10-30T17:45:26.000Z
- Updated: 2023-10-30T17:45:26.000Z
- Description: BEDFORD - The Dover High School field hockey team wasn't used to playing from behind this season. So when the Green Wave saw a deficit in Sunday's Division I championship against Windham, they aimed to change that as soon as possible. It took top-seeded Dover just 39 seconds to make it happen, tying
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Division I, championship, Dover, field hockey, playoffs, slider, Windham, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

BEDFORD - The Dover High School field hockey team wasn't used to playing from behind this season.

So when the Green Wave saw a deficit in Sunday's Division I championship against Windham, they aimed to change that as soon as possible.

It took top-seeded Dover just 39 seconds to make it happen, tying the game up, and the Green Wave added goals in the second and third quarter to come away with a 3-1 win over the No. 2 Jaguars at Bedford High School.

The win gives Dover (18-0-1) its first field hockey title since 1975, the first year the NHIAA sanctioned the sport.

"The last couple of days, honestly, weren’t our best practices of the season," Dover coach Sarah Michaud said. "I don’t know if it was the nerves or all the excitement. From the minute they got on the bus (Sunday), I knew they were ready. I could just tell by their energy, and from the warmup, they just had that sense of relief that we had finally made it to this point.

"I knew they were ready, although we got scored on early, which hasn’t happened to us. They were able to bounce back quickly, which was very important."

Windham (16-2-1) converted on its first penalty corner of the game, with Ava Sanchez scoring off a feed from Sophia Ponzini to give the Jaguars a 1-0 lead with 5:07 remaining in the opening quarter.

Looking up at a rare deficit on the scoreboard, Dover wasted little time responding, as the Green Wave went down the field and Gabrielle Anderson was able to get the ball across the goal line in just a matter of seconds.

"We had to get back in it and we had to return the favor, basically," Dover senior Audrey Carter said. "We responded and we were like from here on out, it’s only us. I think it definitely motivated us to play harder and that was our game for the rest of the way."

Anderson finished with two goals and Carter had a goal and an assist, including the score that put the Green Wave up for good just two minutes into the second quarter. Despite allowing her first goal of the season, Dover goalie Hayley Tosh finished with six saves, including a couple on back-to-back shots by Windham in the second half.

The Jaguars had a few chances after halftime to tie the game or cut into the deficit, but the extra touch or the bounce Windham needed wasn't there.

"We had a conversation at halftime about clicking back into the way we play," Windham coach Sophia Poulin said. "I don’t think any of us felt like that first half was the game we’ve been playing all season. We were way more reactive than we usually are in a game.

"The message that whole second half was how are we going to remain proactive in this game, so I think those shooting opportunities came from that. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to feed off those and execute."

Even as Windham was trying to come back, Dover was still getting chances, with 11 of its 15 penalty corners in the second half. The Jaguars were able to hold the Green Wave off for the most part, but in the final minute of the third, Carter slipped a pass down low to Anderson on a corner, and she made it 3-1 going into the fourth.

"I have big respect for Windham because defensive corners are the scariest thing that a field hockey player does," Carter said. "They’re ability to get it out was great. Our grit and hunger to get that ball back was better. This is not the time to be tired, this is the time to win the state championship."

The Jaguars almost got within one with about nine minutes to play, when Sophie Manchester sent a shot toward the goal. The ball deflected off Rylen Gray and head for the open net, but as Gray and Windham's Lilyana Micciche reached for it, the ball hit Micciche's foot.

Windham didn't get many great opportunities after that.

"Our defense, it’s been tough in certain games because they weren’t challenged as much as other games," Michaud said. "It gets to the point where you hope they are ready. But then you have to remember, in practice, they’re going against our best players. Our offense is always going against them. In playoffs, (the defense) has shown up big."

Getting the program's first title in almost half a century completed something Carter has been focused on, if not for the last four years, then at least a year ago. The Green Wave lost the 2020 title game to Windham, with Carter, then a freshman, scoring two goals in the game.

After losing in overtime to Winnacunnet in last year's semifinals, Carter was focused on one thing this year.

"I think every year, it’s been a different story and we’ve been preparing and getting different combinations of people," she said. "Honestly, last year, after we lost, I wasn’t crying, I wasn’t upset. I was like ‘it’s time to win it next year because it’s my last chance.’

"From last October to now, it’s been a mental game preparing. Working as hard as we possibly can, and this group of girls never ever has given us anything less than a hundred percent."