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# Finals Followups: Bond between goalies helped make unexpected transition easier for Souhegan field hockey
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/finals-followups-bond-between-goalies-helped-make-unexpected-transition-easier-for-souhegan-field-hockey/
- Published: 2025-11-06T13:00:52.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-06T13:00:52.000Z
- Description: BEDFORD - It was less than three weeks ago that Amelia Warecki and Olivia Harrison found themselves in a situation neither expected. The Souhegan High School field hockey team had one game left in its regular season, needing just a win to clinch the top seed going into the Division II tournament.
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Fall Sports, Bedford, championship, Division I, Division II, Division III, field hockey, NH High School Sports Insider, playoffs, slider, Souhegan, St. Thomas, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

BEDFORD - It was less than three weeks ago that Amelia Warecki and Olivia Harrison found themselves in a situation neither expected.

The Souhegan High School field hockey team had one game left in its regular season, needing just a win to clinch the top seed going into the Division II tournament.

But in practice leading up to that game, Warecki, a senior who had been the Sabers starting goaltender for the last three seasons, went down with an injury. That forced Harrison, a sophomore who had just one varsity appearance to that point, into the finale against Hollis Brookline.

The Sabers escaped that game with a 1-0 win, getting that top seed and a first-round bye, which meant there would be eight days off to prepare for what came next.

“The past couple of weeks, it’s been pumping tires and supporting each other always, because it’s not been easy for either of us,” Warecki said. “Olivia and I have played together since middle school. She’s an amazing human and an amazing goalie, so it’s really easy to be there for her and cheer for her on the sideline.”

Having been friends for some time made it easier for both goalies to talk about what was going on, with each other and with Souhegan coach Kelli Braley, who is also Warecki's mother.

“We’re very close and we know that the importance of the team is what comes first,” Harrison said. “We have a really strong bond and we’ve been saying that she started us off, she got us here, and I’m finishing it off.”

Harrison went mostly untested in Souhegan's quarterfinal win over Kingswood and survived a few tense moments in the semifinals against Oyster River. But in last Saturday's championship, Bow scored not only the first goal of the game, but the first goal Harrison has allowed in varsity play.

But it would be the only goal the Falcons scored as the Sabers came back to get a 2-1 win and capture the program's first championship since 2007.

“She came up absolutely huge for us in these three playoff games and the regular-season finale,” Braley said. “As a sophomore, to have that poise and be able to step in, I think speaks not only to her, but also the relationship that her and Amelia built, because I can tell you it was not an easy thing for either Amelia or me for her to not be in that game.

“So for the two of them to be able to support one another and do this for each other is amazing.”

Being able to see the bigger picture has also helped Warecki deal with the bittersweetness of the situation.

“This is amazing on so many levels,” Warecki said. “Just to be with this team, all year, it’s been nothing but support and love every single day on and off the field. And to do it with my mom, too, is just amazing. Like everything that we’ve done this season, we earned this.”

### Division III

St. Thomas entered this season coming off its best year in almost a decade, having made the playoffs for the first time since 2015, when the Saints were still in D2.

But they'd also graduated nine seniors, so the Saints were going to have a few holes to fill.

“We did graduate a big class,” St. Thomas coach Lindsay Dobecki said. “We had some big shoes to fill and these girls stepped up to the challenge. They’ve done such a great job of learning how to play together from the summer all the way to (Saturday).

“They’ve just really done a great job melding and stepping into those roles that they had to, and exceeded our wildest expectations.”

With Saturday's 4-0 win over Mascenic in the D3 championship game, St. Thomas ended the year 14-3, giving the Saints 20 wins in the last two seasons. In the previous 10 years, they'd won 21.

“I think it’s unreal,” St. Thomas senior Lizzy Holden said. “I think the amount of effort we’ve put in from the preseason, starting in August, to now, for the first time in a very long time for St. Thomas, to be able to know it’s our last practice because we made it to this point. We wanted it for every second.”

After moving down to D3 before the 2018 season, St. Thomas intends to move back up to D2 for the NHIAA's next two-year cycle.

“It’s going to be a challenge, but I believe that this team will rise to that challenge,” Dobecki said. “We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores within the program. I believe that they’ll put in the work to again fill the shoes of the seniors that we’ll be losing.”

### Division I

Going into the fourth quarter of Saturday's D1 championship game, with Bedford holding a 2-0 lead and 15 minutes away from its first title, Bulldogs coach Kate Gaudreau had a simple message to her players.

“I told the girls, you do not get bonus points for style,” she said. “This fourth quarter is going to come down to throwing your body on the field, getting in front of them. It doesn’t need to be pretty, it doesn’t need to be ugly, you need to just want it more. There was nothing left in the tank and they did it.”

Keene was able to cut the lead in half with 10 minutes remaining in the game, but Bedford increased its efforts and had to defend all the way to the final seconds to survive.

“I keep repeating in my head ‘stick down, stick down,’ because we talk about it all the time,” Bedford senior Mia Katane said. “But at the end of the game, you really need to make sure that’s what you are doing because balls are going to be coming form all over. You just need to make sure that you’re ready.”

The Bulldogs were, even when the Blackbirds were trying to get back into the circle as scoreboard ticked away the final seconds.

“It felt like a long time,” Bedford senior Eloise Montagano said. “I was guilty, I kept looking at the clock. But then I just realized eventually you just have to go play and it’ll eventually end. We were able to play defense on them, and I feel like it worked very well. “