Keene overcame unknown by sticking to what works in D1 field hockey final

BEDFORD - Field hockey players have been hearing it for years at Keene High School.

"Goals don’t have to be pretty, they just have to cross the line," Blackbirds coach Michelle Tiani said the phrase she repeats year after year to players.

When Tiani said it on Saturday, though, she had plenty of proof as to how true it is.

Not far from where she stood just inside the track at Bedford High School, her players were posing for pictures with the Division I championship plaque, which the Blackbirds had won moments before thanks to a 1-0 win over Dover.

And that one goal wasn't a thing of beauty, scored by Olive Thatcher on a rebound early in the fourth quarter, but it got the job done.

"They all count the same," Tiani said. "That’s something I’ve said my whole time (as a coach). Former players joke that that’s my go-to line, that goals don’t have to be pretty. That’s exactly the type of goal that is going to win it for us."

It ended up being the only goal Keene needed to win the program's first championship in a game against the only D1 opponent it wasn't familiar with this season.

With the number of teams in the division in 2024, every team played all but one other team in the division, and it just so happened Keene and Dover were not on each others' schedule.

"It was hard because we didn’t play them in the regular season," Keene senior goalie Lilly Rowell said. "I think we didn’t know what to expect. In the first quarter, we got a good feel and we knew what we had to do to keep going and win."

And what the Blackbirds did was stick to their game.

"We had no idea what to expect," Tiani said. "They’re the defending state champs, they’re solid top to bottom. We know that, so it’s just doing what we do. We didn’t change anything, we just kept it simple, and just prepared like it was any other game."

Keene also tried to take advantage of the matchups for some players that Dover maybe didn't know as much about.

"Dover knows Sofia (Miller) and Mckenna (Nelson) in the middle, but then what they don’t know is everybody (else)," Tiani said. "Lola Ballaro on the left side, we knew it was going to be her game over there if they were going to key on the two older mids. Playing as all 11 on the field, and it’s worked every day for us."

And even with that, it still came down to the final seconds, when Dover was awarded a penalty corner with no remaining on the clock. A goal for the Green Wave would have sent the game to overtime, and with Dover having come back in similar fashion against Exeter in the semifinals, the Blackbirds were aware of what was coming.

"I know how bad we wanted this win and we’d be making history," Rowell said. "My teammates were there. We had to hold our space and we couldn’t let up because we knew Dover came back in the (semifinals). We knew there was a chance of that."

Keene held its space to end the game, and then after, the Blackbirds held up the championship plaque.

"We did it," Tiani said. "It doesn’t feel real."