Windham's corner defense stymied Exeter in D1 field hockey final, until it didn't

Deb Grott had reasons for wanting her Exeter High School field hockey team to face Windham in the Division I championship, and it wasn't just because the Jaguars handed the Blue Hawks their only loss during the regular season.

The two-time defending D1 champs were playing in a title game for the sixth year in a row, and ninth time in the last 10 years. Windham has won five titles over that span, more than any other program in the state, and those nine finals appearances is four more than anyone else.

"There would have been no one else I would have wanted to play in the championship game because they are such a well-skilled program," Grott said. "We could play them 10 more times and they’re going to win some and we’re going to win some.

"The fact we lost to them during the regular season and to come back and play them and win, it’s a great feeling. We had to tweak some things because they are a hard opponent to beat."

But Exeter, which won its first title since 2013 with a 2-1 victory on Sunday, wasn't the only one to make adjustments heading into the final. Windham coach Katie Blair did the same, after getting to watch the Blue Hawks penalty corners during their semifinal win over Winnacunnet.

Kenzie Suech, Sophia Ponzini, Amy Lanouette and Cecilia Ponzini joined goalie Annie Mitchell on the defensive corners for the Jaguars, and for 54 minutes, they were able to keep Exeter from taking advantage of those opportunities. The Blue Hawks had a 15-2 edge in penalty corners, but Windham was able to stop Exeter on the first dozen.

"We switched our corner unit after watching them play the other day," Blair said. "I can’t say enough about the four of them and the goalie in net. They rocked it. We couldn’t have asked for a better corner unit (Sunday)."

That defense allowed Windham to keep it a scoreless game until Lanouette scored on a penalty stroke with 7:08 left in the third quarter to give the Jaguars the lead.

"We were crushing the defensive corners," Lanouette said. "We had all the spots filled and we made our adjustments two days ago, to go in and really take a look at what they were putting on us and know how to handle that. We did an absolutely phenomenal job on that."

In the final minute of the third quarter, with Exeter fighting to get the tying goal, the Blue Hawks set up for a corner, but were unable to get a shot off, as Suech came racing out to knocked the ball away from Addison MacNeil.

"The good thing about a corner is you have about three seconds before the other team gets down there," Grott said. "They had to look for that slight opening and we were having trouble with that at the beginning, but they finally got enough of it that they got one and then another."

MacNeil finally got that tying goal for the Blue Hawks, scoring on a corner with 5:58 left in the game, as she got the ball just outside the top of the circle and tapped it back in before letting a shot fly.

"Their defense on corners comes out really quick, so have to take a quick shot or do one move and shoot," MacNeil said. "I didn’t really know I had scored. I shot and I hoped that some tipped it in or it went in."

The shot was deflected by a Windham player in front, sending it into the netting just above the backboard.

Moments later, MacNeil was in position to do it again, but this time, needed to take a reverse shot on the corner to give Exeter the lead with 1:50 remaining.

"At the right time, they made it happen," Grott sadi. "That’s the one thing about this team, they never give up."