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BEDFORD — Mission accomplished!
That pretty well summed it up for the Timberlane field hockey team Sunday afternoon when it repeated as the Division 1 state champion by defeating Londonderry, 4-2, in impressive fashion.
At the beginning of the season, head coach Mim Ryan established a goal for her team, which she showed off on the shirt underneath a jacket sheltering her from the rain that fell during the contest.
“We wanted to leave a legacy this year,” said Ryan, whose club finished at 15-2. “This is the 50th year of the program and I thought, with 11 seniors back, we could be here and do this if things went well. But you never know and you have to work for it.
“I was really nervous coming into the game. Londonderry had been playing well and they reminded me of the team we were last year when we weren’t a high seed but got hot at the end of the season.”
Ryan and the Owls were probably getting nervous in the first half. Although Timberlane controlled play for much of the first 15 minutes of the game, it couldn’t get any good shots on goal. Then, with 11:09 to play, Londonderry came down and scored on a penalty corner as Maev McPhail rifled in a shot on an assist from Vanessa Magoon.
“I think when they scored, it gave us a little spark and we started playing the game the way we know how to,” said Ryan.
Indeed, the Owls tied it up, 1-1, with 1:52 left in the half when their leading scorer, Kylie Fitzpatrick, got the ball in front of the goal in a wild scramble and put the ball in the net.
The second half was dominated from the start by Timberlane, which took a 2-1 lead five minutes in on a goal off a penalty corner by captain Tori Rothwell. A nice individual move by Taryn MacKinnon resulted in a 3-1 lead at the 12:57 mark and senior reserve Emma Lennon made it 4-1 with four minutes to go.
Londonderry got a late goal, with 42 seconds left, on a penalty shot by McPhail but that was far too little too late.
In that second half, Timberlane had eight penalty corners to just one for Londonderry and, with Rothwell, Samantha Hamilton and MacKinnon controlling the midfield and Jess Mezquita, Fitzpatrick and Sarah Padellaro staying aggressive in the offensive end, Londonderry rarely got it out of its own end.
One had to wonder what Ryan said to the team at halftime to spur on the Owls’ domination.
“She pumped us up and motivated us,” said Rothwell. “And we had a little meditation that helped. Then we just went out and started playing our game.”
For Fitzpatrick, who was clearly the most aggressive offensive player in the game, it was the last field hockey game of a fine career in which she has scored more than 30 goals for the Owls. She is headed to St. Anselm next year on a softball scholarship.
“It’s pretty exciting to have a game like this and a good way to end it,” she said. “We really wanted this.”
For Ryan, it was her third state title overall, having won once as head coach at Sanborn, and gives her an overall record at Timberlane of 173-62-11. Next year, she’ll welcome several players from a strong JV team but realizes that there may be some rebuilding.
“These seniors, players like Kylie, Tori and Taryn, will be awfully hard to replace,” said Ryan. “They’ve done a lot for the program.”
Not only that — they’ve left a legacy.

Maeve McPhail scored in penalty corners to give Londonderry the win over Bishop Guertin in the Division 1 quarterfinals. It was tied 2-2 at the end of regulation and double-overtime. BG won the regular season matchup 4-1.

Sarah Padellaro lit Londonderry up for four goals in Timberlane's 6-2 field hockey romp. Jessie Mezquita and Emma Lannon also scored.