No miracle this time as Enfield falls in quarters

4th seeds can’t capitalize, lose in field hockey

ENFIELD — In the Enfield field hockey team’s first-round Class L state tournament game against Ridgefield, it came down to the last shot.

With no time left on the clock and the score tied, a penalty corner was called. And Enfield scored to win.

That was Wednesday. Coach Cookie Bromage said she watched the video on Facebook maybe 80 times.

As the clock wound down Friday in Enfield’s Class L quarterfinal game against Newtown, with the Eagles trailing by a goal, they were hoping for a similar last-second rally.

But it was not to be. Fourthseeded Enfield had its chances, with 12 shots on goal and five penalty corners but lost, 3-2.

“I wanted one more chance,” said senior midfielder Tori Geaglone, who scored both of Enfield’s goals off penalty corners. “One more chance and we think we could put it away. When we played Ridgefield, we had that last chance and we put it away.”

Fifth-seeded Newtown (16-3) will play No. 1 seed Cheshire (20-1), a 4-0 winner over Amity on Friday, in the semifinals either Tuesday or Wednesday at a time and site to be determined.

Katie Goyda scored Newtown’s first two goals, and Ali Kelleher scored what proved to be the game-winner with 20:49 left in the game.

Newtown last advanced to a championship game in 2007 and hadn’t been able to get past the first round of the tournament since. The Nighthawks lost to Enfield two years ago in the first round.

“Enfield is an extremely strong team, so the fact that we played right along with them, it was great,” Newtown coach Stephanie Kearns said.

Newtown scored quickly, three minutes into the game and took a 2-0 lead on another Goyda goal off a penalty corner with 5 minutes left in the first half. Geaglone got her first goal 2 ½ minutes later, and Enfield trailed 2-1 at halftime.

“They’re a good team,” Bromage said. “They were very fast, I thought. My younger kids, they struggled.

“We got out slow. You could see the youth side a little bit, but I was proud of them because they hung in there. They fought back. The last 10 minutes, they really kind of came alive.”

Enfield started the year with four returning starters, including Geaglone, who will play at Assumption next year.

“We had a great season,” Bromage said. “Honestly, they exceeded what I thought at the beginning because we had four kids back, three freshmen starting. They grew each day.”