HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS LACROSSE: Cohasset's run of upsets halted by Medfield in Div. 3 final

WELLESLEY -- The underdogs gave it their best shot. In the end, though it was a case of too much Kelly Blake and not quite enough Molly Stephens.

Blake, a sophomore midfielder, scored seven goals Tuesday as the second-seeded Medfield High girls lacrosse team captured the Division 3 state crown with a 12-9 win over Cohasset at MacDowell Field on the campus of Babson College.

The eighth-seeded Skippers, who had upset the No. 1 seed (Newburyport) in the quarterfinals and the No. 4 seed (Weston) in the semis, saw their bid for one last big surprise thwarted, in part because Stephens' nagging knee injury flared up at the worst possible time.

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"I've been suffering from bad tendinitis since the Weston game," Stephens said. "I was trying to play through it, but it was really bothering me. I literally felt like my knee was giving out. ... It wasn't our day today."

The senior attack, who came in tied for the team lead in goals with 80, was limited to just one, which opened the scoring 5:14 into the game. Her mobility clearly impaired, she spent several minutes on the sideline in the second half, getting her left knee heavily taped.

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Stephens, who usually takes all the faceoffs for Cohasset, came in ranked No. 2 on the team with 102 draw controls. Losing her skill in that critical part of the game was another blow for the Skippers. Although she came back in with 13 minutes remaining and made a go of it, she clearly wasn't herself, and the Skippers' offense could not make up the difference against a talented opponent.

"She has patellar tendinitis that's been nagging at her, and we've held it at bay," Cohasset coach Kully Reardon said. "But she couldn't do it any longer. We tried to keep her on the field as long as possible because she's our quarterback, she's our glue. Without her on the field making things happen, collecting the ball, dishing the ball and challenging the defense -- she couldn't drive to the net -- that takes away a lot of our offensive power.

"I just keep looking back at that Newburyport game and Weston, she put the team on her back and did what she had to do. I wish she had more in the tank (today), but I can't ask any more of her."

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It was a frustrating ending for Stephens, who won a state title as a freshman but then lost her sophomore season to COVID and her junior year to a torn ACL in her right knee. She had scored six goals, including the late winner, in a 14-13 conquest of Weston in the semis but couldn't keep the momentum going.

"At the end of the Weston game, if you watched film, you could see me limping in the last three minutes," said Stephens, who will play at Brown University. "The past two mornings, I've been waking up at like 5 (o'clock) with pain. I spent the past two days icing it, trying to make it better. Today there wasn't enough time (to get healthy). I need to take some time off running to get it back to where it was."

Junior attack Kira Fulton and sophomore midfielder Laney Larsen tried to pick up the offensive slack. Fulton had four goals, pushing her season total to 65. And Larsen added a hat trick (all the goals coming within a six-minute span of the first half) to claim the team goal lead with 83.

"We needed one more, one more person in the attack to sort of feel like a well-oiled machine," Reardon said. "We just didn't have enough firepower."

Freshman midfielder Reese Hansen had the other Cohasset goal. It was a big one, cutting Medfield's lead to 9-8 with 14:28 remaining, but the Skippers didn't score again until the final minute.

"You know what, I think we just ran out of juice," Reardon said. "To be honest, we had a good 25 minutes in us. I think we were ready mentally, but our bodies weren't there."

Cohasset (17-4) fell behind 3-1, but Fulton sandwiched a pair of goals around Larsen's hat trick, and the Skippers appeared to be in good shape, taking a 6-4 lead into the final minute of the first half.

Blake struck with 26 seconds left to narrow the deficit to 6-5 and give a sneak preview of what was to come after halftime, when she poured in five of her seven goals.

"Kelly can just take that nervous energy and just focus it into her game and buckle down," Medfield coach Mary Laughna said. "She definitely came out in the first half with a little bit of nerves, but ... I think she was really dialed in in the second half."

Blake tied the game at 6-6 early in the second half, then put the Warriors (20-3) ahead for good, at 8-7, with 18:39 remaining. In all, she scored four of Medfield's last five goals, keeping Cohasset at arm's length.

Said Reardon: "Number 8 (Blake) is scary good. We had a really hard time containing her."

"In the second half, I was able to figure out the defense a little bit more," said Blake, who scored five times off 8-meter shots. "My teammates were helping me by cutting through (the crease) and making open areas and lanes for me. It was great teamwork."

Fulton gave Cohasset a late spark of life by converting with 56 seconds remaining, but Cohasset committed a turnover after winning the ensuing faceoff and Medfield soon was celebrating the program's first state crown since 2012.

On Wednesday, Medfield's boys team will play in their Div. 3 state final against Norwell (7:15 p.m., Worcester State University).

"We won one state championship 10 years ago, so this is a huge deal for the program," Blake said. "It's a huge deal for Medfield. Having the boys and girls in the state championship games really brings the town together."

Cohasset, which was bidding for its third state title since 2017, had to be content with a season that featured just four losses -- two to Medfield (the Warriors won the regular-season finale 10-8), and one each to Div. 2 state champ Notre Dame Academy and Div. 1 Round-of-16 participant Hingham.

The playoff upsets -- 12-9 over Newburyport (with six goals from Larsen) and the nail-biter vs. Weston -- will linger as the highlights.

"I think the past two games were our (state final), not this one," Stephens said. "I don't know what this was today. We'd beaten the Number 1 seed. We'd beaten the Number 4 seed. This was not us today."

Cohasset will graduate six seniors -- Ellie Fox, Maddie Miller, Bridget Mahoney, Emme Hoehn, Lily Reilly and Stephens. The future is bright, though, with junior goalie Aizza Chase coming back, along with Larsen, Fulton and Hansen (38 goals).

"It definitely wasn't what we wanted today, but I love this team," Stephens said. "They'll get 'em next year. They're going to dominate next year. I'm not worried about them at all. They know what to do. This will be fuel for their fire."

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Cohasset girls lacrosse falls to Medfield in Div. 3 state final