Box Score
By Matt McDermott, GoMessiah.com student manager
Newport News, PA — In the figurative sense, Messiah had scripted the story beautifully.
Down a goal at halftime in the 2010 NCAA Division III National Championship, the Falcons would surge back to tie the game with minutes left, momentum on its side.
The first overtime would come and go; then the second.
The team would line up for a stroke-off, arms interlocked on the very field in which it had expended every ounce of effort for 100 minutes of play.
It was this season, this squad, this ground that was destined to bear the first Messiah team to bring home a national championship in the sport of field hockey.
The story was all but written. But fate would have a different ending to tell.
After battling back from a 1-0 deficit, Messiah fought Bowdoin College through regulation and overtime hockey, only for Polar Bears' goalkeeper Emily Nelson to single-handedly stop the Falcons' latest dream season in penalty strokes, 1-2 (1-3 PS).
After the teams traded a pair of saved strokes and each converted their third attempts, Bowdoin scored its fourth try.
Messiah was unsuccessful.
When the Polar Bears' McKenna Teague scooped her stroke to the right side of the cage and under freshman goalkeeper Kayleigh Stewart's outstretched leg, Bowdoin College had done it.
“It is always hard to go away without the top prize,” Messiah head coach Jan Trapp said.
Sunday's end result was — by all accounts — incomparable to the 100 minutes leading up to the fact. Simply stated, Messiah (19-3) came out with energy and pressure, proving its worth of being in the championship game for the eighth time in program history.
Messiah's pressure in the midfield and attacking third was evident with possession in Bowdoin's territory for much of the first half. But the Polar Bears were prepared with a sturdy defense of their own, willing to make numerous plays to disrupt the Falcon attack and quickly clear away dangerous chances.
One of the best early looks came in the form of a Falcons' breakaway: From the midfield, freshman Brooke Sands passed to cutting senior Julie Barton, who darted past the Polar Bears' last defender and into the open attacking third.
Out stepped Nelson to force a pass from Barton — a correct move by the 2009 NFHCA Division III National Player of the Year — but it effectively ended the chance. It was the first of many stops for the senior keeper, with the biggest coming nearly two hours later.
Even with a stalwart anchoring the Bowdoin back line, the Polar Bears' opportunities to counter were few and far between. Pass after pass was disrupted by Falcons' midfielders and transformed to instant possession in the attacking third.
Incredibly, on just its second dangerous counter-attack of the day, Bowdoin (20-1) would be very efficient.
Lining up for only their second penalty corner of the game, the Polar Bears' Ella Curren ripped a low shot to the left post through a scrum in the circle, the ball bounding into the lower corner of the Messiah cage with 1:57 left to play in the first half, putting Bowdoin ahead 1-0.
But the Falcons came out of the intermission confident with their ability to generate offense — and unfazed by the early deficit. Messiah rattled of four straight corners from the 41st minute through the 44th minute, but could not find the equalizer in the chances.
Trapp's club stayed focused and persistent, however, pressuring strongly to repeatedly force Bowdoin back into their defensive third.
“I think, starting off the game, we had to adjust to their play,” Barton said. “Once we settled in, we could press as usual, and that is when we generated our offense, to force them to make mistakes or come off the ball. It was a midfield battle, which was obvious with a low scoring game.”
After reeling off another set of four corners, Messiah finally finished with a great deflection from sophomore Emily Hursh at the 61:08 mark. Classmate Natalie Ziegler hit a hard shot from the left flank and Hursh made the perfect redirect, setting off an eruption from both the Falcons' bench and a generous following of Messiah faithful at Christopher Newport University's Captains Turf Field.
With the score knotted at 1-1, it seemed like the comeback was on, as Messiah put up strong second-half numbers: The Falcons outshot the Polar Bears by a 9-4 count and generated 14 penalty corners to Bowdoin's three.
But if the Falcons would complete the storybook ending, it would come in extra time.
With field hockey's seven-verses-seven, overtime requirements in effect, the excitement and energy escalated from fans and players alike — the back-and-forth action still favoring Messiah.
In the second overtime period, Bowdoin used their third OT corner to put a fantastic shot on goal, an effort eerily similar to the Polar Bears' first score. But Stewart pressed to the far post and kick-saved the attempt at the last possible moment, putting a stop to the premature celebrations from the Bowdoin sideline.
Immediately, Messiah responded with a charge in their attacking third looking to put the game away. Off one of Messiah's six overtime corners, Barton blasted a high and heavy shot on goal, but Nelson was there to make an even better reaction save.
When the second extra period ended, Messiah had crawled back from the brink of defeat, led 20-9 on total shots and 24-9 on corners and had 100 minutes of energetic play as fuel for their momentum.
But the Falcons had one of their toughest tests in front of them, that being the five-feet, 10-inch Nelson in cage to stop the ensuing penalty strokes.
Messiah sent out five of their best penalty stroke takers to beat Nelson, but only sophomore Leann Carroll was able to get by the physically-dominating senior. Nelson stopped the first two strikes, but Stewart did the same to Bowdoin, stopping the Polar Bears' first two shots with kick saves to her right.
After Carroll equalized the third round at one stroke apiece, Bowdoin sophomore Kassey Matoin converted against Stewart and junior Kilee Rosenberry missed, setting up junior Teague's golden opportunity to net the game winner.
When her scooped shot deflected off the interior of the right side of the cage, the Polar Bear side erupted. Messiah's players and coaches stood in stunned silence.
“Bowdoin had great strokes and a really tremendous goalie, it was a great game,” Trapp said. “(The difference was) their goal keeper on strokes. Our defense held them to one goal and they held us to one goal. I thought we pressured them better than they did us, but when it came down to strokes, it was their keeper that stopped us.”
Barton, who served as a spectator during the stroke-off, agreed.
“Their goalie is a really great goalie and she really made some great saves,” she said.
Carroll, who converted one of two penalty strokes in Messiah's 4-0 win over Ursinus College in Saturday's semi-final, considered Nelson one of the best she had ever faced.
“It was unbelievable,” Carroll said. “She stopped the first two on the left, so we had to switch it up. So we went to the right, she made some great saves, our goalie, she tried her hardest but ...”
Caught by her emotions, Carroll continued with her thoughts on strokes.
“I say the shooter has an advantage,” she added. “The best place we could have gone was high or low. In the middle she covered everything. It was tough to get by her.”
For Bowdoin, it was the program's third national championship in the last four years. For Messiah, it added to the growing list of near misses, as the Falcons have now lost each of their national championship games by one goal each.
Making things even harder to swallow for Messiah was the fact that Sunday's game was just the second NCAA Division III National Championship contest to ever go into a stroke-off. The other occurred in 1982.
“It's always hard to go away without the top prize,” Trapp said. “(Stroke-offs) are not a good way to end it, but you can't keep the girls on the field any longer. It's already 100 minutes of play, and some of them played every one of them.”
Barton was among that group, as the senior finished her career with six classmates that were among the best in the program's history. Concluding their careers with a 72-11 win-loss record, the Falcons' upperclassmen helped the program to four consecutive Commonwealth Conference Championships, three straight 'Final Four' appearances and back-to-back national championship game berths.
Still, as the seniors wiped away tears while sharing hugs after the post-game ceremonies, the feeling of an unjust conclusion hung in the Virginia air. With the program's 14th 'Final Four' appearance and eighth national championship contest complete, the Falcons still search for that elusive trophy.
“I don't worry for me about winning, it isn't a thought for me,” Trapp said during the post-game press conference. “But you always want to see your girls win that prize. But as I told them when the game was over, they are ours. We love them. They are just awesome young ladies and played their hearts out, we are proud of them. We wouldn't trade them for anyone else.”
