Tourney run cut short for 3 powerhouse programs

Senior captain Kim McNally scored the Bulldogs’ lone goal in Sunday’s 2-1 loss to Holliston.

It was a disappointing and surprising week for fans of Bulldog athletics as three of Canton High School’s most decorated programs — the field hockey, boys’ soccer and girls’ soccer teams — were all eliminated from postseason play within a span of four days.

All three losses came in the first round of their respective tournaments, marking the first time that has happened in at least a decade. Two of the losses qualified as upsets, with the seventh seeded girls’ soccer team falling to No. 10 Holliston 2-1 in double overtime and the No. 8 field hockey team losing to No. 9 Norwood 2-1 on a pair of penalty strokes. The 10^th seeded boys’ soccer team also dropped a 2-1 decision against No. 7 Duxbury, a longtime south sectional rival.

Needless to say, none of the three teams expected its season to end so abruptly — not with their history of postseason success and not with the way each had been playing heading into the tournament.

“I think [the loss] this year was harder than in years past,” admitted veteran field hockey coach Fior Griffin, whose senior-laden squad went 12-1-5 in the regular season and repeated as the Davenport Division champs.

Griffin felt the girls dominated long stretches of the game against Norwood last Thursday, including the entire second half, but they could not get their shots to fall and ultimately fell victim to a pair of fluke penalties.

“At the end of the day, we try to play so that the officials cannot affect the outcome of the game,” she said. “But you hardly ever see a [penalty] stroke and to have the game decided on two of them was tough.”

The first one came five minutes into the game, when a Canton defender inadvertently stopped a shot with her body while positioned behind the goalie, leading to a penalty stroke and an early 1-0 lead for Norwood. Later, after Canton had come back to tie the score at 1-1 on a goal by senior Katie Kelleher, Norwood was awarded its second stroke of the day when the official ruled that goalie Emily Buckley had covered up the ball on a breakaway.

Griffin said afterward that Buckley, who had played a previous breakaway “beautifully,” could not get up quick enough because a Norwood player had fallen on her pads. But fair or not, Canton had plenty of chances to get back in the game but simply could not find the back of the net.

“There were so many shots that just missed, so many that looked like they were going in,” said Griffin. “We drew a lot of [penalty] corners and created some opportunities; we just couldn’t get the ball to fall the right way.”

Meanwhile, a similar story unfolded on Sunday as the girls’ soccer team (11-4-3) dropped a heartbreaker to visiting Holliston after controlling most of the game.

“The girls played really, really well,” said first-year head coach Kate Howarth. “In my view, I really do think we were the better team today.”

Howarth attributed Holliston’s first goal, which came just before halftime, to a “goalkeeping and communication error in the back,” something that had been a problem for them all season, she said.

Still, the Bulldogs came out flying after halftime and seized the momentum, highlighted by an incredible, game-tying header by senior Kim McNally on a pass from Hailee Duserick.

“Hailee just whipped a beautiful ball into Kim,” marveled Howarth. “It was by far the most beautiful goal all year. It was technically perfect — that’s why the two of them are going on and playing in college.”

For the remainder of the half, the Bulldogs looked like a team on a mission, launching shot after shot, albeit to no avail.

“We had all the energy and all the momentum,” lamented Howarth after the game. “We kept pounding them and pounding them, but we just couldn’t finish.”

A day earlier at Duxbury, the boys’ soccer team (9-6-3) found itself on the other side of a lopsided struggle, as the Dragons dominated the game both “physically and territorially,” according to CHS coach Danny Erickson.

“We ended the regular season playing some of our best soccer,” said Erickson, “but while the kids fought very hard, we didn’t play our best soccer in the tournament.”

Erickson, whose teams had made it to at least the sectional semifinals in each of the past seven seasons, said the Bulldogs played “a little sloppy” but were ultimately beaten by a very good Duxbury team. “We worked hard, but we just couldn’t generate a lot of chances,” he said.

Canton’s lone goal came on a 20-yard bomb by senior captain Sam Larson midway through the second half. Senior goalkeeper Arthur McNally had arguably the best game of his career in net, making several huge stops, while Eric Wong, Andre Dorofeev, and Wolph Gustave all played well in their final game as a Bulldog.

Amazingly, this is the first year that the seniors — on any of the three teams for that matter — did not finish with at least one tournament victory. Since 2009, in fact, all three programs have won at least two postseason games in every season with one exception: the 2010 girls’ soccer team, which bowed out in the sectional quarterfinals.

During that span, the three teams collectively have appeared in 11 sectional semifinals, six sectional finals, and an incredible five Eastern Mass. championship games, including three in a row by the field hockey team from 2009-2011. Together they have won 35 tournament games over the past five seasons — good for a postseason winning percentage of .700.

The three teams have been even more dominant in the regular season over that same stretch, amassing an overall record of 222-43-42 (.792) while combining to win 11 Hockomock League titles. Leading the way is the field hockey team at 83-8-14 (.857), followed by girls’ soccer at 75-16-9 (.795) and boys’ soccer at 64-19-19 (.721).

Erickson, speaking as athletic director, said the success of these three programs — not to mention girls’ volleyball, which plays tonight in the sectional semifinals — is easy to take for granted.

“It is so hard to win consistently in the state tournament year after year when it takes so little to go wrong to lose in any given game,” he said, “and to watch these programs every year continue to go out and win not one, but multiple tournament games consistently, it’s got us all a little spoiled. But it’s really quite remarkable when you put it in perspective.”

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