HANOVER — Watertown High School’s field hockey team scored three second quarter goals in the State Semifinal against Dennis-Yarmouth on the way to a 5-0 victory, and clinched a fourth straight trip to the MIAA Div. 3 State Final.
The Raiders were led by Sophomore Kaylee Master’s three goals, and senior co-captain Rachel Egan added two tallies. Egan looked forward to one more trip to the State Final.
“It is a great feeling. I am so excited for the team to get back to the final for the fourth year in a row,” Egan said. “It was definitely a great team win today. Our passing was really great today, and then just some scrappy goals in front. We were able to get it done today.”
The Raiders controlled the play for the first quarter, but could not break through the Dolphins’ defense in the first period. Just over two minutes into the second quarter, Egan got Watertown on the scoreboard.
Master broke the game open with a goal with a pair of second quarter goals. The first came with about three and a half minutes left, two minutes later she found the back of the net again to give the Raiders a 3-0 halftime lead.
Egan scored again with under eight minutes left in the third quarter, and Master collected her hat trick with a goal with just over two minutes left in the third.
Watertown Head Coach Eileen Donahue said she gave Master some new responsibilities before the semifinal.
“(Tuesday) we put her as the inserter on the corner and I guess that paid off today because she didn’t even practice that (before this week), and I said I’m going to use her as that,” said Donahue who added, “So, I am happy for her and happy for the team, obviously.”
The Raiders have now gone unbeaten in 96 straight games, but the road to the state final this season was not always a smooth one, Donahue said.
“It took a lot of hard work. We were at a certain level day one and it wasn’t looking good,” Donahue said. “And a lot of kids went through a lot of frustrating moments throughout the whole entire season. Even in this game we had a few moments, but they got to prevail and we were fortunate today. Dennis-Yarmouth obviously is an amazing team to make it this far.”
Watertown (21-0), the second seed in the tournament, will face top-seeded Sandwich (24-0) in the final on Saturday in Worcester. The time has not been announced.