It was a matchup that pitted the top two teams in the FCIAC against one another: Darien and New Canaan, neighbors and rivals.
The No. 2 seed Rams had upset on their mind from the very beginning and looked poised to claim another FCIAC championship for the program, and with under five minutes to play in the second half, New Canaan held a 10-7 lead.
But the top-seeded Blue Wave refused to go quietly into the night. Not only did they fight back to tie the game at 10 and force overtime, but in the third OT, senior attacker Mariah Matheis netted the game-winner 1:14 into the period to propel Darien to victory, 13-12, while leaving New Canaan’s FCIAC championship aspirations one-goal shy.
“I’m so proud of the way they played today, and I told them that at the end,” New Canaan head coach Kristin Woods told NewCanaanite.com. “They gave 110 percent. There are a few things that we made mental mistakes on, and they took advantage of it. You just can’t make mental mistakes against Darien.”
It was New Canaan who got the scoring started as just 1:11 into the game, junior attacker Kathleen DeMarino netted one past Darien goaltender Sammy Nielsen for the early 1-0 Rams lead.
Darien responded in the next two minutes with back-to-back goals to put them on top 2-1, with tallies from Kaeleigh Morrill and Laura Murphy, respectively.
After a save from New Canaan goalie Bailey Pilder gave the Rams possession again, Kylie Murphy put one past Nielsen to knot the game up at two.
Just over one minute later, the Wave went back on top, retaking the lead on a shot from Katherine Cronin. That 3-2 lead would hold for Darien for almost four minutes, a time when both teams were getting solid chances at the net to add more.
Then with 14:04 left in the first half, Catherine Granito put her first of the afternoon on the board to even things up at three. Then after a face-off win from Campbell Armstrong, New Canaan went back on the attack. After firing two shots wide of the net, the third time was the charm as co-captain Elizabeth Miller bounced one through the legs of Nielsen for a 4-3 Ram lead.
Armstrong won another face-off for the Rams and while it took some deliberation in the offensive zone, a minute and a half later, Granito had the ball behind the net and saw her teammate DeMarino charging down the slot. DeMarino received Granito’s feed cleanly and then put her second of the afternoon past Nielsen, extending the New Canaan lead to 5-3.
New Canaan made it 6-3 when co-captain Isabel Taben netted one while eluding traffic in the slot, which forced Darien coach Lisa Lindley to call a timeout with 9:38 left in the half.
The timeout stopped New Canaan’s momentum, albeit briefly, as Darien midfielder Chandler Kirby found the back of the net to get the Wave back within two, 6-4 — ending a scoreless drought of nine minutes and 23 seconds.
But while Coach Lindley and her team hoped Kirby’s point may lead to more goals for the Wave with 8:36 still to play in the half, New Canaan stood tall and shutout Darien for the rest of the period, and headed into the break with that 6-4 lead still intact.
The second half started terrifically for the Rams as within the first minute and a half, they added two more tallies to their score to extend the lead to 8-4 — one from junior Sami Stewart and the other from Kylie Murphy, her second of the game.
New Canaan knew the surge could be coming at any moment from Darien, however, the Blue Wave only had one shot on goal in the first 11 minutes of the period. One which Pilder stopped on an attempt from Matheis from point-blank range.
During that time period, New Canaan had a couple of quality chances of their own in an attempt to increase their lead. However, Nielsen kept her team in it with some impressive saves.
After a New Canaan foul occurred with 13:10 left in regulation, Kirby took the free-shot opportunity and cashed in with another goal, trimming the deficit to 8-5. It ended a 20:28 scoreless drought, going back to the first half, for the Wave.
It didn’t take anywhere near as long for them to find the back of the net again, as just 1:29 later Morrill put one past Pilder to get within two.
Coach Woods called a timeout to allow her Rams to regroup. Soon after that, Miller forced a Darien turnover and fed the ball to Taben. Taben then looked to her left and sent a pass through the slot and connected with Granito who beat Nielsen, one-on-one, to put the Rams back up three, 9-6.
After a Cronin goal on a free-shot made it a two-goal game again, Granito quickly countered with her third goal of the afternoon, this time through the legs of Nielsen, to put New Canaan ahead 10-7 with 8:04 left in the second half.
The next three minutes were scoreless despite a couple more quality chances from New Canaan.
However, the Rams knew that Darien would not go down without a fight, and with 4:12 left, Cronin recorded her third goal of the contest to pull the Blue Wave within two.
One minute later New Canaan’s intense defensive efforts were given a yell0w card by the officials, which forced them to be down one player for the next two minutes.
Darien would take advantage as 20 seconds before the penalty expired, Laura Murphy put one past Pilder, top right, to make the score 10-9. She then followed that 30 seconds later with another tally for the equalizer, after Darien exploded into the offensive zone once winning the face-off, knotting the game at 10 apiece with just 2:06 of regulation to play.
Each team had one more incredible opportunity to potentially end it in regulation, but both shots went just wide and sent the title game into overtime.
Now there would be two three-minute periods, with the team in the lead at the end of the two, the winner.
Thirty seconds into the first OT, Elizabeth Miller was fouled and netted her subsequent free-shot opportunity to put New Canaan back on top, 11-10.
New Canaan held Darien off the board for almost all of the next two minutes of play, despite Darien dominating on possession.
Then with 34 seconds to go, Morrill netted her third to tie it at 11. That was followed by a tally from Anna Moorhead that went off the stick of Pilder and in, with just four seconds remaining in the period. It put Darien ahead by one heading into the second OT, their first lead since it was 3-2.
It didn’t take long for New Canaan to tie it, though, as just 22 seconds into the period, Kylie Murphy put one past Nielsen on a free-shot to make it 12-12.
Just under a minute later, Granito threw a shot in the direction of the net, but it went wide and kept the score tied at 12.
Darien forced a turnover on New Canaan’s next offensive possession but couldn’t do anything with it before New Canaan forced a turnover on the Wave making it for a great back-and-forth in the final minute. But two overtimes were not enough to decide a winner.
So enter a third overtime they did.
The great defense from both squads was present again early as after New Canaan won the face-off to begin the period, Kirby forced a turnover with the Rams on the attack. New Canaan then countered with a nice interception of a Darien pass by junior defender Amelia Carroll.
New Canaan could not put one on net however, and after a Ram foul, Darien regained possession. The ball was knocked on the ground momentarily, but the Wave recouped it to stay on offense.
After a couple passes led the ball to the area behind the net, Matheis charged down the left side, received her teammate’s pass and put the game-winner home to give Darien the 13-12 victory and FCIAC crown.
The win for Darien completes an undefeated FCIAC season of 12-0 for them, and puts their overall record at 15-3. New Canaan completes their FCIAC season at 11-2, and they take a 15-4 overall record into the Class M state tournament in which they will be the No. 4 seed, announced earlier on Thursday.
“The nice part is we have states to look forward to,” Woods said. “You get back at it and you get that stigma [of today’s loss] out of your system. It’s not going to be easy. But I think that if the girls stay on their game and stay focused that we’ll get there.”