Bedford girls fall in D-II semifinals

Friday, November 11, 2011

Joe Marchilena photo Bedford's Hayley Barnard

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MANCHESTER – There will be no lack of motivation next August when the Bedford High School girls soccer team begins preparation for the 2012 season.

No, the memory of last Thursday’s tough 2-1 Divsision II semifinal loss to Souhegan will give the Bulldogs plenty of drive.

“Yeah,” Bedford coach Michelle Winning said. “They all saw it. They know how it feels.”

The Bulldogs finished their season, tournament included, at 15-4. They were the fourth seed going in and no one expected them to have the kind of season they did, and they were 24 seconds away from going to the finals, leading 1-0 before Souhegan tied it and won it just over a minute into overtime.

They’ll graduate five seniors – Colby Clutter, Laura Benson, Katherine Downer, Hayley Barnard and Stephanie Johnson – so the future will still be bright if they can play together the way they did this season.

“What did we graduate, 12 girls?” Winning said. “Expectations were low. I didn’t have any superstars. The biggest thing this team had was unity. They played together. If there was one person missing on the field, then we weren’t the same team. But other opportunities were created.”

Winning liked the determination the team showed in the second half, where they took a lead on a goal by Benson, which came off the mayhem created by a Jeannette Mara corner kick. Mara, currently a junior, will be a key next season, for certain. But the Bulldogs were relentless in that semifinal second half.

“It wasn’t that they played for themselves, they played for each other,” Winning said. “We were so solid all night, and then one mistake.”

One mistake can create a lot of fire for the future.