No. 3 Ellsworth and No. 4 Hermon faced off at Hampden Academy on Wednesday night for a highly coveted spot in the Class B state championship game this weekend. After an action-packed second half, the Eagles survived a fierce Hermon comeback bid, winning 3-2.
With a 56-5-1 record since the beginning of 2019, it was the Hermon girls’ fourth straight appearance in the Class B North regional championship — winning each of the last three — and just the first time the Hawks were competing without the No. 1 seed.
In the first half, the Eagles played like the higher seed, barraging Hermon’s back line with give-and-gos from forwards Lizzy Boles and Camryn Clough. The crafty duo forced Hermon keeper Bella Bowden to come uncomfortably far out of net multiple times, but it was junior Addison Atherton that finally broke the deadlock right before halftime.
Settling a pass from senior Megan Jordan at the right edge of the Hermon penalty box, Atherton unexpectedly blasted a beautiful shot from 20 yards out, past the outstretched arms of Bowden to make it 1-0 Ellsworth with only 1:07 remaining in the frame.
“We knew they were gonna have a lot of numbers on me, so we dished it out to the wingers and have them do what they can do,” Boles said. “I had full confidence in us — a gut feeling — from the beginning of the game.”
The Eagles took this momentum into the second half, with Boles drawing a crucial foul only four minutes in and setting up a dangerous Ellsworth set piece from 25 yards out. Once again, it was Jordan with the assist, lofting the ball into a packed 6-yard box where junior Lily Bean was waiting to head it in.
Less than 10 minutes later, Ellsworth was at it again, with junior Kelsie Lambert getting an insurance goal in rather miraculous fashion. Crossing the ball from along the Hermon endline, the forward somehow managed to loop the ball over Bowden and just inside the far post for the Eagles’ third goal of the night.
But then Hermon’s championship instincts kicked in.
“We knew we weren’t playing how we should have,” sophomore Natalie Tardie said. “We calmed down and played together.”
The Hawk comeback bid began in the 55th minute when sophomore winger Madison Stewart drove up the left sideline, drawing in Ellsworth bodies. At the last second, Stewart drove the ball along the ground toward the middle of the field, where Tardie was in the penalty box waiting to fire it home.
Six minutes later, senior Sam Grover made it 3-2, turning an unbelievable Bowden shot block of Boles into another Hermon goal in transition. But it was too little, too late.
Hermon and Ellsworth continued to trade blows for the last 15 minutes, but Ellsworth held on, becoming Class B North’s newest champion.
“In the gym, we have a banner that says ‘1999,’” Ellsworth head coach Eric Terrill said. “Just to get ‘2023’ up there next to it — it’s magic.”
