On Wednesday afternoon, Deerfield Girls Hockey made the trip to Williston for an Elite 8 quarterfinal match up. Having been thoroughly humbled by Williston a week prior, the team was hungry and ready to redeem themselves.
We set the tone right from the opening face off, and it was immediately clear that this would be a different game from a week ago. We opened the scoring on the power play off of great puck movement: Emily Cumming ’29 sent it down to Olivia Austen ’27 (who played a great, gritty game), who found Peyton Wierl ’26 down low. Peyton moved it quickly into the middle to Brady Wierl ’26, who tapped it across to Alessandra Picard ’29. AP made no mistake in firing the puck in, sending the bench into a frenzy.
We doubled our lead on the first shift of the second period, after a strong forecheck from Brady Wierl, Sophie Frost ’26 and Ava Giroux ’26 worked the puck free behind the net. Ava sent it out front, and the puck landed on the stick of Chloe Cleaves ’26, who fired it home. Williston clawed their way back in the game, though, scoring two power play goals in the second. With less than two minutes to go in the period, we dug in and found the go-ahead goal: Brady won the face off back to Keira Austen ’26, who sent it across to Chloe. Chloe’s initial shot was saved, but AP had perfect position in front and outworked the Williston defense to pop in the rebound.
The third period was a tense affair, as we again spent a lot of time in the penalty box. Our penalty kill unit was rock solid though, with Chloe, Keira, Emily, Amelia Healey ’27, Jillian Limb ’28 (hard hat recipient), Nicole Sciarretta ’28, Gia Thompson ’26, Peyton, Brady, Sophie and Ava blocking shots and picking up sticks in front. Our grit was most on display in the final 1:55 of the third, as we withstood a 6 on 4 disadvantage to seal the victory. Everyone contributed to the win today. Aside from the players already mentioned, Izzy Kirby ’26 was outstanding in goal, Gill, Kate B, Kate D, and Ana were the BEST teammates, Alex and Reagan forechecked hard and made smart zone entries, Brianne and Erin were relentless in all three zones, and Taylor, Charlotte & Milana played with poise and composure in the defensive zone.
We are so grateful to the folks who came out to support us today: the parents/families, the small but mighty fan bus, and the faculty who made the trek to Williston. We are so happy to have earned a few more days together, and look forward to taking on Tabor at HOME on Saturday at 2pm in the Elite 8 semi-final. Many thanks to the parents for organizing the meal after the game!