With seven straight Division 2 state titles and a national-best win streak of 122 games, Watertown High field hockey coach Eileen Donahue still thinks there’s room for improvement. Just don’t try and tell Foxborough that.
The Raiders knocked off South champion Foxborough, 5-1, Wednesday night in a Division 2 field hockey state semifinal at Reading High.
Watertown (22-0) advances to Saturday’s state title game at WPI against Oakmont (16-4-1), which beat Greenfield in the CMass/WMass semifinal. During Watertown’s run to the past seven state titles, the Raiders beat Oakmont in 2009, 2011, and 2012.
“Lots,’’ said Donahue when asked what her team could possibly do better. “We need to do a lot of things better, finish things off better. We need to read the game better. There are a lot of things we need to do better out there.’’
If Watertown needed to improve on its first-half play, it wasn’t evident against Foxborough. After controlling play for the first 16 minutes but having nothing to show for it, Watertown scored with 13:50 to play off a corner with junior Maddie Leitner making it 1-0. Sophomore Gabby Venezia had the assist. One goal led to three more in quick fashion as Watertown dominated the remaining minutes thanks in part to a 9-0 edge in corners.
Junior Sydney Poulin made it 2-0 with 10:45 to play with Leitner getting the assist. Leitner was back at it again three minutes later, scoring with 7:12 remaining with the assist going to senior Kourtney Kennedy. And to cap off the half, Kennedy scored on a Chara-like laser with 56 seconds left to make it 4-0 at the break. Catherine Connors got the assist.
Watertown, which now has a 182-game unbeaten streak, made it 5-0 when Poulin scored her second goal off an assist from Kennedy.
Foxborough (19-3-1), which opened the season losing two of its first three games, got on the board when sophomore Lily Daly scored with 10:22 to play off an assist from Kelly Fisher.
About that improvement, Kennedy agreed with her coach.
“We’re going to take the next two days at practice and work the hardest we can,’’ said the UConn-bound Kennedy, one of three Raiders’ seniors who have gone 90-0 in their careers.
“We can always improve. We made mistakes on the field and we’re going to address those in practice tomorrow.’’
Division 1
Walpole 1, Acton-Boxborough 0 — In a rematch of last season’s state semifinal in which A-B prevailed (5-1) on its way to the championship, junior Audra Tosone scored off a corner with 1:12 left in the first half, lifting the Porkers (21-0-2) to their first state final appearance since 2013.
Walpole will play Longmeadow (19-2) in Saturday’s state final at WPI.
“[Last year], they were more skilled and my kids were young,’’ said Walpole coach Marianne Murphy. [Now we are] more experienced.’’
Said Walpole senior Melanie Weber, “It’s awesome to play in this game again and to finally come out on top again.
“We’ve been working hard all season for games like this and it’s great all our hard work paid off.’’
She is the only remaining player on the varsity from the 2013 Walpole team.
After a back-and-forth first half in which most of the play was in the middle of the field, Walpole was awarded four consecutive corners. On the final attempt, off a feed from senior Megan Fisher, Tosone was open near the goalmouth to tip it past goalie Anna McCarthy.
“To get up is a nice feeling,’’ Murphy said. “You’re not digging yourself out of a hole. One is never enough, so I want to get more. Momentum shifts pretty quick.’’
The Porker defense did not allow a shot on goalies Audrey Lynch and Michaela Federico.
Correspondent Marisa Ingemi also contributed to this story.
