Caroline Howe’s Hat-trick Paces the Suzies Past the Trojans

MARLBOROUGH – Sutton High School junior Caroline Howe earned herself a new nickname on Saturday.

“We’re starting to call her Hat-trick Howe,” said Katie Wright, Sutton’s senior captain and goalkeeper. The moniker for Howe is apt following her three-goal performance that helped power the Suzies’ team past Bromfield, 4-2, in the Central Mass Athletic Director’s Association Finals game at the Marlborough Middle School Noble Field.

Howe scored the first three goals for the Suzie’s on their way to the Central Mass championship, her first-ever hat-trick. “This is the first hat-trick. It feels great to do it, especially in a finals game,” Howe said after the championship plaque presentation.

Sutton head coach Jensen Shipp said Howe should be a candidate for tournament MVP. “I would love to see it,” he said. Caroline was phenomenal. She’s had a great week of training. She scored in every game of this tournament. She’s gotta be up there when the MVP voting is happening. She scored against Hopedale. She scores the tying goal against Littleton. She’s just great!”

Wright said she is proud of her teammate. “Caroline is just an amazing person, an amazing friend, and we’re all very supportive of her. She is just really a great player who took advantage of those opportunities that she was given.”

For most of the first half, Sutton and Bromfield battled to a scoreless draw until about 17-minutes left when Sutton was awarded a corner kick on the right side of the pitch. Freshman Anna Joseph lined the ball and raised her left arm into the air as her teammates, including Howe, lined themselves just outside the goal box.

Caroline Howe (11) celebrates in the rain with her teammates after one of her three goals. Photo by Kevin Paul Saleeba

“We were talking to each other deciding who was going to make our runs to the net,” Howe said. “I was like, ‘I’ll run trash.’” Running trash meant that Howe staggered her position near the back post behind the run to literally collect the loose ball if it got free. In other words, she would clean up the trash amidst the scrum in front of the net.

Joseph arched the corner kick just over the outstretched fingertips of Bromfield goalkeeper Annabel Ashe. Sutton forward Sarah Mendoza then lunged at the ball as it came down but missed her header attempt and the ball landed near Howe’s feet near the back post.

“I just saw an open space where no one was marking me near the back post and I touched it with my right foot,” Howe said as she blasted the ball into the left corner of the back of the net.

Following the goal Sutton controlled the play, but Bromfield was able to keep the game close without any further damage and headed into halftime down by one. “We came out in this game and we were definitely ready to play today,” said Bromfield head coach Katie Greene. “Going down 1-0, it shifted the tides, for sure. And we kind of let down just a touch.”

Greene said her team regrouped and refocused during halftime. “I told them it’s just a 1-0 game and I think we were playing like it was 3-0 and halftime was just a regroup get together,” she said. “This is only a 1-0 game and they’ve been playing fantastic … So, there’s no reason to change much just yet.”

The Trojans were ready to get back into the game and proved it as they came out of halftime on fire. They tied the score just 45 seconds into the second half on a set piece of their own as Bromfield senior Peyton Van Dorpe blasted a corner kick perfectly into the goal box where senior captain Katie Iacomini headed the ball past Wright and into the Sutton net.

“Their intensity was absolutely there on that first goal,” Greene said. “I mean this is a very gritty team … and that led to that first goal for us.”

With the score tied, it was time for the Suzies to respond. Sutton head coach Jensen Shipp said he used former Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens’s approach to coaching a team up against adversity. “Stay calm in the good and stay calm and the not-so-good,” he said. “We’d love to keep a clean sheet and never give up a goal, ever, but it’s not the way the game works … It’s a tie game. You can either drop your head and get disappointed or you respond and say we’re the better team and you go out and prove it.”

Wright said their team was in a similar situation earlier in the season against Millbury. “We’ve been in that exact same position before with the Millbury game where the score was going back and forth between Millbury and us and we came out and won that game,” she said. “So, we’ve already been in that position where we sort of dropped off a little bit and then we came back really strong. I think having that experience has really helped us. I said, ‘hey, we’re still in this! We’re still alive!’ So yeah, we were still in the game.”

Sutton responded about eight minutes after Bromfield tied the score with another set piece. Joseph took the corner kick again and Howe set up to clean up the trash again much like they set up for the first goal. However, this time, Joseph’s kick floated directly to Howe, who stood a few feet at the top left corner of the goal box. As she met the ball in flight, Howe headed the ball off the ground, across the goal box and into the empty right corner of the net.

Shipp said the key to well-executed set pieces comes from practice and high soccer IQs. “Part of what makes it effective is soccer intelligence and [Howe] certainly has that,” he said. “It’s reading the flight of the ball and she’s got a great soccer brain. I think that plays into her success in terms of moving where she thinks the ball is gonna go even after it is struck. Technique is another part of it and she’s able to head the ball accurately. She scored one with the right foot and one on a header. All those things play a role in scoring off a set piece. And then sometimes it comes down to heart, too. Sometimes it’s all just who wants the ball more.”

Howe said the play of forward Ruby Adamowicz and center back Natalie Smith helped keep the pressure on the Bromfield defense, which led to several set pieces and scoring opportunities. Shipp also said Sutton’s forward trio of Ava Magnuson, Addison Jerome, and Adamowicz were key contributors to the Suzies’ offensive pressure. “They’re all a little bit different, but that’s why the rotation works so well.

The set piece that led to Howe’s second goal was caused by such pressure. Adamowicz was able to help set up the third goal as well with a crosser about 75 feet from the net. The cross was a result of a tough 50-50 battle for the ball between Adamowicz and Bromfield defender Abigale Baker.

As the ball came across the field, Howe said “it was a mix between me and Ava [Magnuson] and who’s going to get the ball. She let it go to me and then I was just like, I’ll take a shot. So, then I did and it just popped over the goalie’s hand and into the net.”

Magnuson, the speedy eighth-grade forward, was later rewarded with a goal of her own, a breakaway and a 4-1 Sutton lead.

Despite being down three goals, Bromfield did not give up and played the full 40 minutes. Led by the tenacious play of Iacomini, among others, the Trojans created several scoring opportunities, including a goal by Van Dorpe on a beautiful shot about 35 yards away from the goal that sailed past the diving Wright’s outstretched hands.

“You saw when we scored that second goal near the end that they didn’t give up,” Greene said. “They played the full 80 minutes and they

Bromfield_s Peyton Van Dorpe celebrates her team_s second goal. Photo by Kevin Paul Saleeba

were trying till the last whistle blew, which is fantastic. I’m so proud of them.”

Greene said she had to juggle her roster as a few players had switched positions due to an injury to junior Mackenzie Hoover. “Mackenzie was injured in the back, so it really shifted our line up a little bit. Katie stepped up really big in the middle today. She’s absolutely the heart of our team. She’s a tough player that you want on the field for 80 minutes.”

Greene said Baker in the middle, along with Julia Mara and Allison Corrieri on defense, stood strong against the potent Sutton attack. “I think they’re just gamers and they step up big in there on the defensive line,” she said. “They played fantastic tonight and I told them already … they can’t take this loss on them. Absolutely not! They played lights out tonight and it’s just unfortunate that it went the other way.”

As Bromfield countered with relentless pressure at the end of the game, Wright was able to stand tall in goal, otherwise, the outcome might have been different. “Katie Wright is always so solid for us,” Howe said. “She keeps us together.”

Sutton_s Katie Wright kept her team ahead despite intense pressure from Bromfield. Photo by Kevin Paul Saleeba

“Yeah, she always knows when to step up,” Shipp said. “We do count on her a lot and she makes some big saves for us … The long shots that go in are going to frustrate her, I’m sure, because she sets such a high standard for herself. But at the end of the day, she is a big piece of this team and, it might seem strange as a goalkeeper, but she does hold us together.”

When the final whistle blew, Howe said, “I was kind of shocked and then I realized we did it! It just feels great!”

Both teams will be moving to the state tournament and will find out their seeding and game schedule this week.

Greene said Bromfield’s experience bodes well for a long playoff run for the Trojans. “I have a very experienced team,” she said. “They’ve been in these playoff games and this playoff atmosphere before. They’re going to take this and learn from it and they’ll definitely be ready for the next one. Lucky for us, we could see [Sutton] again, and I think we’ll be better prepared next time.”

Howe said the Suzies will enjoy being district champs for a time, but will be ready when the state tournament begins. “We’re going to be on a high after this, but we need to realize that we still need to work hard every single game,” she said. “Even if we’re going against a lower seed, we must keep playing hard and just keep the intensity up and do our best.”