SCARBOROUGH – Whatever mojo had helped to lift Bonny Eagle field hockey past two higher ranked opponents in the 2010 playoffs, it ran out on Tuesday night.

Flush from their upsets of Westbrook and Thornton Academy, seventh-ranked Bonny Eagle was gored by a fourth-ranked Cheverus Stags team that outmuscled, outhustled, and at times simply outplayed the Scots. Despite striking early in the Western Class A finals game played at Scarborough High School, visiting Bonny Eagle (11-6) let a 1-0 lead collapse into a 5-1 deficit before scoring a second goal in the closing seconds to make the final tally 5-2 in favor of Cheverus (13-4).

It was an unexpectedly abrupt end to an otherwise successful season for Bonny Eagle, who reached the finals for the first time since 2005.

“I think it was amazing just for a seventh seed to make it here,” said Bonny Eagle Head Coach Caterina Riitano. “I am very proud of them. They went out there and left everything on that field today. All I could ask of them was that they played their hardest and gave it their all, and that’s what they did.”

But most of what the Scots gave, they gave early. As with their Oct. 19 triumph over Westbrook, Bonny Eagle came out looking strong, and immediately attacked on offense.

The push paid off just 4:23 into the action, when the always-dangerous Peyton Dostie intercepted a pass near midfield, broke down the right side, and passed from right to left across the Stags’ net. Waiting on the other end was senior forward Chelsea Yates, who slapped the ball past the legs of Cheverus sophomore goalie Cynthia Clark.

Now up 1-0, Bonny Eagle continued to control the pace for another two minutes before Stags Head Coach Amy McMullin signaled for a timeout.

“Sometimes we’re just too excited,” McMullin said. “I just told them: ‘you’ve played your worst’ – which we just had – ‘and now you need to forget about the goal.’ I said that we’ve been down before, and they needed to just come out and play their game. And that’s what they did.”

McMullin’s timeout was the turning point of the night, because when the Stags retook the field, they were a different animal entirely: cagey, desperate, tenacious, and – above all else – decisive. Cheverus corralled the Scots on Bonny Eagle’s turf for nearly 16 minutes before the change of pace finally paid off.

With 7:38 remaining in the half, the Stags picked up their fourth penalty corner of the assault, and senior forward Emily Sawchuck caught the put-in at the top of the circle and slammed a whistling ball into the rear of the net for the tie. Riitano immediately called a timeout.

“I didn’t want (our team) to get the idea that (Cheverus) was going to score,” Riitano replied, when asked why she did not ask for the stoppage in the 16 minutes of Stags’ offense prior to the first goal. “I felt like I wanted that idea to develop naturally for them, and if I stopped things there, it was going to be a letdown. During the time out, I let them to know that we were still in this game – there are so many times this season that we’ve been behind and come back and won.”

But despite their coach’s enthusiastic words, the embattled Scots could not find a way to shake off the Stags. After three more Cheverus corners, Sawchuck struck again, this time while chasing a loose ball on the right side. Sawchuck stuck out her stick to stop the roller, wound up, and hit an awkward little knock that nonetheless found the back of the net. Cheverus led 2-1 at the half.

“(At halftime) I told them to just to keep going to the ball,” Riitano said. “Be strong in there. Just do what we’ve been doing. And, if Sawchuck hadn’t had those high drives, the score would have been closer.”

Unfortunately, things were never really close again. The Stags lost nothing during the brief respite, and found the net once more just 3:22 in on a close-in shot by junior midfielder Sarah LaQuerre. LaQuerre’s goal seemed to open the flood gates – Cheverus capitalized again at 23:31 on Sawchuck’s third, and once more with a second for LaQuerre at 19:11. The Stags played commandingly for the remainder, and only let up a chip-in by Bonny Eagle senior forward Nicole DeMidio off a corner with 46 seconds left when the game was completely out of reach.

“We wanted to win this more than them,” Sawchuck said. “We have got the heart, and we can win the championship. I love field hockey, and I love this team, and I know that this is our year.”

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