GRANBY – Almost a year ago, to the day, the Granby High field hockey team lost to North Branford in an overtime shootout in the Class S state tournament quarterfinals.
“It was awful,” Granby junior goalkeeper Abbey Heller said. “I was the goalie. I said, ‘Next year, we’re playing them here and we’re winning.’ When I saw they won the other day and we got to play them, I texted our group chat and I said, ‘This is it. I know this is it.’”
Heller was right. Granby once again took the field against North Branford on Thursday afternoon, playing for a shot at the Class S semifinal game … at Granby High.
The Bears, top-seeded in Class S, made sure there would be no overtime Thursday, winning 6-0. Granby (15-3) will face the winner of Friday’s Sheehan-Shepaug Valley quarterfinal game. Shepaug is the defending Class S champion. The semifinal game will take place Tuesday at a time and place to be determined.
When Heller came off the field, she shouted to her teammates, “I’ve been waiting a whole year for this!”
Granby won six championships between 2000-11 and one more in 2019, long-time coach Sandy Wickman Mason’s last season. The Bears also advanced to the championship game four times between 2011-18. But the Bears, with 14 state titles, have not been back to the championship game since ’19.
There are 16 juniors on this year’s team. Their freshman year, they lost to Stonington in the first round. Last year, they fell in the quarterfinals. So this is the farthest this particular group has advanced under coach Sarah Pliszka, who is in her fifth season.
“They’re very close knit,” Pliszka said. “They work well with each other; the communication, the passing. They’ve played together since they were little kids.”
Granby, which hasn’t lost a game since Sept. 26, got two goals from Ava Reiter and two from Jaden Clark, the only senior on the team. Reiter scored with 13:50 left in the first quarter and Clark added another goal to give Granby a 2-0 halftime lead. Clark had an assist on Reiter’s second goal in the second half.
“We’ve improved so much game by game,” said junior Tia Angelis, who had two assists. “It’s been a lot of fun.”
Granby had 10 penalty corners and nine shots on goal. Heller made one save.
Pliszka was a little surprised at the score.
“We were so fired up,” Pliszka said.