CHANGE IS GOOD

DOVER — Moments before her goal ended the game and set off the celebration, Jeannine Turgeon made an executive decision.

The top scoring threat on the Dover High School field hockey team, already with one goal in her account during Tuesday’s overtime Division I prelim against Timberlane, prepared for an upcoming penalty corner by thinking about what hadn’t been working for her.

Each time she’d received an entry pass on a corner from teammate Jessica Couture, she’d pulled right to try to set up a forehand shot.

Not this time.

“It wasn’t working the entire game,” said Turgeon. “So I said to myself, you know what? I’ll switch it up and try to pull left.”

Turgeon took the pass cleanly, pulled left around a defender, shifted her body and set herself up for a shot, one she elevated into the cage to cap seventh-seeded Dover’s 2-1, come-from-behind win over No. 10 Timberlane.

It was a dynamic finish for the Green Wave (10-5) after a sluggish start, which saw Timberlane (6-9) own the first half and get a deserved reward when Natalie Macalusco scored off a Lily Fay cross from the right with less that two minutes until halftime.

“Sometimes we come out a little bit flat, and we let the calls or the way the other team is playing dictate the way we’re playing,” said Dover coach Sarah Michaud. “At halftime, we said, ‘We can only control ourselves.’

“Timberlane is a really good team. They work really hard and they have some fast players. But we had to play our game.”

Michaud and Timberlane coach Melissa Nawn are both on the coaching staff at Seacoast United. Nawn has spent time coaching Dover senior goalie Kylie Nelson-Marois, and knows how tough she is to beat.

“It was nice to see my team come out with such high energy in the first half,” said Nawn. “I knew we couldn’t go straight at Kylie. She would take advantage of it all the way. I’m happy we connected with the cross ball.”

But from the restart after halftime, the Green Wave (10-5) tilted the field. They took all five corners in the half and tied the game with 20 minutes left, when Turgeon scored on a corner, assisted by Charlotte Morin.

“It felt good,” said Michaud. “It felt like the momentum was in our favor. We were down, but it felt like we were ready to play.”

“We were just so frustrated with everything,” said Turgeon, who sat out the end of the first half after getting penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct. “The second half was a new start to the game.”

It took everything the Green Wave had to win at Timberlane in the regular season, 1-0 on Sept. 23. And it would take extra effort in this one, as Nelson-Marois held the fort and a late bid to win the game hit the post.

Midway through the first 10-minute, sudden-death overtime period, Couture carried the ball down the right side, got around a defender and earned a corner for her team.

And Turgeon abruptly ended things. The Green Wave will play No. 2 Windham in the quarterfinals on Friday.

“It was the battle I expected it to be,” said Nawn, whose team will return eight starters. “Sarah and I coach pretty much year-round together and we have similar coaching styles. I knew it was going to be a battle.”

Dover had been chased into the playoffs by two straight shutout losses. Though the second one was to a strong Winnacunnet team, there was some mild concern about ending the drought.

“Because we played so well against Winnacunnet on Friday, I’d say we went into playoffs knowing we were playing well. We just couldn’t finish,” said Michaud. “So today that was definitely lingering in our minds.”

Turgeon ended the drought. And, later on, she ended the game.

“It feels great,” she said. “I’m really happy we won right now.”

D-I FIELD HOCKEY PRELIMS

DOVER 2

TIMBERLANE 1