Bea Lynch scored with 8 seconds left in overtime to lift the Hall High field hockey team to a thrilling 1-0 victory over South Windsor in the season opener on Tuesday.
It was a tough loss for South Windsor, which controlled large swaths of the game.
Indeed, Lynch's goal - a tap-in assisted by Jenna Behan - was just the second shot for the Warriors and only the first on net the entire game.
But while the Bobcats had more shots - 14 in total - they earned fewer penalty corners (6 to Hall's 7), as they seemed to run out of steam in the later portion of the game.
Hall, for its part, bent but never broke, with goalie Kathleen Keegan keeping the Warriors in the match with several stellar saves. She had 8 saves on the day.
South Windsor's Rebecca Schroder had several shots on goal, only to be denied by Keegan.
The unsung hero during the 7-on7 overtime was Hall's Christine Taylor, who broke up a South Windsor 3-on-1 breakaway with 2:47 left.
South Windsor never crossed into Hall territory again, as the Warriors applied pressure that finally led to the game winner.
"That was probably the best way to start the season," Hall High head coach Carlie Daily said. "That was intense."
Despite the tough loss, South Windsor head coach Michelle Wardwell said that she was proud of her team.
"It was our game to lose," she said. "We just couldn't get it to fall. It's frustrating; at the end, I think we just ran out of gas. ... We outshot them by far. We've got to work on finishing."
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