Lyla Chapman’s late heroics lift Methuen/Tewksbury once again
TEWKSBURY – A few weeks removed from scoring the overtime winner against Billerica/Chelmsford, late-game Lyla Chapman was at it again Saturday afternoon to help keep the Methuen/Tewksbury girls hoc…
TEWKSBURY – A few weeks removed from scoring the overtime winner against Billerica/Chelmsford, late-game Lyla Chapman was at it again Saturday afternoon to help keep the Methuen/Tewksbury girls hockey team unbeaten.
Her goal with 31.5 seconds to go delivered the No. 6 Red Rangers (11-0-2) a 2-1 win over No. 5 Haverhill/Pentucket/North Andover, avoiding another overtime matchup between the two after playing to a 2-2 tie earlier in the year.
The heroics came a little over two minutes after HPNA (8-2-4) tied the score at 1-1, with Chapman firing a laser from the point for a goal on a power play to secure a signature win on senior night.
“I saw that I had open ice, and I saw Sammy Ryan in front of the net for a tip, so I decided to put it on net,” Chapman said. “I love playing for this team. I love playing for these girls. It’s nothing selfish, I’m not just doing it for myself. It’s all for my team. So, I just think I’m obviously proud of us for coming together and getting this win together.”
The cutthroat MVC/Dual County League Large continues to be the league of one-goal games, especially for the Red Rangers with now 10 of their 13 games so far coming down to one goal or less. There’s much to be said about the team’s propensity to pull out wins or hold onto ties in arguably the state’s toughest conference.
HPNA showed plenty of that difficulty, following two periods of Methuen/Tewksbury goalie Lydia Barnes (24 saves) shutting them out with a 9-1 shot advantage in the third period’s first 10 minutes. With 2:40 left, a missile from Kira Dolan banked off the back wall to Mia Kmiec in the left circle on the other side, and she sniped a goal top-shelf, blocker-side, to tie things up at 1-1.
But it wasn’t too long after that HPNA was called for a trip, and the team again generated enough to stay unbeaten despite missing two key players.
“I don’t think we were at our best today,” head coach Dave O’Hearn said. “(But) we’re in those games even when we’re not at our best. They persevere and they dig deep. … It could have gone either way, so we’re very proud of the way they battled there at the end.”
“It definitely helped that it was senior night, we wanted to really play for our seniors,” Chapman added. “I think we just really came together as a team in the third period.”
Julianna Taylor (16 saves) is as tough of a goalie a team can come across, and HPNA’s defense did well to limit activity on her. Neither team was able to generate much in front on either goalie.
Chapman did her damage from the outside, though, firing a shot off a defender’s leg early in the second period that bounced to Bree Lawrence at the right circle. Her wrister on a turnaround shot gave Methuen/Tewksbury the 1-0 lead.
It was only fitting then for Chapman to strike again when the Red Rangers needed it most.
“She’s a competitor,” O’Hearn said. “I’ve seen her on the soccer field, I’ve seen her here. She’s a gamer. You want everyone to kind of go to battle with that face on. … She’s a gritty player who gets the job done. It’s a good beacon for other girls to watch how she plays.”
Every team in the MVC/DCL Large puts an emphasis on chasing the league title. Methuen/Tewksbury has been a Div. 1 contender over the last several years, but its last league championship came in 2019.
With the win, the leading Red Rangers put a six-point gap between them and third-place HPNA, albeit with one more game played. Billerica/Chelmsford is still on their heels, so this was a significant win.
“Our goal from the start of the season was to win the league,” Chapman said. “To just keep the win streak going up. I just think because we haven’t lost, it’s just, every game we push harder and harder to keep that.”