Bishop Brady-Trinity-Bow’s season was a huge success in many ways during the first year of the co-op’s current iteration. But it came to an end in Tuesday night’s semifinal against top-seeded Oyster River-Portsmouth who outpaced the Brinity Falcons (14-6) and scored in bunches to win, 5-1, booking a return trip to Saturday’s championship game.

The Oyster River-Portsmouth ClipperCats (18-2) started strong, with a goal six minutes into the game after a face-off which was passed off to junior defender Meagan Rinko, who buried the puck with speed between sophomore goalie Lyrah Lydon’s pads.

Before the end of the first period, senior forward Kira Jakobs carried the puck up the ice until she saw an opening to shoot and fired a wrist shot into the top left corner. She assisted on a goal as well, to junior forward Eliza Farwell to put the ClipperCats ahead, 3-0.

Brinity-Bow needed to pick up the pace. Pre-game, coach Dan Earley stressed the need to switch quickly and keep up with OR-P’s speed. In the second, the Brinity Falcons began to increase the intensity and pressure on the opposition, which led to a goal by sophomore Kaylee Jacques who knocked the puck in after it bounced around in front of the goal, assisted by juniors Audrey Starr and Alison Pelletier.

The deficit was still two goals, but there was still half of the game to play. But Oyster River-Portsmouth’s onslaught continued and the ClipperCats kept pouring in the shots. Brinity-Bow senior defenders Meghan Schmidt and Kylie Palmeter blocked multiple shots and Lydon managed 17 saves halfway through, but Jakobs connected with Farwell  again to put their team ahead, 4-1.

“I’d like to see them go to college together and play as a pair together. I don’t know if that’s possible, but they certainly can do it. They did a fantastic job, they’re the leaders, they calm everything down wherever they go,” Earley said about Schmidt and Palmeter. 

The ClipperCats would go on to score one more and outshoot Brinity-Bow, 42-12. Earley said that Lydon (37 saves) still has a long way to go to be the best goalie in the division, but the experience she gained throughout the season will carry over and help her anchor the team in the future. 

“She’s got a great glove and we were doing all kinds of drills there yesterday, moving or back-and-forth. She knows it. I think she's going to be a great, she played in some very, very intense games, very intense. So I give her a lot of credit,” Earley said.

In many ways, Brinity-Bow’s younger squad struggled to keep up with the speed at which OR-P’s forwards switched on and off of their wings, but runs like these are what build experience. According to assistant coach Lauren Trippiedi, the team will welcome many incoming freshmen to join the ranks next season and will benefit from the lessons returners can teach. 

Alexander Rapp can be reached at arapp@cmonitor.com