By Bob McPhee,Staff writer

BETHEL – The 13 seniors on Telstar’s field hockey team are still finding it difficult to accept that their high school careers are over.

The Rebels enjoyed a tremendous amount of success, concluding with a two-year run that places the group among the best to don sticks at the tradition-rich program.

Things ended on a sour note as Telstar came up short in its bid for a second-straight Class C state championship. Central of East Corinth rallied to win the state title game with a 2-1 victory in overtime.

The setback stunned the team, and even on Monday morning the pain remained.

The seniors reflected on what might have been while assembled around a table in the school conference room.

“That was a tough loss,” Heather Gionet said. “It was like a knife to the heart, mostly because we don’t have any chance to avenge it.”

Telstar was clinging to a 1-0 lead and had cleared shots away three times in the waning minutes, but the Devils were relentless. A penalty corner was called with two seconds left and a second PC was whistled because the ball popped up off a Rebel stick. Central tied the game.

“We wanted a story book ending,” Danna Wilson said. “But, it’s over.”

The Devils’ physical style perplexed the Rebels. It led to the game-winner being scored with 50 seconds left in overtime.

“I was a little upset after the game,” Kayla Mills said. “After four years of hard work, I actually felt that we were cheated.”

The Rebels complied a 32-2-1 record, won a state championship, two Western regional titles and a Mountain Valley Conference championship.

The team scored a school record 91 goals – in the top five for all classes, based on statistics kept by the Maine Field Hockey Association. Leading scorers included Mallory Brown (23 goals, seven assists), Mills (13, nine), Liz Rosenberg (11, four), Chea Davis (10, six), Wilson (seven, seven), Lindsay Hart (five, four) and fullback Jullian Kimball (five). The remaining seniors are Stephanie Tripp, Margaret Deplissis, Sarah Swan, Kelsey Dole, Sasha Morin and Gionet.

An embarrassing 3-0 loss to Livermore Falls in the second game of the season sparked the team.

The Rebels responded by winning 15 straight games.

“That loss served as a wake-up call,” Rosenberg said. “We realized then that nothing was going to be given to us. We had won states last year, but in order to get back to that point, it would require a lot of hard work.”

The Rebels developed depth by using 23 players. The objective is to score goals, and the team became extremely productive.

The wily veterans began playing field hockey together in middle school, and the familiarity produced a close-knit group. This was apparent on the field where the players appeared to have a sixth sense’ regarding where teammates would be positioned.

“I think I’ll miss the practices the most,” Wilson said. “We sure had fun and so were a lot of things that the team did together.”

Telstar has developed a rich tradition throughout the previous three decades. The players’ reputation for being hard-nosed and having a winning attitude carried over to this group. The mothers of Mills, Wilson and Rosenberg were each playing when the Rebels won back-to-back state championships in 1977-78.

Telstar also won three-straight regional crowns from 1989-91.

As freshmen, the group saw a lot of playing time and received a taste of things to come. The Rebels upset Winthrop in the semifinals, but lost the East regional final to eventual state champion Dexter.

“We were aware of the tradition,” Rosenberg said. “A lot was expected from the freshmen class, mostly because we’d been successful coming up through the system, and we had a big group. But, at the same time, we also expected a lot out of ourselves.”

The record speaks for itself.