Telegraph photo by TOM KING Hollis Brookline goalie Devon Kutchta covers up the ball despite pressure from Souhegan's Ava Van Ballegooyen (26) and Nicole O'Rourke while the Cavs' Delaney Weimer (26) looks on durng Thursday's 4-1 Sabers prelim win.

HOLLIS – It certainly looks like this could be the Souhegan High School field hockey team’s year in Division II.

Not much that happened in Thursday’s 4-1 preliminary round win over host Hollis Brookline changed anyone’s minds.

But they still have to play the games, right?

“We have it all on paper,” Sabers coach Kelli Braley said, her team now 10-0 and firing on all cylinders. “It’s all about the mental game for us at this point. We have the skill, we have all of that.

“We need to fix the competition between our ears, which I think is true of any team as you go deeper into the playoffs. Sharpening our mental game here going forward is going to be huge for us.”

The Cavaliers, meanwhile, played the Sabers tough in the first period, which ended 1-0 Souhegan on a goal by Caitie Summers. It’s the two second period goals by Saber Nicole O’Rourke that hurt the most, giving Souhegan a 3-0 halftime cushion. HB goalie Devon Kutchta had 14 saves but was under siege often.

Still, the Cavs managed a goal by Val Lubak with 46 seconds left in the third quarter. And they forced Saber goalie Annie Raduazzo to make four tough saves throughout, a couple of them mid-air.

“This was the best game we played as a team altogether all season,” Cavs acting head coach Emma Maxwell said as head coach Allie Buschmann is currently in quarantine. “I’m really proud of them.”

Ava Van Ballegooyen finished the Saber scoring to get their three goal edge back just over three minutes into the fourth quarter.

Summers assisted on that goal; Avery Karavas assisted on O’Rourke’s goal and O’Rourke had an assist in the first period.

The Sabers will have a somewhat tougher opponent in the next round, a quarterfinal/regional final game at Goffstown on Monday. The Grizzlies, who advanced with a 4-0 win over Derryfield yesterday, played Souhegan tough not once but twice, identical 1-0 Saber wins

They may not be as comfortable in the next round as they appeared yesterday,and remember it’s tough to beat a team three times in a year. Braley says they have to be hungry to score, based on what happened in the first two games.

“Feeling comfortable is a nice thing,” Braley said. “But we have to be careful. I’m hoping we can kind of flip the switch and leave it there for the next round.”

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