Telegraph photo by TOM KING Souhegan's Ethan Littlefield, left, and Simon Trombley have Bow's John Salerno sandwiched during a corner kick in the first half of Bow's 3-2 Divison II semifinal win on Wednesday.

BOW – They had plenty of faith. They just needed one or two more goals.

The high school boys soccer team whose slogan was “Believe!”, the Souhegan Sabers, saw their season come to a tough end on Wednesday, 3-2 at the hands of Bow in the Division II semifinals.

“It’s an amazing group,” Souhegan coach Dave Saxe said. “These guys are fighters. We had a big group of seniors who came on, showed their maturity, and turned on the grit factor pretty high.”

And that was so evident, Bow coach George Pinkham, whose 7-0-3 team now moves on to face Oyster River Saturday’s finals, pointed downfield to the Sabers and then to his heart.

“You got a team like that, you bring this (heart) first, and they did that,” Pinkham said. “That’s why I give them so much credit. They didn’t want to lose.”

No, the Sabers didn’t, but that’s what happened after Zach Anderson deflected Matt Selleck’s kick just off the fingertips of Souhegan keeper Ryan Lockitt, snapping a 2-2 tie with just over 20 minutes left in the contest.

Lockitt ironically had gone in for injured Saber starter Jake Morrisette (shoulder) 10 minutes into the second half and stopped everything else the Falcons threw at him, often in fantastic fashion (six saves).

“He’s a talented goalkeeper,” Saxe said. “He’s been training hard all year, and we knew we could count on him.”

The Sabers grabbed a 1-0 lead 5:08 into the contest on a high shot out of the reach of Bow keeper Kyle Martin (seven saves) by Miles Drum. Bow evened it on a successful header past Morrisette by Connor Wachsmuth at 23:24 of the first half, a half in which they dominated possession and buzzed all over the Saber goal. Matt Selleck got the assist as his free kick started the play.

That’s why the Falcons probably thought they were in good shape when Anderson scored his first goal 2:25 into the second half, converting a Matt Selleck throw-in for a 2-1 lead.

Ah, but suddenly that ignited the Sabers. Alex Lin put in a rebound goal after Ethan Ramm hit the crossbar, the ball bouncing like a pinball back to Lin.

The Sabers were much more aggressive offensively in the second half, and it almost paid off.

“They like to play long balls into the box, and that’s how they scored all three of their goals,” Saxe said of the Falcons. “We have a slightly different style, and when we were able to do our possession style and kind of work the ball forward, we did a nice job.”

The Saber pressure late was solid. As Pinkham said, “We were holding on.”

Drumm was robbed Martin on a header with just under five to play, but the Sabers had to think they had a great chance when Drumm took a free kick from 30 yards out during stoppage time, likely about two minutes to play.

It sailed high over the net.

“That,” Saxe said, “is the way it goes sometimes.”

Even for a team with faith and heart.

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