Looking to build off an Elite 8 berth from last winter, it didn’t take coach Brooke Fernandez long to see what she had in her latest Deerfield girls hockey team.
“From the beginning of the year, I knew that we had a really strong core of returners and all our new kids were really impactful,” Fernandez said. “We just came off a season where we had gone to the playoffs, so we know how hard it is to get there. … Now, you have a road-challenged team, and they were ready to go.”
A plethora of experience and stellar goaltending from senior Campbell Krotee (Darien, Conn.) down the stretch carried second-seeded Deerfield to the finish line of the NEPSAC Large School bracket. With a 2-0 shutout win over Tabor on March 9, the Big Green captured its first New England crown since 2001.
There were certainly teams out there that scored more goals or rostered more than Deerfield’s four college commits, but Fernandez saw a team that came together and played its best hockey when the games mattered most.
