Paige Mogar felt her season-saving goal coming in every cell of her being. The Notre Dame Prep senior won the battle for the ball with St. Mary’s defender Natalie McLaughlin around the 25-yard line and rushed into open field.

Less than 20 minutes ago, she’d been looking up at the clock, crying, and she wasn’t the only Blazer doing so. Five minutes were all that remained in the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference field hockey semifinal, and it seemed, the Blazers’ season. St. Mary’s established a 2-0 lead in the third quarter and effectively protected it throughout the second half.

Then, when the first NDP goal careened into the back of the net with under four minutes left, hope flickered among the visitors. When the tying goal knocked through with just 7.6 seconds left, that flicker turned to a blaze.

Mogar drills shooting on an angle all the time, and she wasn’t about to muck up her training with the stakes so atmospheric. She’d played in semifinals but never a championship.

Her goal lined on a perfect diagonal, untouched until it pummeled the wall of the cage. She was hardly able to register the 3-2 victory before her teammates wrapped her in their arms.

“It was just like, ‘We did it. We did it,” Mogar said, clutching a little hippo plush named “Harry” – the prize for her contribution. “Every single year, we’ve lost in the semifinals. It’s my last year to try, and we did it.”

Notre Dame Prep next plays Bryn Mawr at 2 p.m. Sunday at Stevenson University for the IAAM A Conference championship. “.””]

Tears weren’t scarce on the Blazers’ sideline during and after the postgame handshakes, but it unexpectedly struck Katrina Ross. The longtime NDP coach left her team for a minute, doubled over by the fence and sobbed. With her daughters going off to play college ball, she has one game left with her program.

In a playful back-and-forth, Ross jovially asked one of her players how many titles she guided NDP to. Her player didn’t know. After all, no Blazers team had claimed the A Conference crown since 2018.

“From the get go, we’ve known this is a special team – they are just gritty fighters,” Ross said. “They never gave up. It’s really special to go back to the championship for the first time in seven years with them and to share that with my coaches.”

St. Mary’s junior Paige Heary’s goal in the second quarter broke up a cloud of fruitless NDP corners.

Notre Dame Prep defeats St. Mary’s field hockey | PHOTOS

“We knew from a scouting perspective that they’d be tough to play and score against,” Ross said.

NDP had the chance to tie before halftime when officials awarded the visitors a stroke. When senior Emerson Ross trotted to take it, Saints coach Karen Zarchin knew where the shot was going. She just watched the coach’s daughter take another stroke in Monday’s quarterfinal and coached her through the Nexus program. Goalkeeper Emersyn Swader, a seasoned ice hockey player who just adopted her new sport this season, swatted the would-be equalizer down.

Coach Ross groaned over her mistake.

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The Saints kicked their drive toward the title game up a notch when junior Ava Boland launched their second goal in the third quarter. As it ticked into the fourth frame, Swader continued to make saves; St. Mary’s defense continued to break up corners.

Its relief nearly came through a third-goal.

With a little over four minutes left, Boland whacked a clear liner into the net. But at the same time, another Saint made contact with keeper Harper Bowen. The whistle blew, negating the third goal.

In that moment, NDP had no way of knowing just how vital a gift that was. St. Mary’s couldn’t know it was the pre-chorus to the end of its season, either.

Within 30 seconds, Mogar deposited the Blazers’ first goal. Then, just before game time expired, NDP finished a corner at last as Mogar whipped the ball into the shooting circle and senior Kendal Leeland tapped it in.

While the Saints huddled quietly to talk before overtime, the Blazers buzzed with excitement 40 yards away. Ross advised her team to remember the “three Ps” – possession, passing and patience – as they practice for overtime conditions.

That’s just what they did, she said.

“Every practice, we’ve been talking about this game,” Mogar said. “Every single day, we wanted this. It showed today – that was probably the grittiest game we’ve ever had. We all came together and we did it.”

Shock still dazed St. Mary’s as they met their loved ones afterward, Zarchin included. She couldn’t find a way to explain this loss to her players. She gave them hugs.

Four seniors will graduate, but the Saints return the grand majority of the roster in 2026. That did little to assuage Zarchin’s sorrow.

“My kids worked too hard to have that result. But they’re resilient,” she said. “We’ve been working on that since I’ve been here, and we’ll come back better next year and in control of our own destiny. We’re not gonna let anyone else do it.”

Have a sports tip? Contact Katherine Fominykh at kfominykh@baltsun.com or DM @capgazsports on Instagram.