BORDENTOWN - After a 3-0 loss to Shore in the final a year ago, Haddonfield High School field hockey coach Lindsay Kocher went home and sat around.

Saturday, she had bigger, louder and brighter plans. Kocher and her team had to meet a group of firetrucks ready to drive them around town.

With a 2-1 triumph over Madison, the Bulldawgs (19-5-1) took home the Group 1 state championship - its first in the sport since 1991.

“Just to get here last year was an awesome season,” Kocher said. “We didn’t come out on top but it was exciting for this program.

“To make it back here, they knew they’d have to work harder. I have no words.”

A penalty stroke early on boosted Haddonfield’s confidence. The exercise worked on every day at the end of practice paid off for senior forward Meghan Smart.

She crouched patiently before the attempt.

“I just took a deep breath,” Smart said. “I get 10 seconds, I like to wait five seconds to keep the goalie guessing.”

The strategy worked with a shot that went in the bottom-left side.

“It’s a lot of pressure because we wanted to score first,” Smart explained. “It was such a relief when it went in. I had so many emotions going on inside.”

With 6:26 left before halftime, senior forward Emma Feldhake padded the lead.

On a combination that sounded like a lottery call – 4 to 13 to 5 to 24 – Feldhake rapped a shot through traffic and hit the jackpot.

The digits, Jaimie McCormick to Smart to Caroline Bickel to Feldhake.

“I just tried to one-time it into the cage,” the eventual game-winning scorer said. “Luckily, it went my way.”

It wasn’t the last good fortune that would shine on the Haddons.

Dodgers’ (16-5) midfielder Elizabeth Romano scored with 19:55 left in the second half. At 14:43, Romano hit the post on the short side.

The clock stood at 10:49 when Romano got another try.

Her penalty stroke flew wide of the cage.

“I knew the odds were against me,” goalie Megan Maynes, who finished with eight saves, said. “When I saw it went wide, I was just hoping it really went wide.”

Haddonfield stood tall the rest of the way. As the clock wound down, Kocher began to jump on her sideline and look at her team.

In a split-second, the whistle rang out.

“It means all the hard work and all the practices, in the end when the buzzer went off, it all came together,” Maynes said.

Kocher detailed her champions’ process.

“We had a lot of ups and downs,” the Collingswood grad said. “Each day, they worked to get a little better. We were going to win together or we were going to lose together.

“We had bounces go our way today, which is nice. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes, it doesn’t.”

It happened for the Haddons after a quarter-century delay. A year removed from disappointment, the gaggle of parents, friends and well-wishers soaked in the postgame hug fest.

That parade around town could wait a bit longer.

HADDONFIELD — The Haddonfield High School field hockey team remains the top dawg in Central Jersey Group 1.

The top-seeded Bulldawgs successfully defended their sectional title with a 3-1 victory over second-seeded and Colonial Conference rival Collingswood on Thursday.

“It’s a nice feeling,” Haddonfield coach Lindsay Kocher said. “They worked hard all season. We had some ups and downs, but they really started to believe in one another. Just doing the little details that we’ve been going over. They laid it out there today against a very good Collingswood team. The fans got their money's worth.”

Haddonfield (17-5-1) dominated Collingswood in corners, as the Bulldawgs collected 15 in the contest (13 in the first half) compared to the Panthers’ four. Haddonfield generated four corners came in the opening five minutes.

“I thought we had opportunities, we just couldn’t finish,” Kocher said. “They stayed with it. They kept giving it the second, the third, the fourth efforts. I told them, ‘Hey, we have to keep doing that. Eventually it will fall."

On the Haddonfield's fourth corner, Sophie Popp opened the scoring at 25-minute, 36-second mark of the first half. The corner was hit to Meghan Smart at the top of the circle before the ball eventually made its way into a scrum out front where Popp knocked it home.

“I think it just set the tone for us to know we really had the game and that we were going to win,” Popp, a junior forward, said. “We knew we had to score and get that mindset that we could actually win this game. I think we did that.”

As the scoring chances piled up for Haddonfield, Collingswood’s defense bounced back to keep the Panthers within striking distance.

Even when the Bulldawgs' Emma Feldhake made it 2-0 with 14:10 to play before halftime, the Panthers didn’t flinch.

That’s when Collingswood (18-4-1) started picking up some momentum of its own, just missing a goal on a deflection that went high. Minutes later, Morgan McConnell stole the ball inside the circle and ripped a shot to cut Haddonfield’s lead in half.

However, much like they did at the beginning of the game, the Bulldawgs quickly struck again just after intermission. Within the opening minute of the second half, Haddonfield converted another scoring opportunity off a corner when Caroline Bickel collected the insurance marker.

From that point, Haddonfield knew it could sit back a little bit and play defense, something it did well all afternoon. Despite the Panthers earning three corners in the second half, the Bulldawgs didn’t allow many strong offensive chances.

Smart and Bickel were both big parts in the defensive play, disrupting passes throughout the second half and not letting Collingswood to get into any sort of rhythm. The duo, alongside the rest of Haddonfield’s offense, kept Jackie Giordano, the Panthers' top scorer, quiet and helped goalie Megan Maynes control their end of the field.

“We really just talked it out down there,” Smart said. “Megan Maynes told us to just get it out, stay composed and move our feet. We knew that people from the 50 would get it back and just get it out.”

Daniel Spevak; (856) 486-2424; cpvarsity@gmail.com

Haddonfield 3, Collingswood 1

Player of the game: Sophie Popp for getting the scoring going for Haddonfield early.

Play of the game: Morgan McConnell stole the ball away from the Haddonfield defense inside the circle, turned and ripped a shot that rocketed into the net. It cut Haddonfield’s lead in half with 8:04 left in the first half.

Well said: “Collingswood is a great team, and we knew if we didn’t do it early they would have as much confidence as we had and it would’ve been a much harder game.” - Caroline Bickel