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Bethlehem field hockey players celebrate their 1-0 victory over Guilderland on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in the Section 2 Class A championship game at Schuylerville High School.<\/p>\n
Kyle Adams\/For the Times Union<\/p>\n
Bethlehem’s Finleigh McClain looks to navigate through the Guilderland defense during the Section 2 Class A final on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025.<\/p>\n
Kyle Adams\/For the Times Union<\/p>\n
Bethlehem field hockey players pose for a photo after their 1-0 victory over Guilderland on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in the Section 2 Class A championship game at Schuylerville High School.<\/p>\n
Kyle Adams\/For the Times Union<\/p>\n
Bethlehem field hockey players celebrate their 1-0 victory over Guilderland on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in the Section 2 Class A championship game at Schuylerville High School.<\/p>\n
Kyle Adams\/For the Times Union<\/p>\n
Bethlehem field hockey players celebrate their 1-0 victory over Guilderland on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in the Section 2 Class A championship game at Schuylerville High School.<\/p>\n
Kyle Adams\/For the Times Union<\/p>\n
Bethlehem field hockey players celebrate their 1-0 victory over Guilderland on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in the Section 2 Class A championship game at Schuylerville High School.<\/p>\n
Kyle Adams\/For the Times Union<\/p>\n
Bethlehem field hockey players celebrate their victory over Guilderland in the Section 2 Class A final on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, at Schuylerville High School.<\/p>\n
Kyle Adams\/For the Times Union<\/p>\n
Bethlehem field hockey players celebrate their victory over Guilderland in the Section 2 Class A final on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, at Schuylerville High School.<\/p>\n
Kyle Adams\/For the Times Union<\/p>\n
Bethlehem field hockey players celebrate their victory over Guilderland in the Section 2 Class A final on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, at Schuylerville High School.<\/p>\n
Kyle Adams\/For the Times Union<\/p>\n
SCHUYLERVILLE \u2014 The Bethlehem field hockey team had no intentions of going to overtime \u2014 not again.<\/p>\n
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Once Finleigh McClain provided Bethlehem an early lead on Sunday in the Section 2 Class A championship game against Guilderland, the Eagles knew they had to hold it.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe really just left it all out there,\u201d McClain said. \u201cIt was a hard game to keep up, but we knew we had to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
McClain\u2019s first-quarter goal was the lone score in the 1-0 championship game victory for Bethlehem. With the win, the Eagles (16-2 overall) dethroned Guilderland (11-6), which won the previous two Class A titles in 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s matchup also served as the rubber match between the two teams this season. On Sept. 8, Bethlehem topped Guilderland 3-0. However, on Sept. 29, Guilderland prevailed 1-0 in double overtime over the Eagles.<\/p>\n
With 3:42 remaining in the first quarter on Sunday, McClain found the back of the cage on an assist from Ava Austin. The Eagles’ defense held strong for the remaining 48:42, securing the shutout.<\/p>\n
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The goal was McClain\u2019s 35th of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about mindset. Every time we came out for the quarter, we had the mindset that it was 0-0,\u201d said Bethlehem head coach Dawn Austin. \u201cGuilderland is such a scrappy team, and they can come back to score and win, after they\u2019re down. We had to have that 0-0 mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guilderland\u2019s best opportunity to get back in the game came late in the third quarter, when it secured a pair of penalty corners. Bethlehem, however, wasn\u2019t fazed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat really opened our eyes that we needed to go out and get another one,\u201d McClain said of fending off Guilderland\u2019s corners. \u201cEven though we didn\u2019t, we tried our best.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Bethlehem controlled the ball for most of the fourth quarter to hold on for the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s paying attention to the details, which we focus on in practice, and working together as a team,\u201d Austin said. \u201cWe started our year with \u2018trust\u2019 on the back of our shirts, and that\u2019s really what we needed to do. We needed to trust our teammates and trust in each other on the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love these girls. That family feeling you get when you\u2019re on the field, they all love being here and they have so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bethlehem last won an area title in 2022, the season before Guilderland began\u00a0its run to back-to-back titles.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s a season that McClain remembers well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to make it full circle. I wanted to come back here with my coach, we were the only ones [left from the 2022 team],\u201d McClain said. \u201c It was definitely one of my main goals to make it back here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dedication, the heart and the commitment from this team, and the skill, really showed throughout the season,\u201d Austin said. \u201cIt\u2019s really, really great that we could cap the season off \u2013 so far \u2013 with this title. Guilderland is a tough, tough opponent. \u2026 and, this time, it was our day.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Bethlehem moves on to the subregional round of the NYSPHSAA tournament. It will face Section 3\u2019s Rome Free Academy (17-0) on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at Camden High School.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bethlehem field hockey players celebrate their 1-0 victory over Guilderland on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in the Section…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[1216,153,155,154,27246,1215,296,726],"class_list":{"0":"post-46067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-alco","9":"tag-bethlehem","10":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","11":"tag-bethlehem-news","12":"tag-hs-other-fall","13":"tag-latestnews","14":"tag-local","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}