Clutch and such

Goffstown Editor — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 15:45:00 GMT

New Boston native, Holy Cross star consistently showed mettle

BY MATT STOUT

It wasn’t the most spectacular of the 59 goals she scored for the College of the Holy Cross field hockey team, nor was it the biggest. But it showed exactly the kind of senior leader Tara Welch was for the Crusaders.

Driving hard to the cage in a one-on-one situation during a regular-season game against the University at Albany, Welch, a New Boston native, said all she could remember was being “completely taken out” by the opposing netminder.

The collision left her mouth bloody, head dizzy and, fortunately for Holy Cross, with a penalty corner. Yet, with the team’s usual striker sidelined, Welch had to pick herself up and take over – in a scoreless game, it was up to her to possibly break the tie.

“But it wasn’t something I had done very often to that point,” Welch said of taking the shot in the set play. “So I was kind of thrown into this role, I was already kind of out of it (from of the collision), and one of the girls on my team came up to me and said, ‘Come on Tara, you can do this.’ I just hit the ball so hard and it went in. It was awesome.”

That pressure, Welch said – with the team looking to her for an offensive boost – was something she grew to embrace. And whether it came in the second game of the season or the conference championship, Welch rarely failed to deliver.

In four years with Holy Cross, Welch left her mark as one of the best forwards – if not the best – to come through the program.

She’s leaving as the team’s alltime leading scorer in both goals and points, with 136. She led the Patriot League in scoring in each of the last two seasons, and her 46 points as a junior is a singleseason program record.

For it all, the Goffstown High product and former Class L Player of the Year was rewarded this past fall with a slew of awards.

Welch earned Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year honors, was named to the ECAC Division I first team and, according to Holy Cross coach Meg Galligan, became just the fourth forward under the 22-year head coach to be named to the NFHCA Division I all-region first team.

It’s a short list of great forwards, Galligan said, and Welch made it by never letting her teammates or coaches down.

“Some kids can sometimes seem like they have an off game, or you look at them and think, ‘What’s wrong with her today?’” Galligan said. “That never came to mind with her. She was just steady, always on fire, always ready to play. So in that way, there’s not one time (with her) that stood out.”

Yet, there were times she certainly rose to the occasion.

Though Holy Cross could never get past league powerhouse American University – three times the teams met in the Patriot League finals in Welch’s career and three times American won – Welch didn’t go down easy.

She registered 11 points in four league playoffs games through her junior and senior years, including two of the team’s three scores in a 5-3 loss in this year’s championship.

“With forwards, everybody wants to score, but there’s a fear when you get to the goalie,” said senior Susie Whelan, who shared captain duties with Welch. “Tara has no fear. She gets it done when she needs to get it done, and she does it at the most clutch time. She’s never afraid.”

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