Wethersfield - Not that Jenna Tucchio, quickly making her way among the elite coaches in Connecticut field hockey, didn't enjoy last season's state championship.

Not at all.

But she might have left the Class S state semifinals Tuesday night with an even greater appreciation for the accomplishment.

Tucchio, the coach at second-ranked Stonington High School, had just endured her team's excruciating 2-1 loss to No. 3 Granby in overtime. She knew her team played well. Which proves the point that the degree of difficulty in hoisting the trophy at the end is steep.

"This is not easy," Tucchio said. "It's extremely difficult to win a state championship. Once you get this far, everyone is equally as talented. The game goes to the team that executes the best. It makes you appreciate how difficult it is. The girls should be proud. Getting to the semifinals is a great accomplishment."

Granby's Brigitte DeGagne, who scored on her team's only shot of the first half, also scored the game winner a little more than two minutes into overtime.

She banged home a rebound of Olivia Johnson's shot that followed a brilliant move around a defender. Goalie Cameron Dreher made the initial save, but the rebound lay inches from the goal.

"That was agony," Tucchio said. "The ball was just kind of laying there. I knew it was going in."

Molly Crowley tied the game for the Bears late in the first half that Stonington dominated. That wasn't the case the rest of the game.

"I thought after scoring late in the first, we'd carry the momentum," Tucchio said.

"We seemed to suffer a little bit of a lull and didn't have those surges on the forward line we had in the first half."

DeGagne's game winner came after Granby was awarded a penalty corner.

"It's hard," Stonington senior all-state defender Margot Calmar said. "We gave it everything. I think we imagined another season like (last). To not accomplish that is really hard."

The Bears (17-2) had eliminated Granby from the Class S tournament the last two seasons.

Granby will play No. 1 Lewis Mills, which beat another Eastern Connecticut Conference school, No. 4 Killingly, in Saturday's championship game. Lewis Mills beat Killingly 2-0.

"It's unfortunate that this ended with an overtime loss," Tucchio said. "The kids played hard and played really well. This is one of the gutsiest teams we've ever had. They played so hard and dug really deep in tight situations. I was confident going to overtime. They've been very determined in adverse conditions."

m.dimauro@theday.com

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