She was Molly Crowley, middle school soccer player, until her freshman year at Stonington High School. Then she switched to field hockey, where one of her first instincts was to be frightened of the line drives coming at her from then-senior midfielder Jackie Albert.

"I was so afraid of her going on varsity," Crowley said.

Since then, Crowley has rewritten program history. And that's saying a lot, considering Stonington's distinguished field hockey timeline.

In her career, Crowley saw the Bears achieve four Eastern Connecticut Conference titles, three trips to the state tournament semifinals, two appearances in the finals and a Class S state championship. Crowley, a senior and a first team all-state selection, scored 37 goals this season to set Stonington's single-season scoring record and establish the all-time scoring mark, as well, with 94 goals.

Crowley, The Day's 2013 All-Area Field Hockey Player of the Year after scoring six of the Bears' nine postseason goals on the way to a state championship, made herself even better in 2014 with a move from left wing to center forward and earns the honor yet again.

Stonington (17-2) won the ECC title for the 23rd time in the last 24 seasons and reached the Class S semifinals before bowing out to Granby, 2-1 in overtime.

"I knew by the time she had a few years of playing she was going to rock the ECC," Albert said recently, asked about Crowley. "But she went a step farther and has rocked the state. I'm very proud of her."

"She had these bursts of brilliance when we really needed them," Stonington coach Jenna Tucchio said of Crowley. "... All of a sudden, she goes from being strong and steady and solid to being supercharged. She just had the ability to take the best she had, and when the time was right, you could watch it happening in front of your eyes ... she could take what she's doing and amp it up. It's really cool."

Crowley came into her final season 20 goals short of the Stonington career record (77) held by 2014 graduate Elizabeth Morrison. And if scoring 20 goals in a season seems like a daunting task, it was.

"I had gotten 22 last season and I worked really hard to get there," Crowley said. "I think everyone was kind of expecting me to. One of our team managers, Taty (LaFrance-Boyce) was my goal counter. She kept telling me, 'You got this. You got this.' With the help of my team, my nerves went away."

As a senior co-captain and playing center forward, it was a different role for Crowley.

"I got to play next to (Morrison) for three years. I got so comfortable. We had such good chemistry," Crowley said. "But I love center forward. You have more control over the field and the forward line. This year I really improved as a player. I had to lead people on and off the field."

"She also had a lot of confidence in the team as a whole," Tucchio said of Crowley's ability to take over when the need arose. "It wasn't like everyone graduated it was 'all the pressure on my shoulders.' She had a great core of kids around her. There was a lot of confidence in her teammates and they have a lot of confidence in each other as a whole."

Crowley, who hopes to play in college although she's unsure where, said she loved field hockey from the beginning. Her mom, Margo, played field hockey at Stonington and it was the sport Molly chose when she was looking for a career change after playing soccer from third through eighth grade.

Crowley responded by scoring 16 goals as a freshman, 19 as a sophomore and 22 as a junior.

She described the mood on Stonington's senior night and at the recent all-state banquet, where she and Stonington defender Margot Calmar were honored as first team picks, as "sad."

"I've been really lucky to be surrounded by amazing players. Field hockey season is my favorite time of year. I look forward to it. I met all my best friends on the team," Crowley said. "I'm sad it's all over.

"... I'll never forget last year (and the state championship), but I'll never forget this year, either."

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday

The Day's 2014 All-Area Field Hockey Team

Player of the Year - Molly Crowley (Stonington)

Forward - Cara Bradley (East Lyme), Meagan Dreher (Stonington), Christina Konstantinidis (NFA), Casey Williams (Stonington)

Midfield - Abby Blanchard (Stonington), Jenny Sieczkiewicz (Stonington), Megan Weir (NFA)

Defense - Margot Calmar (Stonington), Kimberlee Grohocki (Waterford), Emma Miller (Stonington)

Goalie - Jodi Weiss (Waterford)