Cara Bradley was asleep recently when the depth of her family’s sports fandom was underscored by a racket from within the house she could only associate with a dire emergency.

“I heard yelling,” Bradley said with a tone of disbelief. “It was the Patriots game (a 30-24 loss to the Denver Broncos). My family was so upset over it.”

Don’t get Bradley, a senior at East Lyme High School, wrong.

Her passion for sports isn’t far removed from that.

This fall alone she played for the East Lyme High field hockey team, breaking the single-season record with 32 goals and the career record with 68, and the Hartford Junior Lady Wolfpack ice hockey team, which practices three nights per week in Cromwell. She hopes to play both sports at Trinity College, to which she applied early decision and was accepted.

A first team Class M all-state selection who led the Vikings to a record of 14-3-1 with a berth in the state quarterfinals, Bradley was named The Day’s 2015 All-Area Field Hockey Player of the Year.

“Very driven,” East Lyme coach Amy Lloyd said of Bradley. “She was always wanting to do the best she could to be the best she could. She’s so passionate, so intense, so focused.”

“My dad (Chase) is a huge Bruins fan,” Bradley said, by way of beginning the story of how she became an ice hockey player, which was her first sport at the age of 5. “He’s the ultimate hockey fan and the ultimate hockey parent. … I played for my first travel team at age 7, then I played girls’ (hockey) when it got to checking.”

She played for the East Lyme High cooperative ice hockey program as a sophomore when her brother Drew was also on the team. Chase and Jean Bradley’s four children: Drew, Cara, Zach and Matt all play ice hockey.

“I got checked eight times in one game,” Bradley said of the high school team. “My dad wanted to say something to the other coach, but I stopped him.”

The transition to field hockey came her freshman year, when she made varsity for the first time. The competitive nature was there, the aggressiveness, the knack for swinging a stick.

So maybe she annoyed a few of that season’s East Lyme captains by not knowing it isn’t allowed to use both sides of a field hockey stick.

It only took her one year to acclimate, however. She scored 16 goals as a sophomore, 17 as a junior and capped her senior year with not only the 32 goals, but 10 assists. She came into the 2015 season tied for the career goals record with Diane (Peck) Rothman (who established the mark in 1980) at 36.

Bradley scored four goals on opening day this year in a 6-2 win over Norwich Free Academy, a day Lloyd took one look at the forward and could envision the impressive season that was to come.

Bradley also scored all four goals in East Lyme’s 4-0 shutout of Windsor in the first round of the Class M state tournament. She competed in the state’s Senior All-Star Game and was selected for the third straight season to the All-Eastern Connecticut Conference team and The Day’s All-Area team.

“I’m most proud of my team this year,” Bradley said when asked the favorite moment of her field hockey career. “It’s the most wins my coach has ever had (this was Lloyd’s last season with the Vikings), winning the first-round game at states, having really great players around me the whole season.”

“She hits the ball really hard,” Lloyd said. “She’s really good at creating a little space for herself so she can get a power shot. She’s not one of those kids standing on the goalie’s pads, tipping it in.”

Bradley plays ice hockey from late August to early March, meaning her two seasons overlapped throughout high school.

“I struggle throughout the fall, but (ice hockey) is the sport I’ve always loved,” Bradley said.

“The ice hockey thing is what gave her a little bit of an edge coming in as a freshman,” Lloyd said, confirming she didn’t mind Bradley being a two-sport athlete in the same season. “She never missed a single practice, game, anything. You can’t just live in fear and not play (one of them). … She’s been a neat one to see grow and mature.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday

The Day's 2015 All-Area Field Hockey Team 

Player of the Year – Cara Bradley (East Lyme)

Forward - Margit Burgess (Stonington), Lexie DeVito (NFA), Christina Konstantinidis (NFA), Trinity Lennon (Stonington)

Midfield - Abby Blanchard (Stonington), Erin Craig (Stonington), Phoebe Seifert (Fitch/Ledyard)

Defense - Anna McCarthy (East Lyme), Emma Miller (Stonington), Sara Shukis (East Lyme)

Goalie - Cameron Dreher (Stonington)