HATFIELD — For most of the fourth quarter of Thursday afternoon’s field hockey game between Turners Falls and Smith Academy, the Falcons felt they were knocking on the door of putting home the go-ahead goal.

But the Thunder’s defense continued to stand tall, and they cleared away a Smith Academy penalty corner after goalie Clara Guidaboni denied a pair of point-blank looks from the Falcons. But with under two minutes to go, the ball found Smith Academy sophomore Bella Gavron at the top of the circle – a spot she is quite dangerous from.

Gavron bypassed a pair of Turners Falls defenders and freed herself up with a clean look on goal. She fired a blistering shot that approached Guidaboni in a hurry.

As the ball clanked off the board in the back of the goal, giving Smith Academy a 2-1 lead with one minute, 54 seconds left, Falcons players flooded around Gavron. They hung on to their lead for the remaining time to defeat the Thunder in a thriller at Judy Strong Field in Hatfield.

“Bella is a very talented player, and has good stick skills,” Smith Academy head coach Judy Strong said. “She just took it in right on her own, got by a couple of defenders and struck it with a hard drive. It was a nice, clean powerful goal and she did all the work, which she is capable of with her stick skills. And that was what we needed, because we were knocking on the door but couldn’t put one in for awhile.”

With the Falcons’ record hovering around .500 (6-4) heading into Thursday and their schedule consisting of tough opponents the rest of the way, beating Turners Falls felt like a must if they wanted to take another step toward achieving their goal of making the MIAA tournament.

So when Gavron’s shot made its way into the goal, not only were her teammates ecstatic, Strong was as well. The longtime Smith Academy coach knows just how important each win is.

“We’re hoping to go to the tournament, and a loss would have been devastating,” Strong said. “I don’t know what a tie would have done, but the win was huge. Our momentum, our confidence, it helps build all that up.”

Turners Falls walked away feeling just as good despite the opposite result. The Thunder may not be playing for a spot in the tournament, but with such a young team (nearly 10 middle schoolers, only two seniors), games like Thursday are encouraging signs that they have the ability to hang with teams in the area.

Considering Turners Falls fell to Smith Academy 4-1 when the two teams met back in early September, the Thunder’s improvements are clear. And having a shot to win in the final minutes is something Turners Falls head coach Renee Tela wants her team to get used to.

All in all, Thursday was a huge step forward for the Thunder.

“We definitely have gotten better as the year has gone along,” Turners Falls head coach Renee Tela said. “We played tough today, and definitely improved on our defense and getting the ball down the field … It’s much more exciting for the kids to play in games like this. Our league is more playable, so these games are really great. My kids look forward to these games.”

Smith Academy freshman Shae Moulton kicked off the scoring early on in the first quarter, as she received a pass from Alexa Jagodzinski and buried it home off the first penalty corner of the afternoon. The Falcons took their 1-0 lead into halftime, but Turners Falls had their chances to score.

About midway through the third, the Thunder capitalized on one of those opportunities. Ledwin Villafana saw a window to the cage, wound up and blasted the ball in to knot the game up at one.

Villafana did just about everything for Turners Falls on Thursday.

“He’s a really good player, and a great team player that everyone loves to play with,” Tela said. “He always has a great attitude. He works really hard to be the best player he can, and he’s always cautious of everybody around him. He’s such a great kid and a great player.”

The rest of the third and most of the fourth went scoreless, setting up Gavron’s heroics in crunch time.

The Falcons have now been on the better side of two close matchups this week, including a tight 1-0 win over Mohawk Trail on Tuesday. The more Strong’s group learns how to sneak out nail-biters, the more beneficial it will be for a team that has only one senior.

“They are rising to the occasion, because they have no choice,” Strong said of her underclassmen. “We’re playing these good teams, and they’re just being thrown into the fire and responding really, really well. Even though the experienced players carry us for the most part, their level of play has risen, and it’s helped us. To be this young and have this experience right now, it’s great for the future of Smith Academy field hockey.”