READING – Despite a valiant comeback effort from No. 9 Reading in a battle of unbeaten defending state champions Thursday night, the No. 2 Watertown field hockey team (9-0) showed it’s still boss with a resilient 3-2 win.

Toria Dicker scored twice on corners and the defense held off rallies in both halves, helping the three-time reigning Div. 3 state champion Raiders (9-0) extend their historic win streak to 84 games while ending the reigning Div. 2 state champion Rockets’ (9-1) win streak at 21 games.

Dani Bowers (two goals) scored in the second and third quarters to twice cut Reading’s deficit in half, but Watertown didn’t allow a shot on goal in the fourth quarter to seal its most difficult win yet.

After allowing just one goal all year prior, there’s no doubt for the Raiders how much this one will help them in the long run.

“It was good to see that people kept going, and they started to learn to get even more intense,” said head coach Eileen Donahue. “Within their area they kept fighting and hustling, and that’s something you’ve got to feel it, want it. … Congratulations to Reading, they gave us a game, and we both know they could’ve tied it or could’ve won it.”

All three of Watertown’s goals came in the first five minutes in each of the game’s first three quarters, showing an early intensity out of each break to get ahead.

It started with a dominant opening five minutes, in which Reading didn’t gain possession past midfield. The Raiders drew a corner penalty, and a send from Adrianna Williams toward the far post was finished off by Dicker.

The Rockets’ midfield and defense was tight despite the early deficit, allowing just one shot on goal in the first period while the offense accrued three shots. Watertown freshman goalie Brook Lambo saved them all for a 1-0 lead.

Trailing a power like Watertown by multiple goals is often a major mental hurdle to climb, something Reading was tested with in the second period. Reading goalie Sarah Hamilton (seven saves) was peppered with a few dangerous shots, and Rachel Egan set up Sophia Setouhi nicely for a 2-0 lead after the Rockets defense couldn’t get the ball cleared.

But Reading didn’t give in, needing just six minutes to draw a corner and capitalize on a Bowers goal for a 2-1 deficit entering halftime.

Yet, less than five minutes into the third, Watertown got the goal back on another corner-penalty score from Dicker.

“We just recently changed that, we put her up on those corners,” Donahue said. “She has the strong wrists, so she he had a good reaction. Last couple games, we put her there.”

The Rockets’ time of possession on the attack shrunk as the game went on, but not enough from making it a one-goal deficit again before the end of the third quarter. A big send downfield helped Bowers get a one-on-one scrum for the ball in the circle, which she won before firing in her second goal with 5:25 left in the frame.

From there, Watertown put on a defensive clinic. A similar type of one-on-one scrum came on one of the few opportunities Reading generated downfield, but Williams won it that time to preserve the lead and keep any shots from getting on net in the frame.

Katelyn O’Connor and Kaylee Master had notable contributions within that.

“My team, they didn’t give up,” Donahue said. “They just kept going for it and going for it. … Reading gave us a game, obviously, for them to come back from a 2-0 (deficit) and to make it as tight as they did.”

“Right from the start, we had the mentality of going in, going 100 percent,” added Egan. “We never underestimated them, we just wanted to go all out every single minute of the game.”