BRIDGEWATER – Sign the Norwood field hockey team up for a major motion picture.

It was about this time last year that a heart-wrenching finish sent it home with an overtime loss in the Div. 2 state final, a feeling it’s held to this day.

After scoring with eight seconds left on a chaotic scrum in front of the goal in a Div. 2 state semifinal Tuesday night at Bridgewater-Raynham, the top-seeded Mustangs get back to the biggest stage on the opposite side of that thriller by beating No. 5 Canton, 3-2.

The ball bounced off sticks around the goal line as if in a pinball machine, finally sent in by a forceful push from senior Bridget Connelly to cap off Norwood’s second-half rally from down two goals late in the third quarter.

The Mustangs await the winner of Wednesday’s state semifinal between No. 2 Somerset Berkley and No. 6 Hingham in the final.

“I have two little boys and I don’t think they’ve given me a heart attack like that,” said Norwood head coach Allison Doliner. “We knew it was going to be a good game. As much as you don’t like having to crawl back from a 2-0 deficit, they did it, and I think it shows how resilient they are and how determined they are to kind of finish business this year.”

“If we want to win a state championship, you have to be able to kind of work through a lot of things out there,” she added. “I’m just so proud of this team, specifically the eight seniors we have. We have relied on them and followed their lead all year. They deserve this win.”

The buildup to the final goal was just as suspenseful.

Norwood nearly scored twice in the final few minutes, sending a shot up and over that Canton defender Ellie Young batted out of the air for a defensive save. The Mustangs had a goal called off shortly after.

But on a corner with under 30 seconds to go, Norwood star senior Shea Larkee – whose two goals tied the game and gave her 150 career points in three years – sent a shot that got to the goal line, but was stopped by a stick. It bounced to Connelly on the left post, then to the right post, back and forth on that side, then back to Connelly, and into the goal despite a wall of sticks in front of her.

“It was a relief,” Connelly said. “There was a bunch of sticks in there. I just saw the back of the net and I just really wanted to push it in. You saw my force. I didn’t even realize time was running out. I just wanted to get it in.”

“We all said it after, we were like, ‘This is going in,’ ” Larkee added. “We said, ‘No overtime.’ We didn’t want that tonight.”

It was about as fitting of a finish as it gets for a truly up-and-down, edge-of-your seat game.

Shannon Lane and Carolyn Schiavo each potted goals for Canton in the first and third quarters to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead despite another strong game from Norwood goalie Ava O’Neil (10 saves). The Mustangs fought hard to get one of those back for a long time, as Canton goalie Shealyn Murphy (13 saves) just about stood on her head to keep the shutout.

Norwood finally scored with just over two minutes left in the third quarter on a drive from Larkee. Then an expired-time corner play went to Ava Hines, who sent a rocket toward the net that Larkee tipped to the top right corner for the 2-2 tie entering the fourth quarter.

“We’re a very strong team and we all believed in each other,” Connelly said. “I think we’re really lucky to be back in the state championship again. And I think now, we have the experience and we know what to expect, and we can really build upon it and come out guns blazing.”