BURLINGTON — When Leslie LaFronz took the reins for Dennis-Yarmouth, she never imagined she’d take the program back to the top in two seasons.
But that’s just what the second-seeded Dolphins did Saturday, ending a seven-year title drought by defeating No. 5 Frontier, 2-1, for the Division 4 championship at Burlington High.
“I had no visions of the state [title],” said LaFronz, who previously coached Kean University. “You know it’s never going to be easy. You want something, you have to work for it.”
Senior Alania Manuel scored twice for the Dolphins (18-5) on penalty corners two days after netting the semifinal winner in overtime. She would once again come in clutch in the game’s final minutes.
“This doesn’t feel real,” Manuel said. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without everybody on my team.”
Frontier (14-5-2) dominated out of the gates, but D-Y junior captain Jenna Richard broke up their advances. The Dolphins dominated possession in the first half, but couldn’t get past the Red Hawks’ defense.
Manuel put D-Y on the board minutes into the third quarter, triggering Frontier’s offense to respond. The Red Hawks pushed down the field, and senior forward Ashlie Galenski fired one in from the right post.
“Throughout the season, there’ve been games that we’ve been down,” Frontier coach Melissa Mahar said. “They’re the team that stays resilient and shows grit. I credit them and their ability to mentally stay in the game.”
After a back-and-forth start to the fourth quarter, Manuel swept the ball from the left post into the net with 2 minutes, 18 seconds left in regulation. Frontier looked to even the score once more off a penalty corner with less than a minute left.
But Manuel sprinted to break up the Red Hawks’ approach, securing Dennis-Yarmouth’s first state title since 2018.
“In the last quarter, we were like ‘it’s the last push,’ ” Richard said. “We knew how bad we wanted this, so we just pushed. We knew we could do it.”
Alexa Podalsky can be reached at alexa.podalsky@globe.com.