During her first season on the middle school field hockey team at Bement, Charlotte Johnson-Mersack was thrown into the fire immediately.

The Bement team didn’t have a goalie, and with the first game fast-approaching, a sacrifice had to be made. Given it was her first year on the team, Johnson-Mersack was asked – more so told – to assume that position for the season opener.

She stepped up to the challenge, and it stuck with her.

Now at Northampton High School, Johnson-Mersack wrapped up her sophomore campaign this past fall as the starting goalie for the Blue Devils – a team that won its most games (10) in a single season since 2016.

Johnson-Mersack’s efforts between the pipes has earned her the Daily Hampshire Gazette’s Field Hockey Player of the Year.

“I’ve always known that I wanted to play defense, but I never really knew it was possible for me to play goalie until I got thrown in,” Johnson-Mersack said. “It helped me develop a really strong love for the sport. It’s really amazing and surreal for me to see that what I did has played out with me getting this award.”

Her mom, Shaari, recalls the moment her daughter tried out to play goalie at Bement. It’s safe to say the decision to put her in the cage worked out just fine.

“When Charlotte sets her mind to something and wants to be good at it, she devotes herself to it,” she said. “It’s funny because she started playing goalie because she was at a private school and they didn’t have one. And then she was amazing. It was just a natural thing for her. I guess it worked out pretty well.”

Northampton made it to the state tournament with a 10-5-3 record this season, and ultimately fell to powerhouse Minnechaug 3-0 in the MIAA Division 2 Round of 32, but not before Johnson-Mersack stopped 12 shots – doing everything she could to keep her team alive.

The game against Minnechaug was one of several where Johnson-Mersack tallied double-digit saves, her best performance coming against East Longmeadow on Sept. 19 when she hustled for a season-high 18 stops.

Johnson-Mersack accumulated 82 saves in 2023, and 10 of the Blue Devils’ 19 games she gave up one or fewer goals – including four shutouts.

Having the best season in nearly a decade can be contributed to the sky-high team chemistry, according to Johnson-Mersack.

“I’m in shock, it’s amazing,” Johnson-Mersack said of the honor. “I’m genuinely really excited about this, and I feel like my team had a really good season. Whatever we did on the field, everyone was always happy for each other. We saw each other grow, and I feel like that was a change from previous years.”

And, of course, she gave a shout out to the players on the defense for making her life easier in goal.

“Our defense this year was amazing, and by the end of the year we were like a family,” Johnson-Mersack said. “This year I was more successful than the past because of the defense. We all communicated very well and it showed.”

After splitting time in goal as a freshman in 2022, Northampton head coach Meshia Begin gave the full-time starting position to Johnson-Mersack this year. Seeing the belief that Begin had in her as a young sophomore only reassured her that she was plenty good enough and deserved to be back there as the last line of defense.

The courage Begin had in Johnson-Mersack turned into a courage she then had in herself.

“My coach having trust in me kind of built up my trust for myself,” Johnson-Mersack said. “I was much more confident this year. I took confidence in my positioning, my decision-making, whether I was gonna make a glove save or clear, or whether I was gonna approach the ball or wait for a shot.”

With two more years still to go, Johsnon-Mersack still has plenty of room to bring more accomplishments to the Northampton field hockey program.