WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — And so it begins.

After opening the season with a four-game winning streak, outscoring opponents 31-1 in that span, Hartford field hockey coach Heather Scudder was ready to see her team test its mettle against Bellows Falls on Thursday.

The match, an end-to-end overtime thriller that finished in a 3-3 draw, kickstarted the Hurricanes’ toughest five-game stretch this season. It will feature teams with a combined record of 16-5-1, including a return game to Bellows Falls on Wednesday, Sept. 25, and a match against league foe Burr & Burton two days later.

The stretch will have enormous implications on who takes pole position for the SVL-A crown. Hartford, which won its first league and state title double since 2009, is angling for both championships once again, Scudder said.

“They have six seniors, we have six seniors. Everybody wants it your senior year,” Scudder said. “The league usually goes on these two games.”

With 2 minutes, 42 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, it appeared as if the Hurricanes might emerge victorious when senior Madison Barwood ripped a reverse shovel shot from the left side of the circle into the back of the cage. It was her third score of the game and handed Hartford a 3-2 advantage.

Scudder said Barwood has an ability to “will herself a goal” out of thin air. The Hurricanes boss, now in her 36th year helming the program, added that had someone asked her last year whether Barwood could surprise in any way, she would have been hard-pressed to believe it.

Yet, Scudder still remains amazed by the in-game maneuvers Barwood pulls off.

“And then, when I say, ‘OK, you’re close to the end line, you have a low scoring percentage, she finds the back of the net,’” Scudder said. “A normal human would not, but she does.”

But Barwood’s hat-trick heroics were not enough to propel Hartford to a victory.

Sixty seconds after the Hurricanes took the lead, the Terriers found an eualizer off a penalty corner drawn by Terriers senior Emma Bazin, a University of Vermont commit.

Neither team was able to break the deadlock in overtime as Hartford and Bellows remained unbeaten on the season, each moving to 4-0-1.

Despite surrendering a one-goal lead on two occasions Thursday, Scudder was not upset by the result, calling the Hurricanes’ performance “their best game of the year.”

“All the years we play Bellows Falls, it is a dogfight. It usually ends in overtime,” Scudder said. “This is a fun game. This is what (Bellows Falls coach) Bethany (Coursen) and I look forward to every fall.”

Alex Cervantes can be reached at acervantes@vnews.com or 603-727-7302.