Canton posts field hockey win
Canton’s possession game proves too much for Sharon
Even though Olivia Kenyan was standing on the winning side all afternoon at Sharon High School, she also had to stand in the hot sun wearing full pads the entire second half on Wednesday.
Canton’s sophomore goalie was isolated nearly the entire game as Sharon (0-5) only managed to get into Canton (3-1-1) territory once in the first half and maybe twice in the second half. In fact, Kenyan didn’t finally save Sharon’s first and only shot of the game until the final minute of her squad’s 2-0 field hockey victory.
On the other hand, Sharon senior goalie Lauren Adams earned her keep despite the loss. She stopped 12 shots and faced 15 penalty corners without letting up a goal.
“Once they come at me more and more, I just kind of get ready,” Adams said. “If I’m gonna have to block shots I’d rather have them keep coming at me so I can be prepared. I’d almost rather be doing something than standing in the sun.”
Canton head coach Fior Griffin, who wasn’t pleased with her own team’s performance yesterday, was extremely impressed by Adams’ play in net. After the game she asked Sharon coach Peg Arguimbau who her goalie was and told her counterpart how great Adams played.
“Their goalie did a good job,” Griffin said after running off a laundry list of foibles from her own side, including passing, off-the-ball movement, tempo and confidence. “We had possession most of the game, but we have to want it, possession doesn’t win games.”
Griffin conceded one of the reasons the game’s pace was so slow was because her team was playing on natural grass for the first time this season.
“It’s hard to push the ball through the grass,” said senior center/midfielder Colleen Moriarty, who collected her third goal of the season at 8:54 of the second half. “I think we’ll be more prepared now that we know what to expect (on grass). We like the speed of the turf better. We’re more used to it because we have turf at home.”
Moriarty was joined on the scoreboard by senior forward Stephanie Sementelli, who took a pass from sophomore left forward Emily Dillon at the 13:13 mark of the first half to net her second goal of the year.
Griffin, whose team lost in the Div. 2 state championship game last season, is glad there’s plenty of time to prepare her team for another run at the title, but she’s not looking ahead.
“We still have a lot of league games,” she said.
In the meantime, Sharon is just happy to be improving. For the second straight game they played with a new defensive strategy that has allowed them to clear clusters out of the circle so Adams can see the ball better from goal.
“The last game we used the new positioning and only lost 1-0,” Adams said, “but before that we lost 5-0 and 6-0. So it’s making a big difference.”
Arguimbau agreed: “We’re improving, that’s what counts. Our goalie had a good game today. She’s more comfortable with (the new formation) and the girls are more comfortable with it. It’s working. We just had those two little blips. It happens, and, Canton’s a strong team.”
No comments:
Post a Comment