Brooklyn Bailey (#2) Sophie Ramino (#13) in the Valley game
On Monday, Sept. 13, 2021, the Haddam Killingworth High School Varsity Field Hockey team traveled to Deep River to face the Warriors. The Valley team was coming off two solid victories in the previous week so HK had its work cut out for them!
Unfortunately the Cougars where flustered from the opening whistle and never really got their game going. Credit Valley with strong stick work and discipline to keep the ball on their right side for the majority of the match.
HK found itself down by 3 after just the first quarter of play. Contributing to the confusion was players playing new positions with no time for practice, however the girls remained positive and keep pressing on. When we were able to generate some big hits we did manage to draw two corners in the second quarter. Unfortunately, the Warriors had 3 corners and two more goals.
After regrouping in the half we focused on winning the small battles, dodging to the right and forcing them their left. The third and fourth quarters where much better but we had dug ourselves a large hole and although Tea Norman had an outstanding day in net with 15 saves, it wasn’t enough vs the more experienced Warriors.
Freshman Maddie Catalano (#20) and Junior Kelsie Piela (#15) help goalie Tea Norman (#13)
With no time or practice to hang our heads we took to our home field on Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021 against Mercy. Defending our home field on Coach Patsy Kamercia’s birthday gave the team some renewed energy! The team came out with strong determination and was able to beat Mercy to the 50-50 balls. Although the game was tied 0-0 at the end of the first half, HK dominated time of possession and had the Mercy team pinned in their defensive end.
The second quarter continued to be a dominating attacking quarter for the Cougars. We managed to generate 2 solid corner attempts and scored our first goal of the season after a nice break way in the second. The goal definitely added to the positive energy on the field and sideline!
However, the third quarter began to show our fatigue from the previous day and Mercy was able to score off of a scrum in front of the goal. The game winning goal was also scored in the third after Mercy was able to draw one of their 5 corners for the game.
HK came out on fire in the fourth generating many chances on breakaways and drawing four corners in the fourth quarter alone. However time would run out as the team was knocking on the door and Mercy escaped with the victory.
Many players stepped up in the Mercy game and played extremely well including Brooklyn Bailey whose speed allowed her to generate several beautiful breakaways. Kelsie Piela played outstanding defense stepping up to defend and causing several major turnovers in the mid field. Once again Tea Norman was solid in goal! All of our forwards worked hard Brigitte Battistoni, Kim Falivene, Sophie Ramino and Jamie DiNapoli who scored the teams lone goal. The midfield did an much better job supporting the forwards and recovering back on defense. Captain Madison Keithan, Oliva Wettemann, Alexis Wettemann and Audrey Wrinn preformed very well keeping Mercy at bay.
After three games in a row the team is looking forward to a practice to work on the skills and strategy needed to secure that elusive Win.
