Published in the September 12, 2017 edition.
Beat Reading 4-3 on the road
By DAN BYRNE
READING—Monday saw the Wakefield Memorial High School varsity field hockey team hit the road for the first time in the young season, as the Warriors made the short trip over to Reading for their second game of the year.
It’s been a few seasons since the Warriors have taken down the Rockets, but the girls came to play and put in a dominant defensive performance en route to a 4-3 victory.
“We had a great game today,” Head Coach Cara Luca said following the win, “Although Reading scored first we came right back and answered.”
A satisfied Coach Luca saw plenty to be proud of from her team saying, “Offense had a great game today bringing the ball up the field. Defensively we made a lot of great stops also.”
Reading opened the scoring in the first half to take a 1-0 lead, but the Warriors answered back to tie the score.
For the Warriors offense, seniors Vanessa Kaddaras and Olivia Cameron filled the stat-sheet with Kaddaras netting a hat-trick and Cameron assisting on all three goals.
With the Warriors up 3-2 in the second half, Cameron scored with an assist from Kaddaras to put the Warriors two goals ahead.
On the defensive side, the Warriors used some real strategy to neutralize one of Reading’s top players.
“We switched things up midway through first half and had Ava Vaughn face-guard one of their top players to try and shut her down, and it worked,” Luca said.
Wakefield’s defense was inspired by some outstanding goal keeping by the two Warriors’ goalies. In the first half Norah Coyne stood between the pipes and turned away 4 of the 5 shots she faced.
Alexa Pesce took the net in the second half and there was no let off from the bench, as she stopped three of the four shots she saw in net.
With a two-goal lead and 12 minutes remaining, coach Luca called for a timeout.
“We told the girls for the next 12 minutes they all needed to play defense, keep their sticks down, and intercept the ball,” said Luca postgame.
For the next nine minutes, the Warriors played stout defense and took a big chunk of time off the clock. The ever-relentless Reading attack kept coming, eventually braking through and scoring with three minutes to play to make the score 4-3.
The Warriors cranked up the D once again following the goal, and kept the Rockets off the scoreboard the rest of the way to bring home the victory.
After the win Coach Luca said, “We did a great job keeping the ball out of the circle. I am very proud of the girls today and I know how excited they are to win it.”
“We haven’t beaten Reading in a very long time,” the coach added, “So this game put them on a high.”
With the win, the Warriors’ record improves to 1-1.
They look to continue their winning ways later in the week as the face Lexington Sept. 13 and Burlington Sept. 15.
Coach Luca finished saying, “I am hoping this enthusiasm and energy takes us into our next two games vs. Lexington and Burlington.”
LINESCORE
WAK—2-2—4
REA—2-1—3
WAK GOALS—Kaddaras 3; Cameron 1
WAK ASSISTS—Cameron 3; Kaddaras 1
