Even the most experienced teams, like the Oak Hill Raiders, who went to the Class C State Championship game in 2015, need a reminder how important it is to one another.
After a rusty first half in their Mountain Valley Conference opener against the Mountain Valley Falcons, the Raiders returned to form in the second half by scoring three goals in the final 30 minutes at Carrie Ricker for a 5-0 victory.
Oak Hill was led by Abby Asselin and Erika Hannigan, who each had two goals. Hannigan added an assist, while Maegan Sheehy had a goal and two assists.
The key to spreading the ball out is communicating with teammates in order to know where everyone is on the field. That didn’t happen enough early on.
“Communication and (we) weren’t spreading out,” Erika Hannigan said. “Once we spread out, the ball really started to flow down the field.”
After only having five shots in the first half, the Raiders quickly matched that total in the first five minutes of the second. The last three of those shots found the back of the net.
First, Asselin notched her second goal of the game, which was assisted by Kiera Young at the 6:22 mark. Then, Hannigan notched her second of the contest a little more than three minutes later. It was assisted by Sheehy.
Sheehy capped the scoring just before the 11-minute mark. Zoe Buteau setting the tally up.
“They just wanted it,” Oak Hill coach Betsy Gilbert said. “It took them a little bit to get going, they knew what they weren’t doing. They were misfiring, a lot of it was because of lack of communication. At halftime we talked about that communication, stronger passing. The girls did it. They stepped up and they came out very strong.”
The Raiders started to get going offensively midway through the first half when Asselin recorded Oak Hill’s first goal of the season, with Hannigan getting the helper. Hannigan scored off of the team’s fourth penalty corner of the contest with a little more than 10 minutes left in the half off a pass from Sheehy.
“Both of those girls are leaders on the team,” Gilbert said. “They stepped right up and they take care of it. Abby today had a very impressive game. She was really hustling after the ball, coming back moving that ball side-to-side. I am very proud of her, she had a great game.”
Abby and Erika both credited their teammates for feeding the ball
“Everybody was doing a good job sending the (ball) in,” Abby Asselin said. “It was a team effort to get the goals.”
Oak Hill had 12 penalty corners in the game.
Defensively, Oak Hill kept Mountain Valley away from their net for most of the game. The Falcons only managed to get three shots on goal.
“We have a great defense led by Lexi Fuller and Lindsay Wright, both of those girls are tremendous players,” Gilbert said. “They really stepped it up today and worked hard to keep that ball out of there in the end zone.”
For the Falcons, their struggles began before the game started as they arrived 15 minutes prior to the scheduled 4 p.m. start time. They were given a few more minutes to warm up, but couldn’t shake off the bad start to the second half.
With 11 underclassmen on the roster, they used the game like an extra preseason contest.
“I was hoping to be here 45 minutes before the game,” Mountain Valley coach Melissa Forbes said. “Everything becomes more difficult. I thought they were slowly working out of their glitches. They were slowly getting it, getting used to playing next to each other and their positions. Everyone got subbed and everybody was playing. They will get it and get better.”
nfournier@sunjournal.com
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