Spruce Mountain’s Ashlyn Williams takes a swing at the ball as Mountain Valley’s Courtney Carrier gets a stick in her path during Tuesday afternoon’s field hockey game in Jay. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)
JAY — After handing Winthrop its first loss of the season Monday, Mountain Valley field hockey coach Melissa Forbes couldn’t have asked for a better start from the Falcons on Tuesday in an equally important field hockey contest against Spruce Mountain.
The Falcons were the No. 1 team in Class C South, and the Phoenix were No. 2 heading into the final game of the regular season Tuesday. The Falcons carried the momentum from Monday, jumping out to 2-0 lead in the first six-and-a-half minutes of the contest.
That was all the scoring they would need, as they hung for a 2-1 victory over the Phoenix.
Following those two goals, Mountain Valley didn’t play its prettiest game.
“It wasn’t our best (game),” Forbes said. “I think the 25 degree temperature (difference) between yesterday and today was a lot. We were hanging on.”
Mountain Valley didn’t substitute often, but Spruce Mountain did — the Phoenix also played Monday, tying with Lisbon 1-1. Despite the change in temperature, they know how important it was to keep fresh.
“That has been our thing all season long,” Spruce Mountain coach Jane DiPompo said. “Our philosophy has been keep them fresh, keep them in and keep us fast. We are good when we are fast and we try to keep the pace (up).”
The emotion of it being senior day for the Phoenix — they recognized their 10 seniors before the game — was a factor to the slow start to the game, DiPompo said.
It was evident in the second half which was the fresher team, as the temperatures reached the high 70s and low 80s in the late afternoon. And the Phoenix tried to use that as they worked to climb out of their two-goal deficit.
Brooke Boute scored at the 7:09 mark of second half for Spruce Mountain, assisted by Emily Castonguay. The Phoenix offense rode the momentum from that goal and continually tilted the field to their offensive end.
They were rewarded with penalty corner after penalty corner, earning eight in the second half to the Falcons’ one. They had 10-6 advantage for the game.
While the Phoenix had their chances with the odd-man situations in the 25-yard circle, they couldn’t get too many clean shots towards or past Mountain Valley keeper Nora Tag.
“We have been missing the cage, we’ve been hitting the goalie, we’ve been doing all the things that (don’t) produce goals,” DiPompo said. “So what we’ve got to work on in the postseason is producing goals.”
As gassed as the Falcons were in the second half, the players dug deep to hold onto the lead.
“It was really scary,” forward Brianna Burgess said. “We were hoping to get the ball and get it out. Get the ball and drive it out. That’s all we kept saying to each other. Get the ball and drive it out.”
Burgess put the Falcons on top a little more than four minutes into the game when she put home a feed from Rylee Sevigny. Sevigny scored the game-winning goal just past the 6:30 mark. taking a rebound off Spruce Mountain goalie Melissa Banford’s pads and putting the ball in the cage.
Burgess said the Falcons’ game plan was to play to their strengths.
“We really didn’t think about establishing an early lead, we just thought, get the ball down the field we will be good,” Burgess said. “If we get it in the goal we will be good. Just keep bringing it down the field.”
Forbes thought establishing a two-goal lead calmed things down for her team.
“Because then we can try maintain composure and work on our defense,” Forbes said. “Winning yesterday helped keep this (game) under control. There wasn’t the quite the sense of urgency because of yesterday’s game. With those Heal points, we knew we could stay in second (no matter of the outcome Tuesday). It was either going to be first or second. These were two of the hardest games we had all season, and they were back-to-back.”
Mountain Valley’s Courtney Carrier controls the balls with Spruce Mountain’s Isabella Casienguay on her heels during the field hockey game in Jay on Tuesday afternoon. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)
Mountain Valley’s Faith Riddick and Spruce Mountain’s Hanni Johnson battle for control of the ball during Tuesday afternoon’s field hockey game in Jay. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)
Send questions/comments to the editors.
