POLAND — St. Dominic Academy spread the offense around Wednesday afternoon in a Western Maine Conference field hockey contest against Poland.
Callie Samson, Hannah Trottier-Braun and Caroline Johnson each had two goals in a 6-1 victory.
“It’s nice when you don’t have to rely on one person,” St. Dom’s coach Brian Kay said. “We’ve got the whole front line, any forward can put the ball in the net. Even our midfielders, if they need to step up, they can do it. They are starting to come together and we have a little break between now and next week, which is unfortunate.”
It was a tough start for the Knights. The Saints were awarded a penalty stroke 1:52 into the game when a Poland defender stopped the ball from going into the goal using her foot. Samson made Poland pay, converting on the chance.
“What I was taught by my coaches all along is, make sure I look the (other) way than the way I am going to shoot,” Samson said. “So I think that really helped.”
Being behind the eight ball so early wasn’t what Poland was looking for.
“We knew coming into this game it was going to have a playoff atmosphere type of game, especially against St. Dom’s,” Poland coach Amy Hediger said. “We saw them quite a bit during the summertime, so we are familiar with each other, and it had that playoff type of feel. To start off the game with a penalty stroke, it wasn’t quite how we envisioned it. That added some extra pressure for the girls.”
Both teams settled in after the penalty stroke as defense was the name of the game for the next 18 minutes following the penalty stroke. The Saints (8-2-1) were able to get shots off in the span, but on their ninth shot of the game, Trottier-Braun stretched the lead to 2-0 at the 19:23 mark.
Samson notched her second of the half with fewer than three minutes remaining.
With the game looking like it was going to get out of hand, Brianna Doucette scored with 54 seconds left in the half to get the Knights on the board.
Poland carried that momentum into the second half, earning two penalty corners in the first four minutes after the break. They weren’t able to convert on their chances.
The Knights (5-5-1) had a glorious chance off a penalty corner with 13:30 remaining in the game as the shot was fired from the top of the circle. The goal didn’t count because the shot came from just outside the circle.
It was a set play that Poland was trying to set up.
“In practice, when we do our corners, if the corner is on we will yell, ‘on,'” Hediger said. “If it’s outside the circle we will yell for the tip. We do practice that quite a bit as if the shot is taken outside (the circle). We try to get it off quick as possible and if it’s out we do yell tip, but we didn’t have our sticks on it today.”
Down by two, Poland continued to push offensively and Saints’ goalie Abby Slonina needing to make a couple key saves to keep St. Dom’s up by two.
Slonina made three saves for the shutout. Poland’s Ashton Sturtevant made 10 saves. Ashley Cloutier also saw time in Poland’s goal but saw no shots.
“Our defense came up strong,” Kay said. “Abby, when she had to make a save, she made them. When we had to put the ball in the net, we did it.”
The Saints capitalized on Poland going for broke as Trottier-Braun was able to get by the defense for a breakaway goal with 11:34 remaining in the game.
“Because the defenders come out to meet you and if you get it past them, it’s an open field,” Trottier-Braun said. “It’s not running the whole time type of game. It’s more of a sprint and jog (type of game), I like to save all my speed for those quick rushes.”
Trottier-Braun again got behind the Knights’ defense and was able to find a wide open Johnson to stretch the lead 5-1 with 6:39 remaining in the game. Johnson notched her second of the game 51 seconds later.
nfournier@sunjournal.com
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