AUBURN — Edward Little perfectly executed its game plan and defeated Saint Dominic Academy 4-1 in a cross-town field hockey tilt Tuesday at Sherwood Heights Elementary School.
The Red Eddies’ objective was to seize control early in the game.
“I think the ladies worked really hard, and that was their intent, to be aggressive right from the first minute,” Edward Little coach Kim Joler said.
Edward Little mustered only two shots in the first quarter, but Hannah Smith made one those count with a goal that gave the Eddies a 1-0 lead with less than four minutes remaining in the first. Caroline Audette and Addie Chute assisted on the goal.
Smith was the offensive standout for the Red Eddies on Tuesday. She scored two more goals in the third quarter to notch a hat trick.
“She keeps our pressure down (in the offensive zone) and she had the speed and she’s super fast,” Joler said. “We like to keep her at top (of the circle), and we like to keep pushing her as the high forward.”
The Red Eddies continued to control play in the second quarter, firing three shots on Saints goalkeeper Sydney Stebbins. The third shot was a goal by EL’s Courtney Larson off a penalty stroke. Pilar Hewey then took for Stebbins after the goal and made four saves in the game. Stebbins finished with three saves.
St. Dom’s dropped its second game in as many days, having lost to Leavitt, a Class B school, on Monday. Head coach Abigail Bowie said that the back-to-back games against Class A and B opponents, even though they are losses, are making the Class C Saints a stronger team.
“I have learned my girls are super resilient,” Bowie said. “We can finish a game, especially if we start slow — that happens sometimes you start slow, but we finish it out, we played to the end.”
Edward Little got off to a strong start to the second half. The Red Eddies started with the ball, and Smith took it down the right side and fired a shot toward the goal, looking for a tip, but the ball went inside the left post for her second goal 31 seconds into the third quarter.
“I got a nice pass from Emma (Samson), and I didn’t see anyone on me, so I just went (down the field),” Smith said. “I just kind of crossed it, if anybody was there they could (have) got it in, but it went in.”
Smith wrapped up the third quarter by scoring her third goal with nine seconds remaining. She said she hadn’t scored a goal that quickly and that late in a half before Tuesday.
In between Smith’s two third-quarter goals, the Saints started to find their footing, and they were awarded three penalty corners in the first six minutes of the half.
“We definitely had the opportunities, and I know what we are going to work on at practice, finishing to score,” Bowie said. “That’s one of the things, we take these games with a grain of salt, we know what we got to work on the best that we can.”
The Saints broke Elise Sypher’s shutout bid in the fourth quarter when Lauren Fletcher finished off a feed from Anna Cote.
Sypher made eight saves in the victory.
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