Sailors Sink Scoreless Bruins

By: Kyle Knopp

It was a quiet first quarter between the Park and Mount de Sales field hockey teams. But with the Sailors of Mount de Sales controlling the action in the midfield and shutting down Park on defense, it was only a matter of time before their offense made noise and the Sailors came away with a 4-0 victory.

The first strike came midway through the second quarter off of a long corner by the Sailors. After the ball was put into play, it bounced around the outside of the goal as both teams tried to get a stick on it. Finally, senior Emily Butler made contact and put the ball in the back of the net, giving Mount de Sales a 1-0 lead.

The Sailors had two more chances right before halftime, but a shot that went wide right off of a penalty corner and two big saves from Park’s goalie off a restart kept the Bruins down by only one goal.

The second half saw even more of an onslaught by Mount de Sales’ offense as the Sailors controlled the pace of play early on and were rewarded with two quick penalty corners. However, the Bruins’ goalie came up with three quick saves off of the first corner and made a big save to keep her team in it off of the second corner.

It wasn’t until midway through the third quarter that the Sailors could break the game open as senior Erin Rhinehart scored after a rebound found her stick. The Sailors would get another rebound goal at the end of the third quarter, this time coming off the stick of senior Alyssa Larkin.

Park showed life in the final period, but the Bruins' only real opportunities were shut down by Mount de Sales’ defense and Sailors goalie, senior Katie Marlatt.

“We really stepped up on defense and we are happy that we were able to get Katie a shutout,” said senior center/defenseman and captain Jess Phelan. “We were able to get steals in transition and at midfield and it all came together. We have only been scoring one or two goals a game so it was good to see our attack is starting to come together and we worked the posts well.”

Mount de Sales put the exclamation point on the game with a late goal by Rhinehart, her second of the game.

“We dominated today and came together as a team,” Butler said. “We have been solid all season and just keep getting stronger every game. We have so much potential and if we work harder and get even better, there is no reason why we can’t be in the championship game.”

The second-place Sailors have a tough test as they play their next five games over an eight-day span, including an Oct. 14 match up with No. 1 McDonogh, a team that beat the Sailors in overtime earlier this season.

“We need to stay focused,” said Mount de Sales Coach Duane Verderaime. “It gets tough this time of year to keep the girls focused because of all the other things going on, but if we stay focused we are a tough team to beat. We had bad luck with overtime earlier this season, but we need to come out and keep playing. McDonogh is tough, they are so fast and so quick, but I feel our team is where we need to be.”

Park looks to bounce back with a game at Maryvale Prep Oct. 9.

Posted October 8, 2008