NEEDHAM – Coming off consecutive seasons of falling within the Div. 1 remaining, the No. 2 Walpole area hockey crew offered one other early instance of how robust of a candidate it’s to recover from the hump this 12 months by downing fellow Bay State Conference energy No. 12 Needham, 4-1, on Wednesday.
Three of the Porkers’ (5-0) targets got here within the second half, utilizing 4 completely different scorers to tug away from a defensive battle towards one of the vital athletic groups on their schedule. The Rockets’ (3-1) elite velocity up entrance wasn’t sufficient to match that scoring tempo, as Walpole’s protection had a solution for each breakaway and held them scoreless earlier than constructing a four-goal lead early within the fourth quarter.
Kerin Birch, Elena Govoni, Kate Schneider and Izzy Adams scored for the Porkers in a sport a lot nearer than the ultimate suggests.
“We struggle against them every year because they’re just so physical, and they’re fast – they’re athletic,” stated Walpole head coach Jen Quinn. “I think this is a good win because this is more of a gritty win, so I love that. … I love when (we) can pull that out and do that.”
Needham successfully restricted the Porkers by means of a lot of the primary half, plugging gaps contained in the circle to face up to most of their six nook alternatives earlier than the break. Aside from a fluid give-and-go between Birch and Caitlyn Naughton (two assists) throughout a nook that led to a Birch objective with 8:02 left within the second quarter, the Rockets dealt with Walpole’s versatile assault to path simply 1-0 at halftime.
It didn’t take lengthy from there for the Porkers to blow the sport open, although. Continued stress contained in the circle generated one in every of its 11 whole corners inside the first three minutes of the third, which Govoni capitalized on by lifting a shot over goalie Allie Curtis (eight saves) for a 2-0 lead. Schneider’s objective proper by the pads close to the top of the body made it 3-0, and Adams slammed within the remaining rating with 12:02 left to go.
“The change was (our team) starting to try to work around instead of trying to go through (the defense),” Quinn stated. “In the second half, we had much better passing combinations.”
Needham’s Lily Schmalz and Olivia Alper led an assault that stored producing potential breakaways all through, with Schmalz exhibiting off velocity to get behind the midfield regularly. Still, Schmalz’s objective with beneath seven minutes left was solely the second shot on objective Walpole’s protection allowed.
“They’re a really good team, they’re really fast,” stated senior defender Katie Colleran. “One thing we were really focusing on was the marking, sometimes we struggle with that and I thought we did a really good job of calling players. … We’ve all really come together.”
Colleran was on the forefront of that effort, regularly serving as the ultimate velocity bump to any Rockets participant carrying the ball down the sector with one or two defenders left to beat – whether or not it was on both sideline, or down the center of the sector.
“That’s what we want her to do,” Quinn stated. “She’s kind of that last line of defense and she supports wherever the ball is.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com