Sports

Bertucci’s Play of the Week

Few teams can pull off what the Girls Field Hockey did last Saturday. Trailing Loomis 1-0 for almost the entire 60 minutes of play, it came back to score two goals in the last five minutes, netting the winning goal with only eight seconds left on the clock. “We dominated the entire game, but it was frustrating because we couldn’t get the ball in the net,” said Captain Marissa Hudson ’04. “We kept it up, even though they were getting tired. We just out hustled them at the end when their coach had to yell at them to play out the rest of the game. We never complained, and things finally came together in the end.” After struggling to get the ball past the LC goalie for the majority of the game, Kat Dix ’05 was finally able to put PA on the board on a pass from Lauren Seno ’05. With the game tied, the Blue went to work to take the lead. With eight seconds left on the clock, Nikki Crocker ’05 took a free hit and slapped the ball to Seno. She fired the one-timer through the legs of the Loomis goalie. “It was really stressful because we were behind the whole time, but the team stayed on the ball and pressured their defense,” Crocker recalled. “I got a free hit and took it really quickly, before the other team was ready, and Seno was in the perfect spot. She had some great stick work and she got the goal to give us the win.” Coach Kate Dolan was proud of her team, “In terms of the last five minutes of the game, I would have to say that the team got what they deserved: they played hard and never quit and their efforts were rewarded with two great goals. The team never allowed their frustrations to get the better of them—they just kept playing.” “Every member on the team fought extremely hard,” said Dix, “and it was an amazing 60 minutes for our team and gave us all more confidence in each other.” Crocker was pleased with the team’s performance, “The win, especially since this was the first game, shows us what we can do as a team. It started out the season really well. The fact that there was a goal scored in the last eight seconds really showed us the importance of playing the full game.”