Athletics

Game Summaries

Varsity Field Hockey Season 2008

EW 0–Coxsackie-Athens 1 (2 OT strokes)

An exciting season opener for the Jesters today. The game was scoreless throughout regulation and through two 10 minute, 7 vs 7 and into the second round of strokes till the last stroker for Coxsackie-Athens sent the ball over the goal line. The Jesters played hard through the entire game, especially during the 7 vs 7 overtimes. Overall, we dominated possession throughout the game. We had 10 offensive corners compared to the five defensive corners against us. Midfielders Gia, Caroline, Martina, and Becca did a strong job supporting their forwards. Gia showed strong ball handling skills; she was able to cut through her opponents and set our offense into action. Coming off the bench and seeing some time in the midfield and the attack were sophomore Corrine and junior Jee. We have a very quick forward line this season with Sarah, Catherine, and freshmen Katherine and Emilie. Senior Bess is one of our returning forwards who is centering our forward line. We like to have her close to cage with her stick finesse. We had 14 shots on goal but just did not have enough push in our finish. Defensively is where we have a few of our returning players. Anchoring in the center is Caroline, and on the sides we have Leah and Hannah. New joining us on defense is senior Margaret, and juniors Jee and Martina. Hannah’s defensive play was a standout today. She was patient in her tackles and came up with the loose balls. Her hits out were consistent and hard. Martina stepped up her play during the two 10-minute overtime periods. In goal for us this season is a first year player, junior Sarah, who had an unbelievable experience. She saw every aspect of a hockey game in just this one game! She had 8 saves. We will travel to Taconic Hills on Thursday for our next league match-up.

The team is being led this year by senior tri-captains Caroline, Becca, and Caroline.  Joining them on the squad are seniors Bess and Margaret, seven juniors—Sarah, Gia, Hannah, Jee, Leah, Martina, and Sarah—sophomores Catherine and Corrinne, and two freshmen, Emilie and Katherine. Our team is quick, and one our goals this season will be to utilize our speed and create fast breaks up the field.

EW 4–AAG 0

The Jesters got their first win today on their home field against Albany Academy. We won 4-0 with 2 goals from Sarah, and 1 goal each from Emilie and Becca. Sarah’s goals were both by deflections off of Bess’s penalty corner hits. Emilie deflected the ball off a shot from Gia, and Becca deflected off a shot from defensive back Caroline. We dominated possession throughout the game. We moved up and down the field as a team. Our midfielders gave strong support to our attack. Our forwards all did well cutting onto the ball and taking the ball to space or sending it up ahead. We took 18 penalty corners to their Albany Academy’s 3.

During the second half we tried a new formation that seemed to help us control the field. Bess was placed between our midfield and defensive line to pick up anything that comes through, as well as offensively pushing the midfielders up field. She did an extremely good job channeling opponents and picking up the loose balls and sending the ball up the field. Albany Academy had a few runs to goal, but our defense held tough and kept them away, especially Sarah in goal. She made several key saves that if she was not there Albany would have scored. Sarah had 4 saves. We are home on Thursday with Ichabod Crane.  

EW 0–Ichabod Crane 3

The Jesters efforts were not enough today as we fell to Ichabod Crane 3-0. Our offensive line—Sarah, Becca, and Emilie—tried hard to get the ball to goal first half. Caroline, Gia, Martina, and Corinne worked hard at supporting and pushing the ball through to the attack. We received eight penalty corners first half but were not able to score. Our attack and midfielders needed to step up to the ball and push forward. Gia was working hard in the midfield trying to make something happen. Our defensive unit—Caroline, Leah, and Hannah—were doing what they could to keep Ichabod away but were making defensive mistakes that resulted in seven penalty corners. We were going for the one tackle and not being patient and forcing our opponents wide. Ichabod scored two goals first half.

Second half was better for the Jesters. Attack was keeping constant pressure on the ball handlers and forcing the players out. Our midfielders and backs were doubling and forcing the turnovers. Katherine, in her new position as back, was doing a great job with block tackles; she also was our flyer a few times on defensive corners. The play was staying longer in our attacking end of the field. Catherine, Sarah, and Emilie came real close in scoring. Margaret, towards the end of the game, had a key tackle and exploded out of our defensive corner carrying the ball. Ichabod scored their one goal in this half by a player on a long breakaway and our defense was not able to recover back fast enough to pick her up; it resulted in a one-on-one against Sarah. Ichabod won 3-0. Sarah had 3 saves. The Jesters are on the road for the next three games. Friday we will go up against Wasaren league contenders Hoosick Falls for a nonleague match up and then league play on Tuesday at Germantown and Thursday at Coxsackie-Athens.

EW 0–Hoosick Falls 2

Although the final score was 2-0 in favor of Hoosick Falls, the Jesters kept right on pace with them throughout the entire game. Besides our win against Albany Academy, this was our strongest performance yet but without scoring. We worked well together moving the ball around the field. Catherine, Becca, and Emilie did a great job moving onto the ball and sending the ball diagonally up to each other. Gia, Caroline, and Martina were working hard giving support to the attack offensively and defensively forcing their opponents wide as well as picking off Hoosick’s hits in the midfield. Staying patient and being tough in our back end were Hannah, Katherine, Caroline, and Leah. Although we kept them away form the goal, defense needs to pick up the ball handler sooner and not allow the fast break to happen, and when the ball is in the circle we need to mark tighter. Sarah had 6 saves. Hoosick Falls received 8 corners, and we had none. They had 10 shots on goal to our one. This is not going to win us games. We must get the ball into the circle and get shots off to cage. Tuesday we continue league play against the current second place team in the league, Germantown.

EW 0–Germantown 3

Germantown scored 2 goals first half, and we kept them to 1 during the second. They took 13 corners to our 4. We were chasing majority of the game. Starting with our forwards, we tried to pressure the ball handlers to the sidelines and force them into double teams. Emilie, Becca, and Sarah tried to get the ball to cage but just could not sustain the attack. Germantown was good at blocking up our free hits. Caroline, Gia, and Martina played hard in the midfield, supporting and trying to channel their opponents. Bess was trying to give that extra support in her position between the midfielders and the backs. It worked for most of the first half, but we could not sustain the attack.

During second half we changed up the formation and moved people around the field. We played with four people on the forward line. This gave us a little more attacking power. Catherine, Bess, Corinne, Gia, and Martina found themselves at times playing forwards along with Sarah. Emilie dropped back into midfield along with Corinne, Jee, and Becca. Caroline dropped to back. In the back, Leah, Hannah, Margaret, and Caroline found themselves switching on and off all game. This switching made a difference, and we seemed to get more attack going. Margaret and Hannah did well at tackling their opponents and coming up with the ball. Sarah was busy saving balls. She had 9 saves for the day. Due to illness, Katherine missed the game. We start the second half of league play Thursday at and against Coxsackie-Athens.

EW 0–Coxsackie-Athens 1 (OT)

We had another exciting game against Coxsackie-Athens for the start of the second round of league play. The game was won in the first overtime period, 1-0 in favor of Coxsackie-Athens. The Jesters played hard and played very well but just could not put the ball into the goal. We had 15 corners to their 10. Forwards Sarah, Becca, Emilie, and Catherine were doing a great job cutting onto balls and moving quickly up the field. Emilie’s persistence was an asset. She was constantly moving and played both attack and defense. She kept her stick on the ground and came up with balls. She was a major player in our fast breaks, and she was the “go to” player.  Midfielders Martina, Gia, and Caroline did a strong job supporting and moving the ball up the field. Martina had many opportunities to shoot up through onto the attack. She initiated many of our fast breaks. Caroline did a great job channeling her opponents, causing turnovers and transitioning us to the attack. She too found opportunities to play up on our attack. Gia, our work horse, was busy channeling and tackling opponents and getting the ball for us. She did a nice job directing the play from one side of the field to the other. She too got opportunities to take shots on goal. Our defensive unit worked well together and pressured in pairs. We did a great job channeling players to our teammate. We had several double teams. We were patient and timed our tackles effectively and came up with the ball. Leah and Hannah, especially, did well at this today. Sarah did a great job in goal and had 5 saves. There were about 10 seconds remaining in regulation when we were attacking the goal aggressively and almost scored, but Coxsackie’s goalie and defense fought us off hard as the time ran out and the game was scoreless and we went into overtime. Catherine, Gia, Martina, Emilie, Caroline, Hannah, and Sarah were our players for the 7 vs 7 overtime period. They tried their hardest, but Coxsackie got the opportunity and scored and won 1-0.   

EW 0– Taconic Hills 4

During the first half, Taconic was working their offense while our defense was trying to get themselves in proper defensive positioning. We were loosely marking and not staying on our marks long enough and as a result the Taconic players were getting passes and shots off inside our defensive circle. Taconic Hills scored their first goal within the first three minutes of the game. We took a time out to regroup and discussed what we needed to be doing. We went back onto the field and made some appropriate changes. Our backs were taking solid hits and our midfielders and forwards were running onto balls and working the small game using short passes. We had some shooting opportunities and took several corners. Taconic scored again, and the half ended with them up 2-0.

We had a terrible start in the second half. Taconic scored 2 consecutive goals within the first two minutes. We took another time out to discuss what was happening in our defensive corners. Sticks were up, and we emphasized that the stick need to be on the ground. As the half progressed the momentum changed some in our favor. We were better at moving the ball up field. Backs were seeing the open space and hitting the ball to that space. Midfielders were channeling their opponents with pressure as well as giving closer support to our forwards. Our forwards especially, Catherine was doing a great job cutting onto balls and creating momentum up field. We had 6 corners and had 8 shots on goal. We denied Taconic any goals for the rest of the game. Sarah had 3 saves.

EW 0–Scotia-Glenville 2

The Jesters traveled to Scotia in sunny, calm weather, and when we got to Scotia the wind was gusting! The entire first half we looked unsettled. Our play was sloppy. We were kicking balls, missing tackles and missing opportunities. Fortunately we kept the first half scoreless but the troubles we had with marking on the prior day was continuing to haunt us today. Scotia scored their first goal eight minutes into the second half and did not score their second till the last two minutes of the game. We tried a different line-up to see if we could spark some attack. As the wind settled down, so did we, and we made the necessary adjustments.

Second half our play improved and so did the weather. We were patient on defense and worked harder to keep possession of the ball as we moved toward our offensive corner. We had 8 corners but only actually took 2 shots on goal. Sarah made 2 saves.

EW 0– Hoosick Falls 2

This was the rescheduled game from September 26. Our line-up today included Gia on the forward line and Bess back on defense as sweeper. We played a 4-2-3-1 formation. Hoosick Falls scored a goal first half as a result of a missed foul call. Although the score at the half was 1-0 Hoosick, it should really have been 0-0. Our play first half was steady and quite even. Hoosick scored their second goal eight minutes into the second half. Caroline did a great job in the middle supporting her forwards and stepping up and pressuring her opponents. Forwards were cutting back for balls and then dribbling and passing the ball up field. Sarah and Catherine were very successful at this all game. They both had a great game. Bess’s play today at sweep was an asset. She took command in the back. In this position she was able to see what was happening and able to direct her teammates appropriately. She stepped up and stripped the ball from her opponents. Sarah in goal played the best we’ve have seen thus far. She seemed comfortable and confident with her play. She was assertive and stepped up and played her opponents. She had 21 saves. It was a whole team effort today and everyone seemed to play their best.

EW 3–Albany Academy 1

Coming off a solid played game on Saturday and practice on Monday the Jesters were ready and feeling confident going into today’s game. We started with the same line-up as Saturday, which seemed to work well. We were in control for the entire game. We spent majority of our time in our attacking end. First half, Sarah, Gia, and Caroline worked well together on the left side. They were cutting onto balls and using small passes. Caroline and Martina did well covering the middle. Hannah, Caroline, and Leah tackled effectively and kept moving us up onto attack. Catherine, Emilie and Martina worked the ball quickly up the right side. We took a total of 12 corners, 5 in the first half and 7 in the second. It took us a while, but we finally put the ball over the goal line. Catherine scored off a pass from Caroline. Gia, as well, scored off a pass from Martina. Two minutes after Gia’s goal, Albany got an attacking opportunity and scored. At the half we were up 2-1.

We continued to dominate in the second half. Our defensive group—Leah, Caroline, Hannah, Katherine—took opportunities to carry the ball up the field. Martina played some time up on our forward line. Coming into the game off the bench from time to time to help us out on the forward line and midfield were Corinne, Jee, Becca, and Katherine. Again it took some time but finally Gia scored off a pass from Catherine. Great offensive game today! Sarah had 2 saves.

EW 0–Salem 3

We started this last week of regular season with a non-league against Salem. Martina played an outstanding game. She was our MVP. She intercepted balls and started a lot of our transitions up the field. First half we played well but needed the wings to drop back further for passes. We got the ball to the circle but just could not get open enough to get shots off. We took four corners first half and three the second half. Salem took three corners first half. Their first half goal was a rocket shot that hit Sarah’s pads hard and deflected and rolled behind her right side. Half time Salem was up 1-0. We came out second half a little more aggressive. Gia began to carry the ball more, and Caroline and Martina were feeding the ball well to the forwards. Sarah and Catherine were better at cutting back for the ball and carrying the ball up the field. We had a few break away plays up the field but did not finish. As the game progressed, we tired and began to make defensive errors. Salem took 9 corners and scored 2 goals second half. Sarah had a total of 14 saves, 5 in the first half and 9 in the second.  

EW 0–Ichabod Crane 4

The Jesters played tough against Ichabod, especially during the first half. We came off the starting whistle with vengeance. Right side players Catherine, Martina, and Leah were working well together, giving each other good leading passes. Catherine and Martina, with spurts of speed, accelerated through their opponents and got the ball to our attacking circle. The backs and midfielders were supporting and giving leading passes as well. Unfortunately, we did not get shots to goal. Defensively, Bess, Caroline, Hannah, Leah, and Sarah held tough and kept Ichabod away for most of the half, but at seven minutes left, they scored and ended the half leading 1-0. We moved the ball well first half and needed to continue to play with this intensity.

Second half we started off strong but Ichabod picked up steam, and we began to break down a bit. We were having trouble keeping the ball away from our feet and getting a lot of calls against us and giving them free hits. As a result of us being hesitant at stepping up to the ball handlers, Ichabod was able to get shots off. Ichabod scored three goals second half. We did, however, have spurts of attacking opportunties. It started with Bess picking up loose balls in our defensive corners and clearing the ball out of the area. The backs and midfielders were able to get the ball moving up field. Gia began to carry the ball more, and her strong stick work enabled her to maneuver the ball around her opponents and towards our attacking circle and goal. There were some missed calls that should have given us corners and/or free hits. Jee, Corrine, and Margaret helped out a bit in the midfield and Katherine in the back. Sarah made 6 saves. The Jesters play their last league game for the 2008 season home on Thursday against Germantown.

EW 1–Germantown 5

This was our last league game of the season. Coming off a solid offensive game with Ichabod Crane, the Jesters were hoping to give the same effort offensively against Germantown. The play was going back and forth until Germantown broke through our defense and took a shot, and while Sarah was attempting to clear on the move, she missed the ball and it slipped through her legs to goal. They scored again with a shot coming from the right side of the circle that passed over Bess’s stick as well as Sarah’s. At this point we took a time-out and regrouped. It seemed to make a difference, and the momentum changed in our favor. We began to hold possession and move the ball up field. We were tackling better and keeping pressure on the ball handlers. Germantown’s third goal of the first half was questionable. The ball as it entered into the circle was kicked by a Germantown player and, unfortunately for us, was not called and the play resulted in a goal. The Jesters held tough and played on. Sarah and Catherine were doing a great job staying out wide and cutting back for balls and deflecting and dribbling the ball forward. They both did well setting up give and goes with their inside forwards, Gia, Becca, and Emilie. Martina a couple of times shot through to the attack. On one of our breakaways, Catherine and Martina worked the ball up to the circle, Martina sent a ball across the mouth of the goal, and Sarah deflected the ball into goal. We ended the half behind 3-1.

In the second half we moved Martina up to the forward line. We tried Corinne, Becca, and Emilie in midfield to see if we could start up some more offense. Caroline and the backs did a great job supporting and sending balls up field. Martina did a great job exploding up the field. She accelerated past her opponents. We had several shooting opportunities. Sarah did a great job backing up to receive crosses and was just wide of the goal on a few attempts. Gia did well maneuvering through her opponents. Our defensive unit—Hannah, Leah, Caroline, Bess, Katherine, and Sarah—held Germantown scoreless till the last four minutes of the game. Germantown’s fifth goal should not have counted. First there was an unmissed advantage call close to the sideline which should have turned over possession to us but did not, and as the play continued, the ball got into our defensive circle and was shot and deflected off an attacking shin and into the goal. Unfortunately, the one official was screened and the other did not see it. Sarah had 6 saves. Germantown won 5-1. At the end of the game we honored and recognized our five seniors—Becca, Bess, our two Carolines, and Margaret.

EW 1–Guilderland 0

An exciting and positive ending to our season. We played Guilderland and won 1-0! We were playing Guilderland evenly and the play was going to both ends. We were getting offensive opportunities as much as Guilderland. With five minutes left in the first half Katherine dribbled the ball out of our defensive end and started the transition up to our attacking end and passing it to Martina in the midfield who then sent the ball thru to the attack which resulted into a scoring play. In a scramble in front of goal Catherine got her stick on the ball and deflected the ball to cage and at the same moment Gia and Sarah got their stick on it and Gia got the goal. A great group effort! We ended the first half up 1-0 and kept the lead throughout the second half. Guilderland kept attacking us and were awarded corner after corner. Our defensive group, Caroline, Gia, Hannah and Bess held tough. We were able to keep the ball out. There was a close call towards the end of the game where the ball got around behind Sarah and the ball was on its way over the goal line when Bess out of no where made this crucial and incredible save to deny Guilderland the goal. Guilderland continued to attack and get corners. Although the official time ran out, Guilderland was awarded a corner but before they took it they asked for a time out. During the time-out Coach Parry told the defensive group that they needed to stay calm and keep their sticks down and the ball away from their feet. They needed to break up the play cleanly and get the ball out of the circle. Guilderland sent the ball up to the top, Gia ran after it, the girl passed once and then we stepped up. The ball popped up off sticks and then dropped down and a Guilderland player fouled which caused the play to be over and we won! Sarah had an incredible day in goal. She made 20 saves. This concludes the 2008 season. This was a fun and enjoyable season with an incredible team! On behalf of the team and Coach Parry, thanks to each and everyone of our supporters!