Smith Academy beats Frontier, stays perfect
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HATFIELD - The Smith Academy field hockey team does not ignore its undefeated record. Instead, it feeds on the resulting pressures and expectations.
"We keep it in mind because it reminds us that we have to step up and keep our record up," senior midfielder Jill Hopfenspirger said. "If we have a loss, it's going to be a big letdown to us and to our fans."
The Falcons faced a big challenge Thursday, squaring off with a rival Frontier Regional squad that was unbeaten in its last nine games.
Smith responded by controlling play throughout the contest and earned a 3-1 win at home.
"We've been preparing for this game since the beginning of the week. We all wanted to go out and play our best game. It was huge to us," junior forward Sarah Wickles said. "During school, we were pumping each other up. We knew it was huge and we're so excited to win."
The Red Hawks (9-2-1, 2-2-1 North) are unbeaten against all non-Smith opponents, having previously suffered a 3-0 loss to the Falcons on Sept. 10. They have outscored the rest of their opponents 40-4.
Frontier coach "Missy (Mahar) is such a good coach and the Frontier kids are such good athletes and hard workers. We knew that they would come to play," Smith coach Sherry Webb said. "They are really good and I somehow have a sense that we'll see them again" in the postseason.
Mahar, meanwhile, felt her team gave a better effort in the rematch with the Falcons (13-0, 5-0 North).
"I think we played better, considerably, than the last time. However, there are still some kinks that we need to work on," Mahar said. "We got beat on some balls, especially on our recovery defense. If we got beat, there wasn't someone to pick up and that's where they capitalized a lot on their goals."
Smith took control early and had six corner opportunities in the opening eight minutes, but could not use any of them get on the scoreboard.
"I knew we were going to get one. Every corner, I felt more and more confident that it was going to happen," Wickles said. "We reacted by just working harder and harder. It was more exciting than frustrating."
Steph Slysz finally broke through with 14 minutes, 52 seconds left in the first half. The Smith senior took control on the left side of the midfield and took a long run, broke right in front of the goalie box and then flicked the ball back to the left corner for a 1-0 lead.
"You can put on all the pressure in the world, but pressure doesn't count for anything if you don't get a goal. To get that goal was big," said Webb, who responded to the score by yelling out to Slysz "I'm breathing now!"
Strong play by Frontier goalie Bridget Stryszko (six saves) kept the deficit at just 1-0 going into the half.
"Bridget made some really nice saves early, really nice saves, when it could have gotten out of hand early," Webb said. "She did a real nice job."
Steph's younger sister Allison Slysz added to the lead with 16:14 left in the game as the Falcons finally scored off their 13th corner.
Hopfenspirger sent the corner ball in to Wickles, who found Allison Slysz in front of the next. The junior blasted the insurance goal into the left side of the box.
Wickles then scored a goal of her own with 7:01 left to put the contest out of reach.
"Smith played great hockey today and I can't take anything away from them. There are a few things I wish we could have done a little bit better, but I can not fault the girls for their efforts, by any means," Mahar said. "They played all 60 minutes. You can't fault them for that."
In fact, Frontier scored in the final minute, getting on the board with 21 seconds remaining when Lacey Judge's cross from the right side found Emily Williams open in front of the box. Williams scored the goal to end the game on a bright note after 119 scoreless minutes against the Falcons this year.
"Jess (Zewski) and Kacey (Roberts) are our leading scorers, but we need some help when teams are going to focus on Kacey and Jess and take them out. We need others to step up," Mahar said. "We still want to finish the season strong.
She added, "We are very excited about being in the tournament, but we still have a season to finish and we want to win out. To be able to do that, we have to improve our execution."
The Falcons, meanwhile, pull no punches regarding their hopes for the near future.
"We are planning to go far in tournament. This is the year. We have six amazing, wonderful seniors and we are ready," Wickles said. "We don't want it to end any time soon."
Jim Pignatiello can be reached at jpignatiello@gazettenet.com. Get high school updates directly to your Facebook newsfeed at www.facebook.com/gazette.hs.
