In battle of unbeatens, Frontier Regional field hockey shuts out Northampton
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NORTHAMPTON — The Frontier Regional field hockey team improved its chances at an undefeated regular season Tuesday by ending Northampton’s.
The Red Hawks became the first team to take a lead against the Blue Devils this year and pulled away for a 3-0 win on the road.
"We're feeling like we know we can do this," senior Emily Williams said of the potential of finishing with the regular season unbeaten. "It felt really good to win this one. They are a D-1 team and they were undefeated, so it felt like a big game and it was great to win it."
Frontier (12-0-2) has four games remaining in the regular season, all at home. The Red Hawks, who have eight shutouts so far, host Greenfield tonight at 7 p.m. They then play Cathedral Thursday at 3:30 before wrapping up the season next week against Smith Academy (Oct. 24) and Mohawk (Oct. 26).
"I still think we need to work on defense. We've had to move some things around due to injuries after already changing things coming into the season," said coach Missy Mahar, whose team played to a 0-0 draw against Mohawk on Sept. 19. "Having four more games to figure that out will be helpful, but that's still one of our question marks that could hurt. However, I think with four games left, we are capable of really solidifying those things."
That defense impressed in Tuesday's game, holding the Blue Devils (13-1-1) below two goals for just the second time this season.
"They are awesome. They are a great team," Northampton coach Kathleen Ralls said. "They have a great defense, a phenomenal defense. The score is pretty one-sided, but we felt like we didn't capitalize on our chances the way we usually do. We weren't very sharp."
Frontier did a nice job limiting Northampton's opportunities in space and placed heavy focus on standouts Adrienne Pascucci and Meghan Harrington.
"We knew about Adrienne and Meghan and what big threats they are, so I'm very happy with how they reacted when (Pascucci) countered," Mahar said. "She made some nice runs, but I'm happy with how hard they played today."
Jordan Rowe put the Red Hawks on top with 19 minutes, 18 seconds left in the first half when she put home a rebound off a Brenna Sicard shot that was kicked away by Mary Greco (seven saves).
That marked the first deficit Northampton faced this season. The Blue Devils responded well initially, first when Pascucci made a long run down the right side that was denied in the end by Gwen Thayer (six saves), and then to earn a corner with 12 minutes left. Pascucci's shot off the corner attempt actually hit the back of the net, but was too high and immediately waved off.
Frontier took control from there and doubled its lead with 6:30 remaining when Sydney Judge sent a cross to Kacey Roberts, who slipped the ball into the right side to make it 2-0.
The key "was definitely our communication," Williams said. "We were talking a lot on the field and with our give-and-go passes. We really connected during the game."
The teams traded corner opportunities throughout the first 10 minutes of the second half before Williams iced the game with 20:20 remaining out of scrum in front of the net to make it 3-0.
"The second half was definitely much stronger," said Ralls, whose squad earned five of its seven corners after halftime. "The end of the first half, we looked pretty flat."
Northampton is now faced with having to respond to a loss for the first time, but the schedule seems to work in its favor.
The Blue Devils wrap up their regular season with three league games to determine if they will win the South Division title.
"We talked in August about what our goals were and the first one was to make tournament," Ralls said. After Tuesday's game, "I asked, 'What's our next goal? Was it to be undefeated? No. It's been a fun run. I don't feel relief that it's over. But our next goal is to win the league.' We have all league games left and that's what we're going to go for."
She also felt the loss highlighted a few areas that needed correcting and gives the team enough time to work on them.
"If we are going to take a loss, we have time to fix things before tournament," Ralls said. "The kids knew what they didn't do well. These are things we've done all season and we didn't do them."
Jim Pignatiello can be reached at jpignatiello@gazettenet.com.
