Scholastic Notes
New England region
Maine
DESPITE NIMON'S HEROICS, GARDINER DOMINATES
The derby between Augusta Cony (Maine) and Gardiner (Maine) was moved under the lights of the Gardiner High football field.
Needless to say, the team that was used to the longer grass would be the one which would prevail.
"We're faster on a faster field, and it was slow today," head coach Moe McNally remarked to The Kennebec Journal.
Still, Gardiner was able to beat Cony 3-0, a margin that could have been even greater had Cony goalkeeper Natalie Nimon not stopped three penalty strokes over the course of regulation.
"Our focus this week was on penalty corners, and we scored on three of them," McNally told The Journal. "I guess next week we'll have to work on penalty strokes."
Vermont
UNEXPECTED MADE COMMONPLACE IN VERMONT FINALS
The action was expected to be hot in the cool atmosphere of the Vermont Principals' Association (VPA) state championship games.
But Harford thrashing Middlebury? Stowe losing its season-long unbeaten streak to a team with an 11-6 record? Mount Abraham Union having to beat the only field hockey school in America with numbers in its name?
Who knew?
Manchester Burr & Burton Academy (Vt.) was the story of the finals, beating Stowe 1-0 in the 64th minute of the Division III title match, as Kim Wagner finished off a breakaway for her golden goal.
The win denied Stowe a tie for the most state titles in Federation history; it still trails Moorestown (N.J.), Severna Park (Md.), Virginia Beach Frank W. Cox (Va.) and Wilmington Tower Hill (Del.).
"The girls have been playing well all year and they were psyched to get back to the finals," coach Julie McGraw tells The Manchester Journal. "We came out slow but we turned it around when we realized that we could play with them."
Just like in the movie "The Mighty Ducks," which the team watched the previous night as motivation.
Top seed Division II powerhouse Bennington Mount Abraham Union had to go through similar heroics to take down third-ranked U-32 1-0 in overtime. Sophomore forward Chelsea Jipner scored the golden goal for the Eagles. It was the Birds' third title in four years.
In the Division I match, Maisie Wong had a hat trick, and her third goal of the game gave her 25 for the year, a new single season state record, as Hartford (Vt.) toppled Middlebury 6-0.
INTENSE GAME SEES A FITTING DRAW
When Whitefield White Mountains Regional (Vt.) met Gorham (Vt.) in an early-season match, few expected the intensity that the two teams would show.
Like, 101 fouls.
At the end, the sloppy contest would end in a 1-1 tie after a 15-minute period of golden-goal overtime.
"We definitely did not want to come away with a loss so a tie is good for us," White Mountains head coach Jeannine LaBounty told The St. Johnsbury Caledonian-Record. "We held our own. I don't think we had the advantage on shots."
White Mountains was outshot 16-5 in regulation, but scored the opener in the 16th off an Amanda St. Martin put-away. But the Spartans wilted under Gorham's pressure eight minutes later when Danna Muise took a free ball inside the D.
LIBARDONI'S MANTRA PAYS OFF
In these days of pool-table skill hockey and space-age sticks, some well-worn truths still apply.
For Brattleboro (Vt.) field hockey coach Sherryl Libardoni, the lesson of the early season was "Go right," trying to get her players to attack their defender's non-stick side.
When Jan Carlson got the ball in open space in overtime of the Colonels second game of the season against Windsor (Vt.), a voice popped inside of her head. It was Libardoni's.
"I could just hear Coach Libardoni in my head 'go right, go right,' so I went right and got enough room to fire the shot back at the goal," Carlson told The Brattleboro Reformer. "We really wanted it in the end. We couldn't have wanted it any more than we did."
Windsor had taken the lead in the sixth minute before Carlson and teammate Kristen Thomas reversed the situation. However, the Colonels gave up a late goal while the team was trying to reorganize its defensive posture after Thomas was taken off the field for an injury.
"After Kristen got hurt we tried to re-arrange our defense, but we hadn't filled her spot yet and they capitalized on it," Libardoni told The Reformer. "It was a deflating score, but it spurred us on in the end."
MARBLE VALLEY DERBY GOES THE WAY OF BURR & BURTON
Sometimes, there's no better way to start a season than by playing your greatest rival.
And for Manchester Burr & Burton Academy (Vt.), it had been a while since they last defeated neighboring Bennington Mount Anthony Union.
Which, of course, made the Bulldogs' 2-1 win all the sweeter.
"Where we ended last year is where we're starting at this year," BBA coach Julie McGraw tells The Bennington Banner. "The team is finally buying into everything we've been talking about."
But the Patriots sent a message for the next meeting, scoring in the final 12 seconds of regulation to deny Burr & Burton goalkeeper Megan McKeever a shutout.
Which, of course, is typical in a rivalry game.
New Hampshire
WINNACUNNET CORNERING OPPOSITION
When Hampton Winnacunnet (N.H.) sees the umpire thrusting two arms towards the center of the goal, it knows what to do.
Get the ball to Stepahnie Giuca.
Her corner goals in the 18th and 38th minute of play have the Warriors an important 2-1 win over Dover.
"I think with some of the kids we have this year, we are able to execute on those," Winnacunnet coach Linda Osborne told The Hampton Union. "We�ve got an experienced front line, and with most of them seniors, they�re able to pull it together."
Some luck as well as skill was involved, as her first goal found about 2 1/2 inches beyond the Dover goalkeeper's reaching moonboot, and the gamewinner went through a maze of players before hitting the backboard.
GLAD-HANDING FOR PORTSMOUTH
In the opening of the season for Portsmouth (N.H.), it's been pretty much feast or famine for the Clippers.
After a tough overtime loss to Goffstown (N.H.) in the opener, Heidi Hand rectified the ship with five goals as Portsmouth sank Nashua (N.H.) 5-0 in the team's run-up to a powerful Salem team in the first week of the season.
"She�s relentless," Portsmouth coach Lisa Truesdale told The Portsmouth Herald. "She�d dodge two or three people and then put a nice shot on. She did that a couple of times."
Her last four goals were unassisted.
Rhode Island
LION-HEARTED LINCOLN SHOCKS NORTH KINGSTOWN
The last two Division I state champions met in early September. There, Lincoln (R.I.) was somehow able to come away with a 1-0 win despite being badly outshot and outcornered.
How bad? Try 15-6 in shots, 11-0 in corners.
But the Lions turned to their lion-hearted goalkeeper, Kate Newell, who made split saves as well as point-blank stops on the Skippers' attack.
It was the second game in a row that North Kingstown had been shut down for no goals to start the 2003 season.
"We had too many opportunities not to have put the ball in the net," North Kingstown head coach Julie Maguire tells The Providence Journal. "We missed a lot of post plays, crossed balls, and we didn't have much luck."
Before Bethany O'Dell's reverse-stick goal in the 54th minute gave Lincoln the lead, the Skippers hit two posts.
Connecticut
CONNECTICUT FINALS: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
Pomperaug (Conn.) played its state Class L final like an undefeated team and won like one, with a 1-0 win over Guilford.
But this championship, the fifth in six years for head coach Linda Dirga's team, was not easy. The team had to go though a tough semifinal with Norwalk, winning 2-1 in the third minute of overtime.
In the championship, however, the Panthers would be able to latch onto an Abby Maguire goal at the quarter-hour mark to take the win.
"This team had a special group of seniors," said Dirga to Voices News, "but we worked hard to develop all the players, especially the two sophomores that played today (Paige Moore and Caitlin Walker). This team came prepared."
In Class S, Granby (Conn.) Memorial had to get through six overtime sessions to get to its state championship game. And that experience helped steel the Bears in a 3-1 win over against upstart Lewis Mills.
It had been a transition year for Granby. Head coach Dot Johnson, now the school's athletic director, handed the coaching reins to Sandy Wickman-Mason.
"I had big shoes to fill," Wickman-Mason tells The Connecticut Valley News. "We had a slow start (to the regular season). We dominated, but we didn't score. After one tough loss, we sat down and reminded each other that it's the Granby tradition to win."
Ashley Bascetta had a pair of second-half goals to ensure just that.
In Class M, New Canaan (Conn.) was able to get a 33rd-minute brace from Jenna Blumenfeld for a 2-1 win over Wilton.
But the mere fact that New Canaan was even in the state final was an eye-opener. The Rams, although seeded fifth in Class M, didn't even qualify for its own league championship final.
New Canaan, however, found that something extra during the tournament. That something was goalkeeper Christie Parrett.
In the final and in the state semifinal match with Branford, she was outstanding.
"No one had faith in us, but this whole team had faith in us," she told The Stamford Advocate. "It feels good to show everyone they were wrong."
The win nullified Wilton's attempt to win its first state championship since 1976.
LEWIS MILLS DO THE UNTHINKABLE
The Heavens were aligned for Burlington Lewis Mills (Conn.), the perennial Bershire League also-ran, to make a statement just before the state tournament.
That's "Heavens" as in goalkeeper Kristen Heavens, who stopped all seven shots she faced, including a 52nd-minute penalty stroke, as The Mills beat Washington Shepaug Valley (Conn.) 1-0.
From the fourth minute, when the Spartans' Emily Howe stuck in a rebound, Heavens was, well, heavenly. She withstood tremendous Shepaug Valley pressure as well as eight second-half penalty corners.
"We all wanted this bad," Heavens told the Bristol Press. "This was the toughest game I�ve ever played in and winning it made it even more satisfying."
The Berkshire League, it must be said, has a number of the state's better smaller hockey-playing schools including Wamogo and Litchfield, and Lewis Mills had been at the bottom of the table. At least, until this year.
"This was the biggest win of my coaching career," head coach Maggie Tieman told The Press. "We�ve all worked hard building this program for three years and today was strong evidence of how far it has come."
And it also proved that the Berkshire League is as strong a conference as the Suburban One National and Wyoming Valley Conference in Pennsylvania, the Olympic Conference in southern New Jersey, and the California Interschoastic Federation's San Diego section.
"There was not a team in the Berkshire League that I thought can go undefeated this season, ourselves included," said Shepaug Valley head coach Jaye Stuart. "This league is very deep and anyone can be beat on any given day."
GREENWICH DERBY GOES TO THE ACADEMY
In the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, it is rare to see any crossover games -- even within a town -- between a public school and a private school.
This is what makes the annual field hockey match between Greenwich (Conn.) Academy and Greenwich High such an event -- one which usually brings an unpredictable result.
But for Greenwich High, their fate was sealed through an unforeseen tactic. Greenwich Academy head coach Angela Tammaro moved defensive midfielder Taryn Petrelli to the attack line.
And it worked. Petrelli's goal in the 26th minute helped the Gators to a 3-0 win.
"Every so often you come up with an idea or a coaching move that helps," Tammaro tells The Greenwich Time. "I just decided midway through the first half that it was time to move Taryn to forward. She had never played there for us this year, she's played a lot of fullback and halfback. But she's a very good athlete and I had an idea that maybe she can break through for us. And she did."
The win put Greenwich Academy at 11-0 to start the 2003 campaign.
SCOTTISH TEAM TOURS PRIVATE SCHOOLS
It's almost too appropriate.
Marr College, a school from the town of Troon, Scotland, sent a field hockey team -- replete with kilts -- to the United States to play New London Williams (Conn.) and The Pomfret (Conn.) School. And for the Williams game, a student will serenade the tourits with bagppes.
The team visited Connecticut for the first time in 2001, according to the Norwich Bulletin.
"They wanted to play someone in this area because they wanted to go to Clinton Crossing and go shopping," Williams coach Julie Bradley tells the Bulletin. "So they came and played us two years ago. We lost 1-0, but it was fun."
CONNOLLY'S EFFORT JUST ENOUGH IN EARLY TEST
You don't see a major rivalry game like Washington Shepaug Valley (Conn.) and Brookfield Wamogo (Conn.) to start a season.
But these two left fans itching for the rematch.
Shepaug's Liza Connolly scored in the final minute of overtime to lead her team to a 1-0 win.
For all of the plaudits and CIAC power points, Wamogo head coach Mimi Duran was instead focused on the play of her freshman goalkeeper, Lauren Zarella.
"I have never seen someone play so well in goal in her first game," Duran tells The Register-Citizen. "She made some great plays under pressure and kept her cool."
She withstood 11 shots from the defending Class S champions and was 14 seconds away from a deserved draw.
For last year's notes, click here.