After 70 minutes of field hockey, the game remained scoreless. In the first meeting, the game was also scoreless until the last 8 minutes when Springfield scored, so UM was determined to “bring it” tonight and beat the Spartans for the first time in many years.
Right away in the first quarter, the Bears forced a corner and Olivia Torres shot a rocket to the goal! UM players on the field and sidelines thought the ball went over the line, then hit the post and came out, but no goal was called and Springfield got it out of the circle. The game was really back and forth with a lot of circle play for both teams. It was an electric atmosphere, with it being Springfield’s senior night! They had a lot of fans, but UM has a good fan base that travels well, so you could hear our fans as well!! - always supportive!!
Our defense was SO solid tonight, Abby Kelly just keeps getting better and better each game at right de and Addi Gans and Lyla Soleau were reliable the whole night. And of course our defense is led by our senior captain Tierney Hogan, who notched her 300th career save tonight!! Even though Springfield pressured in our circle at times, as coaches, we really had such faith that our defense would hold them. Hogan finished with 14 saves.
Bridget Hess was our anchor at defensive mid taking most of the free hits and controlling the game from her position. To get a more offensive push, we moved Bridget to left mid and put Harper Richmond in off the bench, where Harper took the opportunity to excel at the position for the whole 4th quarter, not letting Springfield into the circle. Taylor Pagano and Hannah Gardner, additional 10th graders in this very athletic class played hard both on offense and defense.
As the game continued Olivia Torres took control in the middle! She was able to use her stickwork and make great passes up to the forwards. We got several breakaways in the 2nd half, but couldn’t connect in the net. We know Springfield has a good back line and goalie, so we knew we had to find a way to score through working as a team and using passing. Senior forwards, Ella Gould and Melissa Torpey played their heart out tonight. They left everything on the field, were exhausted from the battle and should have no regrets! MJ Reilly was all over the stats sheet tonight using her stickwork to get by Springfield throughout the game. Sekai Bell and Gianna Jones also played well for multiple minutes at forward.
Bridget Hess summed up the night well, she said “Tonight, we played one of our best games this season and worked so hard together as a team. We had so much energy going into the game and especially into overtime. Even though we couldn’t come out with the win we're so proud of everyone and how well we played together.”