Thursday’s home game against Lafayette High School may not have been perfect for Lakeland High School’s field hockey team, but it ended in a 1-0 Lady Cavs victory, and it was a strong and refreshing improvement from the day before.

“I feel like we played really well,” Lady Cavaliers coach Cortney Parker said on Thursday. “We lost an overtime game to Grafton (High School) yesterday, 1-0, and this was like night and day, so we played really well.”

Lakeland senior Taylor Roten, who had the assist on her team’s goal on Thursday, said, “We got our flow back. We worked as a unit and spread the field out, just completely just all around faster.”

The Lady Cavs were happy to be on the winning side of the 1-0 score, and there was no question they generated a wealth of offensive opportunities against the Lady Rams.

“We’re playing that aggressive offense that I want them to play,” Parker said.

The aggressiveness helped the Lady Cavaliers produce 20 offensive penalty corners.

“That’s the most corners we’ve had in any game,” Parker said. “So, we’re in there, we’re getting that offensive pressure, we just have to finish. That’s what we need to work on.”

Roten said she thought one of her team’s other shots went in, possibly unseen by the referee, but she followed up that thought by noting that “we just need to work on finishing.”

The finish that decided the game came at the hands of senior Stasha Waterfield.

“When we flowed outwards, I saw her open and just hit it right in to her,” Roten said. “She called for it, so I gave it to her.”

Waterfield continues to be a leader for the Lady Cavaliers this season.

“She played well,” Parker said. “She really dominated. We’ve changed our formation a little bit, and she’s become my center mid, and she’s really performing there well.”

Meanwhile, Lakeland had a newcomer to varsity this year fueling its defense.

“Allison Thompson, who’s one of my freshmen, is playing my center back,” Parker said. “She had an excellent game.”

Lafayette managed only two offensive penalty corners against Lakeland.

The Lady Cavaliers (8-5) return to action on Thursday at York High School, a strong member of Lakeland’s new conference. However, the game will not count toward any kind of conference record or regular season conference title since none exists this year in Conference 27.

“I try to schedule Tabb (High School) and York, because they’re our top two (conference opponents), just so we can see them during the season,” Parker said.

The conference games will begin to count when the Conference 27 tournament begins following the regular season.