LHS’ season ends; NRHS advances
Published 11:57 pm Tuesday, November 4, 2014
One Suffolk team moved on past Monday’s Region 4A South field hockey tournament quarterfinals, and one Suffolk team’s season ended there.
Lakeland High School traveled to Midlothian to play Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School, and the Lady Cavaliers were not able to generate much activity on offense. The Lady Green Dragons ended Lakeland’s season, handing it a 3-0 loss at the River City Sportsplex.
“Maggie Walker was a really good team,” Lady Cavs coach Cortney Parker said. “They’re undefeated this season, so far, and I think they have outscored their opponents, like, 72-3, so we knew going into the game, it was going to be a tough game, and it was.”
Possession proved to be a major factor in the contest.
“They kept the ball most of the game,” Parker said, noting it yielded the Lady Green Dragons 21 offensive penalty corners to Lakeland’s one.
Maggie Walker scored two goals in the first half and one in the second.
For the reason the score was not more lopsided given the massive penalty corner disparity, one needed only acknowledge the epic last stand of Lady Cavaliers senior goalkeeper Erin Bradshaw. She recorded 34 saves in her final high school outing.
Parker also praised junior Stasha Waterfield for her defense that helped limit the Lady Green Dragons.
Thinking about what this game did for her younger players, Parker said, “It was a good experience to play a team like that.”
Lakeland finished the season 9-10 overall, and its coach gave her assessment of the year and how it compared to her expectations.
“It was a year of highs and lows, but when I look back, we’ve just come such a long way,” Parker said. “They’ve far exceeded my pre-season expectations.”
She said she was proud of their progress in such a short amount of time under her coaching, and plans for their continued development via offseason training have already been put in place.
“We’ll be ready for next season, definitely, when the time comes,” she said.
Nansemond River High School hosted Midlothian High School on Monday, and though the Lady Warriors did not produce their best performance of the season, they went away with a 3-1 victory.
NR coach Ali Mowry was not pleased with her team’s play in the middle segment of the field, but she liked some of the things she saw when the Lady Warriors had the ball deep in Midlothian territory.
“The goals that we scored were nice,” Mowry said. “We had good offensive attack when we got up there. The play within the two 25s needs to be better.”
According to players and coach, Nansemond River needed to play more as a unit, spread the field more and not play down to its opponents’ level.
The Lady Trojans earned more offensive penalty corners, with six, than the Lady Warriors, which had three, but the home team did more with its offensive opportunities.
“Once we get within that 25, Claire (Janek) does a good job of pressuring their backs and making things happen in the circle, and I really thought Ashlyn (Rogers) did an excellent job tonight of keeping the ball on her stick and feeding passes,” Mowry said on Monday. “She had two assists tonight.”
Sophomore Ariana Samuel and junior Claire Janek scored early in the first half, assisted by senior Desiree Patterson and freshman Ashlyn Rogers, respectively. Patterson essentially put the game out of reach, scoring with 3:35 left in the second half, assisted by Rogers.
Also garnering the coach’s praise was junior Ashley Hiltabrand who “did a good job in the backfield stepping up. I think she really had a good vision of the field.”
Nansemond River (14-5) played its regional semifinal at Bailey Field in Yorktown on Tuesday evening against Tabb High School, which advanced past the quarterfinals with a 15-0 win over Churchland High School.