MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA — It’s been a strong start to the season for the Manchester Essex field hockey team, and that trend continued in Monday afternoon’s Cape Ann League clash with Hamilton-Wenham.
The Hornets set the tone early and often, scoring their first goal of the afternoon just over two minutes in and never looking back from there en route to a convincing 6-0 shutout triumph.
“For us to score six goals is impressive, but when it’s distributed across our entire team, I think that speaks even more volumes to the depth that we have, particularly offensively,” Manchester Essex head coach Courtney Brown stated about the impressive offensive performance from her team.
Coach Brown stressed the magnitude of creating a broader offensive threat as a team, having more than just one goal scorer, and how it creates opportunities for the rest of the squad. In Monday’s matchup, the Hornets (now 5-1-1) got five different goal scorers in the win, with Laila Mears leading the way with two markers. There were also four different girls tallying assists, highlighting what was a complete team effort from start to finish.
Sarah Broadbent got things started, positioning herself quite nicely in front of the opposing team’s net, redirecting a pass from senior Summer Demeo and putting it in the back of the cage to ignite the fire.
The hosts’ second goal also came in the first quarter, only this time it was sophomore Sarah Cort collecting a rebound off an impressive save from Hamilton Wenham’s goalkeeper, Ava Baughn (6 saves). The shot was originally taken by Kiernan Day, but with Cort’s high intelligence, she put herself in a great spot to put the Hornets up 2-0 after one.
The second quarter featured the same style performance for the Hornets; they scored their first of four in the frame just moments after the whistle was blown. This time it was junior Abby Kent taking a shot from about 12 yards out and squeezing it past multiple defenders to increase the lead for the Hornets to three.
Shortly after the goal by Kent, it was Day trying again, this time coming up successful, once again off a short rebound following an initial save by Baughn. Day, showing how relentless she is, was stopped on her first two tries, and continued to follow her shots finally getting one past the Generals to put the Hornets up 4-0.
The last two goals of the day came from Mears, with her first showing off her coordination by redirecting a ball out of the air, and her second coming off an impressive pass from Kent.
The Hornets were able to get everyone involved much to the liking of coach Brown, but perhaps more impressive was the all around defensive performance that allowed the Hornets to secure the shutout.
“On defense, we didn’t even want the ball to penetrate the offensive zone,” said Brown. “We had strong tackles, we were able to stop them in transition and limit them to only two shots on goal.”
It was an overall complete game from the Hornets, one that will only help boost their confidence going into the rest of the season. Capitalizing on two out of their four corners and locking down on defense will be something other teams will have to look out for if they happen to run into the Hornets.
“I’m super proud of how they played today … I think it comes down to our mindset; we’re super hungry,” Brown added.