Beating an opponent three times in a single season is never an easy task but on Thursday night the Hanover field hockey squad (16-2) pulled off the trifecta sweep of rival Atlee (11-3) for the second straight year.  With a 4-1 victory over the Raiders in the Capital District field hockey tournament championship game, the Hawks ran their league winning streak to 22 games.

  Although Hanover and Atlee entered the tournament as the two top seeds, neither breezed to the championship match. Hanover held off #4 seed Henrico for a 2-1 semifinal win and #3 seed Lee-Davis took Atlee to two overtimes before the Raiders escaped 2-1.

  Playing on the artificial turf at Sports Quest in Midlothian, the game took on a faster pace than the matches on Hanover County’s natural grass surfaces but both teams appeared up to the challenge. The action raced up and down the field but early on neither squad could capitalize on getting the ball in close.

  The Hawks finally broke the stalemate midway through the first half.

  In the 13th minute of play, Hanover senior Julia Dry found pay dirt, retrieving the ball off a block from Atlee keeper Hayley Smith and going on the attack from the right side for the score.

  The Hawks upped their advantage to 2-0 seven minutes later following another rejection by Smith, who had 14 saves on the night. Hanover senior Abby Bellows took the rebound and quickly fed the ball to teammate Michelle Knizner on the left side. The bang-bang play resulted in the freshman firing past Smith before the keeper could react.

  “She’s been great,” Hanover head coach Sarah Bottorff said of Knizner. “A real presence up top; she’ll fight for that ball and get in there and put it in there on you, which she did.”

  The Hawks added to their lead when Bellows connected from the top of the arc for a 3-0 Hanover lead.

  “Score early, score often is what we’ve been aiming at all season and we really pulled it out this time,” Bellows said.

  Just as they did in their final regular season matchup with Atlee, Bottorff felt the early lead allowed her Hawks to play loose over the remainder of the contest. “It kind of gives you a little more confidence with going in and playing your hardest,” she said.

  Likewise, Atlee head coach Alyssa Farling felt the multiple score deficit changed the mindset of her Raiders. Instead of pushing on offense, Atlee mentally dropped back into a protective mode. “I do feel like after that second or third goal, you see us, we feel like we need to play a little more defensively,” Farling said. “That hurts you on offense when you start doing that.”

  As a result, senior standout Emily Dietrick repeatedly moved the ball into scoring position and was unable to find help as most of her teammates were back on defense.

  To add to that disadvantage the Hanover defense created a virtual forest of wood between Dietrick and the goal. “They were all over us,” Farling said.

  Defense was a point of emphasis for the Hawks. “Keep them from scoring especially Emily (Dietrick) because Emily has a great shot,” Bellows said. “Keep her out of the circle, don’t let her have any shot, don’t let anybody have any shots, clear to the midfielders and go from there. The goal is to frustrate them, don’t let them have the ball and get an advantage.”

  The trio of keeper Bailey Lien, Rosie Easter and Madelyn Clark provided the majority of that frustration for the Raiders.

  “That’s what’s made us so strong the last two years has been our defense,” Bottorff said. “Madelyn Clark, Rosie and our keeper, they work really well as a unit and they work really hard to keep that ball out of the net for us.”

  Lien, who picked up 14 saves in the contest, repeatedly got up on the Raider attack and swamped the space between the uprights. Most notable was a second half shot from Bellows that rocketed towards the goal at head height. A quick sweep of Lien’s arm deflected the potential goal and set the Hanover offense back in motion.

  “I’ve been so pleased with her,” Bottorff said. “She’s come up from being the reserve keeper last year and not really playing in a whole lot of matches to being out starting keeper and just coming up big for us a lot of times this year.”

  But it was Clark that provided the most frustration for the Raider offense. “I credit #15 Madelyn Clark,” Farling said. “She’s a wall. She was on the entire backfield. She played really good defense for them tonight. Every time we hit it down there, there she was.”

  So much so that Farling gave her team specific instructions during a late time out. “That was our time out, ‘Let’s not hit it to Clark anymore’,” she told her squad. “Let’s make sure we hit it wide then cross it in.”

  Five minutes into the second half Atlee got on the board. Lein blocked a shot from Dietrick and junior Ally Ritchie corralled the carom and fired back past a diving Lein for the goal.

  The Hawks created the final margin midway through the second half when Bellows got low in front of a crowded box and somehow found daylight for a 4-1 lead.

  Both Atlee and Hanover began regional play on Monday after press deadline. Atlee played Central District #1 seed Thomas Dale while Hanover took on Matoaca.
  Making only the school’s second appearance in regional play, the Hawks feel they are ready to make some noise. “I think everybody around us was really shocked that we made it to regionals (last year) because nobody really pays attention to Hanover field hockey,” Bellows said. “But this year everybody’s expecting a little more. We’re expecting a little more and we’re really excited to go.”

Atlee…................................. 0 1 — 1
Hanover…........................... 3 1 — 4
A: Ritchie
H: Bellows 2, Dry, Knizner,
Saves: Smith (A) 14; Lien (H) 14
Records: Atlee 11-3; Hanover 16-2