On a stiflingly hot Wednesday afternoon, the Atlee and Hanover field hockey teams faced off in a game to decide the early upper hand in the Capital District race.  In the contest played at Atlee, Hanover got revenge for three losses to the Raiders last season to take the game 2-1.

  It was an aggressive game throughout. 

  Five minutes into the game, the Hawks got on the board when Juliana Moore got in close and wrangled the ball into the goal from an Abby Bellows corner pass.
  Moore, playing forward and midfield on the left side was pleased to see a payoff. “We had been practicing a lot; we worked so hard, and we wanted to beat Atlee so bad…so we beat them.  We worked together, Abby Bellows assisted me.  It was very exciting.”

  The Raiders replied 14 minutes later when junior Cam Blair tapped one in off an assist. 

  “It was pretty exciting because I usually play center defense,” Blair said.  It was Blair’s second appearance at forward this season, having played the last three minutes of Atlee’s game at Douglas Freeman.  “I didn’t get much done up there, but the last game I scored,” she said. 

  Hawks’ forward, Maria Piccolomini definitely brought her A game, setting Atlee defenders scrambling to cover Hanover offensive plays.  Piccolomini, a senior, was a freshman the first year the Hawks began playing field hockey.  Time and again Piccolomini drove up the field with her teammates to keep the ball in Raider territory and set up shots on goal, many of which were successfully rebuffed by Raider keeper Annie Lassiter. 

  But the game-winning goal came on a breakaway when Piccolomini took a Bellows’ pass from the backfield and streaked up the right side virtually undefended with teammate Taylor Culley in the middle. 

  “Just get the ball in the net…team effort,” Piccolomini said she was thinking. “Make sure we win.”

  As Piccolomini closed in the last six meters, she managed to edge the ball past Lassiter on a cross shot that just caught the left corner of the net.

  Hawks’ head coach, Sarah Bottorff said her team played up to the standard of the goals they set. “I always expect my team to play strong,” she said. “I expect them to play good technical hockey; I expect them to play like we’ve been practicing.  That’s what I said to them before the game.  This is one of the games we’ve been working towards since August 3.”

  Communication was a point that was stressed and they took it to heart in the second period.  “I thought they picked it up in the second half,” Bottorff said.  “It was silent for the first ten minutes of the game. No talking. That’s something that we definitely need to work on.  We’re always improving.  We’re always trying to get better.  I think Megan Tripp had a great game; Sarah Hudson had a great game.  We just had a lot of people who really stepped it up for us tonight.”

  Playing eight seniors and seventeen juniors, the Hawks are not at a loss for seasoned talent, which should make them a formidable force this season.  “We’re very, very deep and we’re very, very fortunate we also have a deep JV team,” Bottorff said. “So I expect a lot out of this group, and they have risen to my expectations.”

  Certainly Atlee’s loss of nine seniors, six of them starters, from last year could not be denied.  Yet, head coach Alyssa Farling is very optimistic. “We have some good strength with our current senior class and juniors,” she said. “Girls I pulled up from JV did a really nice job on JV and have transitioned well to varsity.”

  Among those stepping up their play was Jessica Nunnally, who has demonstrated her talents consistently every scrimmage and every game.  “She’s really gotten much more aggressive and has great ball handling skills,” Farling said. “She plays really hard at wing on the right side.”

  Also rallying on defense were Becca Alston and Ally Ritchie, who consistently disrupted offensive plays by the Hawks.

  “I was happy with the game,” said Farling.  “I would have liked the score to have been the opposite, but I wasn’t unhappy with the way they played at all.”

  Looking for improvement, Farling will emphasize hustle.  “I feel like we kind of went in waves,” she said. “There were a couple of spots where I think we started to look tired; and we weren’t hustling to the ball as well as we could have.”

Hanover…..................................... 1 1—2
Atlee ............................................. 1 0—1
H: More, Piccolomini A: Blair
Saves: Kessler (H) 10; Lassiter (A) 4
Records: Hanover 1-0 Capital; 3-0; Atlee 0-1, 1-2