Since the inception of the Raiders’ field hockey program, Atlee has scheduled at least one game against a traditional regional powerhouse as a measuring stick. And every year the outcome has been virtually the same; a shutout of the Raiders leading to a multi-score win for a West End team.

  But this year presented a different storyline all together when Atlee traveled to Mills Godwin.

  The Raiders came into the contest ranked No. 4 in the latest Fox/Digital Sports poll and sported an undefeated record. The Eagles were 3-2 and sat at No. 8 in the same poll.

  “We’ve played them in the past and it was 6-0, 9-0,” said Atlee head coach Alyssa Farling. “I think we’ve come a long way to be evenly matched with a team like Godwin.”

  So the game acted as not only a top match-up but a chance for Atlee to serve notice that it had grown into a regional challenger. Though Godwin came away with a 3-2 victory, the Raiders left the field far from losers in the contest.

  When it came to play, the two teams served as a perfect example of the irresistible force facing the immoveable object. The irresistible onslaught of the Atlee offense was only matched by the determined and unyielding defense of Godwin, which Farling felt was a good test for her talented team. “They’ve always been strong and it’s the first team we’ve played that had a good defense,” she said. “It forces us, it challenges us to work hard on the scoring aspect, which we usually don’t have an issue with, but they had a solid defense, I’ll give them that.”

  Godwin got off to a quick start, taking advantage of Atlee nerves and jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first 15 minutes of action on a pair of goals from senior forward Haley Stough. The score matched the total number of goals that Atlee keeper Annie Lassiter had given up all season.

  That was when Farling decided to call a timeout. Her instructions to her team were simple. “’Take a deep breath,’” she told her team. Farling told her squad to play Raider hockey. “We have a good clean game, we communicate, we cut and our issue the first couple minutes was mental, it was not skill. I feel like they were just getting too revved up and they just needed to calm down and play their game, which they did.

  “I think the challenge with this was getting yourself calmed down enough to play your game because they know this is a big game,” Farling said. “They’ve been pretty pumped for this because they know this is a big challenge.”

  From the moment the Raiders returned to the field they showed why they had earned their ranking. On offense Atlee completely dominated, virtually keeping the ball on the attack of the Godwin goal for nearly the remainder of the game.

  However, at the same time, Godwin put on one of the better defensive displays of the season; refusing to yield the goal despite a continued onslaught of penalty shots from the Raiders.

  But Atlee finally broke through the defensive wall in the final minutes of the first half when sophomore Emily Dietrick slipped a shot past Godwin keeper Brooke Withrow to pull the Raiders within one, 2-1.

  Farling had started the versatile Dietrick at back but moved her to forward to push the Raiders’ attack. “She’s an aggressive player and she can play anywhere on the field,” Farling said of the player that is rapidly developing into one of the district’s best.

  Little more than a minute later it was Atlee junior Sonja Anderson who tied the game seconds before the half.

  The second half brought on more of the same, Atlee was repeatedly set up for shots in the box but could not break the Godwin barrier at the cage. At times the game resembled a ping-pong match between Dietrick and Eagles’ senior back Mary Claire Stoneburner. Deitrick would send a shot in only to have it repelled by Stoneburner back to Dietrick, back to Stoneburner…etc.

  “The challenge with this game was, it was a shot and a rebound and then another rebound, another rebound,” Farling said. “We’ve gotten very good at playing off the rebound and that’s how we typically score but like I said their defense forced us to try to rebound again and again and again.”

  Regardless of the discouraging inability to score, Farling was happy with the continued hard play of her Raiders. “Usually if we’ve taken that many shots we’ve scored a lot more,” she said. “But we played aggressively which I’m glad because they did continue to pound it.”

  With little more than seven minutes remaining, Godwin managed to move the ball into Atlee territory and scored on a controversial goal that turned out to be the game-winner.

  In close to the cage, Stough lofted the ball to chest height and senior forward Caitlin Walton appeared to bat it into the goal with a baseball swing.

  Yet over the final minutes of the game and up until the final play Atlee had numerous shots on goal that they could not convert due to the Godwin defense.

  Despite the fact that they did not pull out the win, Farling believes the game provided a valuable lesson for the Raiders that well help them as the season progresses, especially moving the ball in the circle. “We did have several opportunities where it was in the circle on a fast play up and we weren’t loaded up on offense as quickly as we needed to be,” she said. “I felt some times we were about a half step behind; hesitated just that one second too long and in a game like this you can’t hesitate at all. That slight hesitation is enough to let the other team gain possession. This is a good team for us to play because I feel like when we get to things like regionals this is the type of team we play. And we don’t play it that much in the regular season. So I’m not upset that much to play them in the regular season just to have that opportunity, to play a stronger team.”

  Atlee can take a huge step towards taking the Capital District crown when they travel to Lee-Davis and attempt a season sweep of the C-feds on Wed. Oct. 7 at 5 p.m.
 
Atlee .....................................2 0 — 2
Mills Godwin ..................... 2 1 — 3
A: Anderson, Dietrick
MG: Stough 2, Walton
Records: Atlee 8-1;
Mills Godwin 5-3