Orange Live

PHIL BRODSKY

Orange Live Sports Writer

It’s been a busy time for the Amity field hockey team. During the last 10 days, the improving Amity field hockey team has played five matches.  They won two, lost one and tied one. Last week Coach Sarah Hale’s girls knocked off Southern Connecticut Conference rivals Lyman Hall (2-1) and Sheehan (1-0) but on Monday they were shut out in a not conference contest by North Branford (1-0); played Hamden to a 1-1 stand-off on Tuesday; and, were blanked 5-0 by Cheshire on Wednesday. After winning two and tying one of their last five matches, the Lady Spartan stickers have a 3-5-2 record.

In last Monday’s home win over Lyman Hall, the Trojans’ Allie Padilla scored the only goal of the first half. After trailing 1-0 at intermission, Amity battled back even on a second half score by Sam Testa. Later in the second half, with the match still tied at 1-1, Nicole Simon knocked home the game-winning goal.

According to Coach Sara Hale, “We really played well against Lyman Hall. Du ring our practices, we’ve been focusing on our communicating with each other. We talked more throughout the game. That was the key to our win.”

Amity outshot the 3-2-1 Trojans 7-2 and goalie Hannah Bercovici recorded just one save.

On Friday, the Black and Gold journeyed to Wallingford to visit Sheehan and happily came back home with its 1-0 victory. The game’s only score was recorded by Sam Testa.

“That Sheehan game was a great game for us. We didn’t know we were going to play on their turf field. It took us a while to adjust because the game moves much faster on turf than it does on grass. In the past by the time we make that adjustment, the games have been out of reach. This time, we did what we needed to do and adjusted quickly. This is the best we’ve looked so far. Up to now, this was our best played game of the season,” Hale said.

North Branford came into its match with Amity holding a 4-1-1 record, but Hale was satisfied that her stickers had held their own against the Thunderbirds.

She added, “We had the ball in the circle often and had a lot of chances to score. Unfortunately, we couldn’t score and that’s why we didn’t win. Either everybody or nobody goes after the ball and neither way is what I want them to do. We need people to go after and get the ball but we also need to keep some people back so the other team can’t go in behind our defenders and catch our goalie unprotected.

The T –Birds ended up with a 10-8 edge in shots. Bercovici made nine saves. The only goal of the game was recorded by Stephanie Hogan.

Sam Testa gave Amity an early lead and the Lady Spartans had a number of chances to add to their lead but never were able to cash in. Later in the first half, the Green Dragons added the game-tying goal.

Hale said, “When we played Hamden, we played a good game against a good team. We held them off from scoring for quite a while. Offensively, we know that Sam (Testa) is our most consistent scorer. She has proven that she has the ability to put the ball into the net.”

There wasn’t much that Hale was pleased about in the schellaching by Cheshire. She explained that the Rams have a long-established varsity program that has a local feeder system to constantly provide players with prior to high school experience.

“We were on turf again. We knew the game would be much quicker, but never got anything going,” Hale said. “Despite the final score, Hannah Bercovici had a fabulous game in goal.”

The Rams outshot Amity 21-0 and Bercovici had a busy night, making 16 saves. Emma Farrell scored twice for the 10-1 winners and Miranda Garcia added a goal and an assist.

Hale expressed her overall pleasure with the performances of midfielder Jess Krieger.

“Jess has played well in every game. She has good stick skills and is able to make great passes to our offensive players, setting up potential scoring opportunities.  She also comes off the ball very well and almost never makes a bad play or pass,” Hale said. “Even if the score doesn’t always show it, I’ve been very proud of my girls thus far in the season. They are working har; playing their hearts out; and trying to improve their communicating with each other.”

Hale’s girls host Fairfield Warde on Monday at 4 p.m.

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