LEWISTON – Despite outshooting the Blue Devils by a wide margin in the first half of Tuesday’s KVAC field hockey match, the Red Eddies weren’t satisfied.
In fact, they were frustrated and arguing amongst themselves.
After a quick huddle settled them down, the Red Eddies took control after the break and cruised to a 5-1 victory.
“We were really frustrated,” said senior forward Breanna Wing, who scored the final two goals. “There was some (arguing) amongst us, but we pulled together and used our energy in a positive way. After the game, we apologized to each other for the negative energy.”
The Red Eddies (3-4) held a 15-4 advantage in shots at the break and had already been awarded 10 penalty corners, but the young, pesky Blue Devils (0-8) hung tough and trailed 2-1.
“They battled us,” said Edward Little coach Greg Perkins, “but we were letting them play us.”
The second half belonged to the visitors. The Red Eddies rung up a 20-3 edge in shots and continually put together one offensive flurry after another. A goal by Allie Forgues and the pair by Wing after the intermission helped the Red Eddies learn their lesson.
“We don’t have a lot of killer instinct and we don’t put teams away when we have the chance,” said Perkins. “In the second half, we moved the ball better in a controlled way. We have more skills and we used them. Hopefully (the girls) got that message.”
Edward Little scored in the first four minutes of the game when Daisy Grondin sent a ball across to the far post. The subsequent shot was blocked by Lewiston keeper Stephanye Doucette (19 saves), but Hannah Jacobs banged home the rebound.
Seconds later, the Red Eddies had the first of two goals called back when the officials determined an EL player did not strike the ball before entering the cage.
Midway through the half, the Red Eddies increased their lead to two when Allie Forgues collected a lead pass from Jessica Campbell and fired a shot from 10 yards out past Doucette.
A few minutes later, the Blue Devils struck quickly after the Red Eddies failed to clear the ball in front of keeper JoAnna Hughes (five saves). Forward Jordann Bessey was in a scoring position on the weak-side post and buried the ball into the open goal.
Doucette flashed many spectacular saves to help the home team stay close for quite a while. Late in the first half, she thwarted a breakaway by dropping down on her pads to make the save. Twice in the second half she stopped breakaway bids by Ally Butler. During one 15-second sequence, she stoned Butler three times from in tight.
“She’s been doing a good job,” said Lewiston coach Norma Heidrich. “The first couple of games (opponents) nailed her, and she was ready to quit, but she’s coming around. She’s had saves, after saves, after saves.”
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