Edward Little’s Jordan Cummings keeps the ball away from Lewiston’s Olivia Randall and Marissa Adams during Tuesday afternoon’s matchup at Sherwood Heights Elementary School in Auburn. Lewiston’s Mya Letourneau looks on from behind the play.
AUBURN — Lewiston and Edward Little did their best to get a full 60-minute field hockey game in Tuesday, but Mother Nature had other ideas.
The rivals raced to get their game in, but with 16 minutes to go, thunder clapped and rain began pelting the players, coaches and fans at Sherwood Heights Elementary School. The Red Eddies had a stranglehold on the game, and with more than one half in the books, EL rushed off the pitch with a 3-0 win over Lewiston.
The teams initially hoped the rain was just a passing shower. The teams’ athletic directors took another look at the radar on their phones and got the officials and coaches together to discuss their options.
With the radar not looking favorably, officials called the game off.
Lewiston coach Chelsea Fournier thought her team was just getting its legs when the game was stopped.
“I think this team is a second-half team,” Fournier said. “It’s really irking me right now, because I wanted to play the whole game. All in all, they are starting to step up to the challenges and they are starting to work better.”
From the opening whistle to the stoppage, the Red Eddies dominated the game. Coach Greg Perkins was looking for an offensive spark by moving Kiara Fournier from a back position to forward. The move paid off — she assisted on the first two goals in the first half and added the third goal in the second.
“She was playing a lot of back for us and after the Cony game, we wanted to see if we could get move punch up front,” Perkins said. “She does a good job distributing the ball. We made that move and it seemed to help us.”
EL lost its season-opener to Cony, 4-0, last Wednesday. One of the bright spots in the loss to the Rams was freshman goalie Elise Syphers, who made 23 saves.
Tuesday, she had a lot less action as her defense cleared any of the few threats the Blue Devils produced, Syphers saw no shots for the shutout as the Red Eddies improved to 1-1 on the season.
Perkins was pleased it was a quiet afternoon for her.
“She got plenty of action the last game,” Perkins said. “She had 27 shots and she stopped 23. That’s baptism under fire right there. So it was nice for her to get a little break this time and not have that pressure on her.”
Rebecca Raby opened the scoring with 12:51 remaining in the first half. The goal came off quick transition off a turnover in the Lewiston’s defensive zone. Kiara Fournier made a quick pass to Raby who was alone with goaltender Ashley Cronkhite.
Cronkhite made four saves in the game for the Blue Devils (0-2).
With 4:38 remaining in the opening half, Kiara Fournier found Oceanna Chamberlain to stretch the lead to 2-0 as the teams reached halftime.
Kiara Fournier added the third goal with 22:45 remaining in the game.
Chelsea Fournier thought her team was the best in the midfield.
“EL was really doing a good today,” the coach said. “They were starting to pass really well, they were double teaming, they were getting their sticks down and getting low. Midfield play was good, we were seeing give and go’s from both teams. We were seeing air dribbling, aerials, flicks, so the midfield play from the 25 (yard line) to the 25 (yard line) was great…I wish we could have played more.”
nfournier@sunjournal.com
Lewiston’s Katrina Jadocan takes the ball down the field with Edward Little’s Sierra Green in hot pursuit during Tuesday afternoon’s matchup at Sherwood Heights Elementary School in Auburn.Edward Little’s Jordan Cummings takes control of the ball from Lewiston’s Marissa Adams during Tuesday afternoon’s matchup at Sherwood Heights Elementary School in Auburn.Edward Little’s Anna LeBlanc pops the ball up past Lewiston’s Meagan Gosselin as Lewiston’s Grace Dumond runs up to join the play during Tuesday afternoon’s matchup at Sherwood Heights Elementary School in Auburn.Edward Little’s Kiara Fournier takes the ball to Lewiston’s Abigail Small as Lewiston’s Marissa Adams runs up from behind during Tuesday afternoon’s matchup at Sherwood Heights Elementary School in Auburn.
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