Winthrop’s Moriah Hajduk drives the ball down the field while being followed by Dirigo’s Alexa Varnum at Winthrop High School during the 2017 season. (Sun Journal photo by Andree Kehn)
This season checked all the boxes for Moriah Hajduk.
Most importantly, the senior forward/midfield helped lead Winthrop to its first field hockey state championship since 1989 with a victory over over Spruce Mountain.
“It was just perfect season: record(-wise), winning MVCs, regionals and then finally topping it off with states,” Hajduk said. “That was the cherry on top. I couldn’t ask a better way to end my high school career.”
She had 12 goals and 15 assists this season, and is the 2018 Sun Journal All-Region Field Hockey Player of the Year.
Hajduk said the pressure was on this past season after the disappointing end to her junior season, when the Ramblers lost in the state championship to St. Dom’s in overtime.
She was a junior captain, and she said she wasn’t ready for that role. This year, with a season under her belt as the captain, she knew how to lead the Ramblers in their quest for the state title.
A loss to Mountain Valley in the regular season helped her reiterate to the team that losing is no fun, and she said that that helped the players be more humble when the Class C playoffs came around.
“It’s never fun to lose a game, especially to a rival,” Hajduk said. “Nobody ever likes that. It was better it happened then and not along the lines of the playoffs. We were still in the game, we knew we didn’t play our game, we knew what we had to do and we got a second chance at keeping our season going. That also kinda lit a fire in us. “
The loss to the Falcons in the final regular season game on Oct. 8 was the Ramblers’ lone loss in a 17-1 season. Before the playoffs officially started, they got payback against Mountain Valley in the Mountain Valley Conference championship game.
Hajduk knew that goals were not what her team needed most from her. Instead, she relished the role of a defensive midfielder to help protect leads, even if it hurt her individual statistics.
“Now with all the player of the year awards I have been getting, it just makes me feel all the work that I have put in to the sport that I love is now giving back to me,” Hajduk said. “It’s very quite nice.”
She was named MVC player of the year as well as Kennebec Journal’s player of the year. She wasn’t named as a finalist for the Miss Maine Field Hockey award, but she said she wasn’t upset because she knew there were others that were more deserving of the award, such as the winner, Maliea Kelso of Skowhegan, whom Hajduk said is a friend and teammate with Maine Majestix, a travel team located in Waterville
Hayduk said field hockey will always be apart of her life, and she intends on playing in college — she’s looking into NCAA Division I or II schools.
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