Fockey Unable to Match Deerfield

The girls’ varsity field hockey team took to Hatch Field against Deerfield for a heated match. The team wanted to prove their dominance out on the field after a grueling tie with Cushing. With good weather and a dance to come later in the evening, “the team was excited to play at home,” lower and goalie Clara Geraghty expressed, but fell short to Deerfield with a final score of 4-1.

Both teams came out strong in the beginning of the first half, and Big Red was ready to use what they had worked on in practice all week to benefit the outcome of the game. Senior and co-captain, Jane Collins, said, “We were in it in the first half, and I was proud of how we were performing.”

After Deerfield scored the first goal of the game, Big Red stormed back with senior and co-captain Lydia Anderson scoring Exeter’s only goal of the game.

Collins added that the number of corners Exeter led up to Deerfield was detrimental to the result of the game. “We gave up way too many corners, resulting in a lot of opportunities for Deerfield to put the ball away. It’s frustrating because we were neck and neck, but these opportunities didn’t help us out at all.”

Despite the upsetting loss, this was a minor improvement for Big Red, after having lost to Deerfield 0-4 last year. Prep Molly Longfield added that in addition to setting up powerful corners, Deerfield “was very good at moving the ball. The game was very fast paced on both sides.” Longfield added that her teammates began to “fall behind” towards the end the game.

Senior Bella Hillman agreed with Longfield, and added, “[we] kept up with Deerfield during the first half, but as the game progressed we started to fall behind.” When the girls were able to create a chance on Deerfield’s defensive half, they had a hard time executing in front of the goal. “I think skill wise we were very evenly matched, but, in the end, they were faster than us and had better endurance,” senior Gracie Goodwin said.

Collins hopes that in the coming weeks Big Red will improve upon their endurance back. “With really tough weather, and a few injuries, it’s been hard for us to workout and run for a while, making us fall behind in terms of overall fitness.”

She added that she will work with her fellow captains to ensure that the mental game of the players stays up, as well. “We really didn’t recover well after Deerfield scored the first goal of the game. We need to keep up our mental and physical fitness looking ahead in the coming weeks.”

The team will focus a majority of its energy and time on finishing and defending corners, as well as playing hard and keeping their minds in the game. Even though the girls faced a hard loss, they were able to play against a competitor that will help them prepare for future games, which Hillman claims  “will help us grow as a team.”