By: Sean Moylan
Call it snake-bitten. Call it unlucky. For whatever reason, the Bordentown Regional High field hockey team has played exceptionally well in its recent games and yet it can’t seem to win its first game of the season.
Last Friday, the Scotties looked poised and ready to grab their first victory as they nursed a 1-0 lead over the Cinnaminson Pirates going into the last six minutes of the contest. But with only 5:43 remaining on the game clock, Kate Phillips scored the tying goal for Cinnaminson and the hard-working Scotties had to settle for a 1-1 overtime tie. The shame of it all was Tracey Romberger, with an assist by Caitlin Ferrari, had scored a beautiful second-half goal to give the Scotties a 1-0 edge.
"It was a good goal," added Bordentown head coach Donna Ingham. "We had a drive across the goal and she (Romberger) tapped it in."
Michelle Van Mater made eight saves for the Scotties, who were outshot (but not out-played) 10-6.
On Monday, a very strong Riverside team beat Bordentown 3-1 at Riverside.
"Our goalie Michelle Van Mater, she was very good. She had 11 saves," said Ingham. Bordentown had just seven shots on goal, but Jess Bernard played outstanding defense and Megan Moynihan, with an assist by Ashley Bow, put the Scotties on the board with a goal with 4:06 left in the second half.
The Scotties are now 0-4-4. They’ve played a lot of teams close but they’ve yet to get over the hump. Bordentown was scheduled to have hosted Delran yesterday (Wednesday). It is scheduled to host Medford on Friday and Maple Shade on Tuesday.
FLORENCE
Across the board the Florence field hockey team has played much better as of late. The Flashes, however, won only one out of their last three games because of the toughness of their recent schedule.
Last Wednesday Florence hosted and lost a 5-0 game to New Egypt. The Flashes held the high-scoring Warriors to just one first-half goal. Katelyn Dmitruck made a dozen saves for the Flashes, who had just two shots on goal.
Getting off shots has usually not been the Flashes problem this season. In fact, Florence had 29 shots in a home win over Burlington City last Friday. Yet even with all those shots, it took an overtime goal by Caitlin Fitzpatrick, assisted by Christine Doub, for the Flashes to defeat the Blue Devils, 2-1.
"Fitzpatrick is a steady kid. As a whole we’re playing better," said Florence head coach Gina Smith. Doub also had an assist on Emily Million’s first-half goal, which staked the Flashes to a temporary 1-0 lead.
"She’s really learning the game quick," said Smith of Million. "She’s very coachable."
Dmitruck stopped a lot of shots (24) against Burlington City too.
Florence played extremely well against Holy Cross in this past Monday’s contest at Florence. But the Lancers tallied a pair of goals in each half to win the game 4-0.
"We actually played better against Holy Cross than we did against New Egypt," said Smith. "Dmitruck did really well. She had 23 saves."
At 4-6, Florence is still very much alive in the playoff hunt but it needs to go on a hot streak. Florence was scheduled at Maple Shade yesterday (Wednesday). It is scheduled to host Palmyra on Friday.
NBC
Rachel Cannuli worked very hard to score a late goal, which gave the Northern Burlington County Regional High girls’ varsity field hockey team a 1-0 lead over Delran in last Friday’s home game. But with a little more than two minutes left in regulation, Delran’s Marissa DiMiero spoiled the Greyhounds’ great performance with the game-tying goal in what turned out to be a 1-1 tie.
"I felt bad for the girls," said NBC head coach Joanne Hensch. "We had 10 corners and they had three. We took eight shots and they took two. We had the ball in our offensive half most of the way."
Although Lauren Pigott won the hustle award, Danielle Terracciano took home the attack award and Marie Worshman was chosen as the outstanding defender of the game. Hensch was equally impressed with the play of Michelle Smith, a defensive mid.
"That Michelle Smith, boy is she smooth," said Hensch, who got yet another great game from Jess Kotelnicki as well. NBC also felt it should have been awarded two penalty strokes, which were not called.
Because she had gone virtually untested in the first half, Kristen Holden stayed in goal in the second half to get in her work. She had one save in the contest and the goal she allowed was not her fault.
Because the Greyhounds had no games scheduled for the beginning of this week, Hensch allowed her girls to play World Cup, their favorite practice game.
"I stole it from the soccer players," joked Hensch, who likes her team loose, happy but focused.
NBC (4-3-1) was scheduled to have played at Burlington Township this past Wednesday. It is scheduled at Pemberton on Friday. On Saturday it is scheduled to host Cinnaminson. And NBC is scheduled to host Moorestown on Tuesday. This is what they call a "make or break" week of games.

