Senior field hockey goalie, Cougars win first of year
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Sammi Brach is closing in on a career milestone that says two things about her and the Montgomery field hockey team.
One, she’s a pretty good goalie.
Two, the Cougars spend a lot of time playing defense.
Brach, made seven saves on Wednesday, helping the Cougars to a 1-0 win over Franklin and pushing her career save total to 495. It was actually a game where the senior goalie was far less busy than normal.
”We needed the win,” said Montgomery coach Tiffany Trockenbrod, whose team improved to 1-4-1 with the victory. “It was nice today because we’ve been playing so much defense, so it was good to get a chance to have the ball in the offensive half of the field. The game was back and forth quite a bit.”
The Cougars got off a season-high 10 shots in the win, with Marissa McCredie scoring the only goal of the game off an assist by Brittany DiMeglio. From there, it was up to Brach and the defense to hold on for the win.
”I think most games I wind up with 20 or 30 saves,” said Brach, who is in her third year as a starter in goal for the Cougars. “This game I only had seven, but we won the game and that’s the most important thing. Usually we have a lot of action in the defensive end. Today it was good to finally get a goal and get a win.
”It’s nice to have a lot of action and saves. I guess that’s good for me personally, but not so much for the team. In the games where I get a lot of saves, it’s disappointing because we usually don’t win.”
This time the Cougars got a win, their first of the season. The goal from McCredie was also their first of the season. With goals so hard to come by, Trockenbrod is happy to have a veteran presence in goal.
”She’s a strong goalie,” the Montgomery coach said. “She’s been the goalie all three years I’ve been the head coach and I was an assistant her freshman year and she played a little bit that year.
”She’s reliable. What’s nice is she has been getting instruction outside of this season. It’s nice to know she’s so dedicated to the sport and she’s a very steady player in goal. She is like a rock for us.”
Brach got a late start with field hockey, but seemed to quickly adjust to playing the goalie position. In fact, she spent just one day in her career playing out in the field.
”I had no clue when I started,” Brach said. “I didn’t even know what the sport was until eighth grade. The summer before my freshman year I decided to stop playing soccer and try field hockey. On the second day of preseason they said they needed a goalie. I said I’d do it and I’ve been playing there ever since.”
And she’s been one of the Cougars’ steadiest players since stepping into the cage as a starter her sophomore year. The shutout on Wednesday was her second of this season, having helped the Cougars to a scoreless tie with South Brunswick earlier this season.
”We always try to emphasize the defensive end,” Trockenbrod said. “So far this year in the games we had played we have mostly been playing defense. We’ve had trouble getting shots so far this season. In our previous games we’ve only been getting two or three shots. It was nice because we must have had at least 10 shots today.
”We had eight seniors graduate who were starters or played a lot for us. This year we have four newcomers starting for us, and another five or six that are playing a lot. We have a lot of inexperience, but they’re learning.”
Brach knows it is a learning experience for the new player, just as it was for her when she started playing the sport. As a senior co-captain, she’s trying to do whatever she can to bring those young players along.
”We have a lot of freshmen playing this year and we’re a pretty young team,” said Brach, who hopes to play college field hockey next year. “We have some experience, but not quite enough to pull out wins in some of these games. Sometimes I feel like I’m still a freshman. It’s hard to believe I’m one of the seniors.”

