MHS falls shy in SCT opener

Cougars dominate in loss

By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
   Tiffany Trockenbrod knows there will be growing pains for her young Montgomery High field hockey team.
   Sometimes the Cougars play well, but fall short against a superior opponent. Sometimes they play well and win. And sometimes, well, there are games like Saturday’s 2-1 overtime loss to Mount St. Mary’s in the opening round of the Somerset County Tournament.
   ”We dominated the whole game,” Trockenbrod lamented. “For 59 of the 60 minutes we just dominated. We scored and went up, 1-0, with seven minutes left. Then a minute or two later they got into our defensive end for the first time all game and scored to tie the game.
   ”As soon as we scored they came right back and scored. It’s disappointing because it is a game we should have won.”
   Montgomery snapped a scoreless tie when Allison Caliguire scored off an assist from Liz Coffey with just over seven minutes left. But three minutes later, Christina Hurley scored to tie the game. She then scored again in overtime to send the Cougars to their sixth straight defeat.
   ”We have four seniors playing, but a majority of the team is sophomores,” said Trockenbrod, whose team fell to 3-8 on the season. “I think they’ll be a strong class when they’re seniors. A majority of them are playing outside of school on club teams and they’ve gone to the National Field Hockey Festival. So they are playing more outside of school. Sammi Brach was really the first player we had to do that and now she’s playing at TCNJ. They’re all on different club teams and playing, which is helping.”
   The Cougars have had their share of good games this season. There have been shutout wins over South Brunswick, Franklin and Lawrence, as well as narrow losses to Phillipsburg and Hillsborough. Getting over the top and getting wins in the close games is part of the growing process.
   ”Hillsborough was a close loss,” Trockenbrod said of the 2-1 setback last Thursday. “They’re a good team and I was not upset about that one. I think we could beat them, it just depends on the day and how we play.
   ”We had a good start to the season. We had a nice win over Lawrence where we played real well and fought hard. But since then we have had trouble getting back to that level. When we have gotten back to that level it has been against tough teams like Bridgewater and Hillsborough and we’ve come up short.”
   Caliguire’s goal was her team-high third of the season. In fact, in 11 games the Cougars have scored 12 goals.
   ”This is the most we’ve scored in a season,” Trockenbrod said. “Allison Caliguire is our leading scorer with goals and assists. We’ve scored more than we have before, we just haven’t gotten wins.”