Florence and Bordentown field hockey clinch

NBC field hockey still fighting to make states

By: Sean Moylan Sports Writer
    The Florence Township Memorial High girls’ varsity field hockey squad is getting it half right, and in most cases that’s been more than enough.
    In fact, a bad first half didn’t prevent the Florence Flashes from beating Palmyra, 5-2, and wrapping up a state playoff berth in a game played at Florence on October 8.
    At the 17:33 mark of the first half, Emily Million scored a goal off a Brittany Hiros feed to account for the Flashes’ only tally of a 1-1 opening stanza. Florence head coach Gina Smith had temporarily moved up Million, who usually plays in the midfield, to a forward position just to generate a little more offense. But usually Smith prefers to keep Million back because of her ability to play both offense and defense.
    In the second half, however, all of the Flashes started getting involved in the offensive flow of the game. Two minutes and fifteen seconds into the second half Katie Schreck scored a goal, which was assisted by Claudia Shafer. Then a couple of minutes after that, Schreck set up a Sarah Muchowski goal and Florence was well on its way to a victory.
    “In the first half we came out really flat and then in the second half we made a few changes,” said Smith. “We were just really proud of the way they played in the second half.”
    Florence’s Kristin Tully put the exclamation point on the game with a pair of goals which came off of Muchowski feeds.
    “Tully is at the right place at the right time. She had a couple of really, really good deflections for goals that game,” added Smith.
    Even so, the Flashes needed yet another great defensive game by Katie Dmitruck (19 saves) just to win as Palmyra outshot Florence 21 to 15 and had three more penalty corners (9 to 6).
    After playing sound defense and holding the Warriors to just one goal in the first stanza, Florence lost some of its edge and focus and ended up dropping a 3-0 decision to New Egypt in last Friday’s game played at Florence.
    “We did not have a good second half,” said Smith, who thought her club had played extremely well in a loss to New Egypt earlier in the season.
    Florence only got off three shots against New Egypt on Friday. But Dmitruck made 18 saves to make sure the game never got totally out of hand against a very talented New Egypt squad.
    “Katie Dmitruck was strong as usual. I believe that Katie ‘D’ is one of the strongest goalkeepers (in the area),” noted Smith.
    Florence is still trying to fully recover from the Menissa Blackwell injury which took place a few weeks ago.
    “I think our midfield is pretty strong, but when Menissa (Blackwell) got hurt we had to re-train some kids,” said Smith. We miss her.”
    Nevertheless, Florence is 7-3-1 and if could find a way of putting two good halves together it would probably dominate most of its games from start to finish. It’s just a matter of executing Smith’s game plans.
    “I refuse to change our system because I know it works,” said Smith, who has always been an excellent field hockey coach.
    Florence was scheduled to have played Maple Shade on the road yesterday (Wednesday). Florence is scheduled at Medford tech on Friday. Florence is scheduled to host Northern Burlington next Monday and Holy Cross next Wednesday.
    BRHS
    The last time the Bordentown Regional High girls’ varsity field hockey team made the state tournament, none of the Scotties’ current players were even in high school yet.
    But over the last couple of years, Scotties’ head coach Kim Fithen has rebuilt this team back into a winner and with a solid 4-0 victory over Medford Tech at Bordentown on Wednesday, October 8, the Scotties qualified for the post season for the first time in four years.
    While Bordentown got off to a blistering start this season, and for the last couple of weeks knew it would eventually clinch a playoff berth, Wednesday’s win was still a very sweet one.
    “Of course, that was one of the team’s goals (making the playoffs) and they’ve definitely been playing well together. It was a really nice result for them because they worked so hard for it,” said Fithen.
    When Scotties’ star Tracy Romberger got sick a few weeks ago, the team had to find someone else to score goals. That’s when Kathleen Timm stepped up her game and started scoring more. In fact, with her two goals against Medford Tech, Timm is now tied with Romberger for the team lead in goals with seven.
    Against Medford, Meaghan Tohill, the Scotties’ star defensive back, fired in a goal and picked up an assist. Lauren Hazlett also scored a goal while Ashley Bronston chipped in with an assist.
    “Both Amber Warshany and Lauren Hazlett have given us some big minutes when we’ve asked them to,” added Fithen, who has used her roster very well this season.
    In the Medford game, Stephanie Talley got the start in goal for Bordentown and she stopped the only shot she faced. The Scotties had 18 shots on goal.
    The Scotties’ 0-0 overtime tie against Burlington Township at Bordentown on Tuesday was a very frustrating game for the home team.
    Despite much opposition by the Bordentown crowd and the Scotties’ coaches, Bordentown had two goals, which it thought should have counted, wiped off the board by the game officials. One was by Tohill and the other was by Romberger.
    “We had 17 shots to their three. We had countless opportunities,” said Fithen. “Today (Tuesday) was Tracy Romberger’s first day back from mono and she didn’t miss a beat.”
    The Scotties’ defense was stellar and Bordenown goalie Ashley Adams made saves on all three of Burlington Township’s shots on goal.
    Bordentown (8-4-2) was scheduled to have played Holy Cross yesterday (Wednesday). Bordentown is scheduled to host New Egypt on Friday.
    NBC
    The expression “must win” is used entirely too often by coaches and sports writers. Nonetheless, a must win is exactly what last Wednesday’s (October 8) home game versus Rancocas Valley was for the Northern Burlington County Regional High girls’ varsity field hockey team, which needs to win nearly every game on its schedule the next two weeks just to stay in the playoff hunt.
    Still, NBC’s thrilling 1-0 overtime win over Rancocas Valley that day was cause for great joy because the Greyhounds not only beat an excellent team, they played unbelievably well in the process.
    “It (the victory) was awesome,” said NBC head coach Joanne Hensch, who felt her Greyhounds used their home field to their advantage against RV.
    Of course, the Greyhounds magnificent midfielders, Michelle Smith, Lauren Pigott and Rachel Pandl, were right in the middle of all the action. Smith fired in the game-winning goal in overtime to win the Attack Award for the day. Pigott assisted on Smith’s tally and won the Defensive Award while Pandl took home the Hustle Award.
    “This year Lauren Pigott has been all over the place,” said Hensch, who has similar admiration for Smith, the master of the corner, and Pandl, one of the team’s best workers. “This year we’re scoring more on corners. Michelle Smith is our leading scorer with six goals.”
    Against RV, the Greyhounds had six corners while the Red Devils took 11. The Greyhounds even made a serious threat to score on a corner in the final 60 seconds of regulation.
    “We had a situation where we thought we should have had a stroke and they called it a corner. But we didn’t get the ball in during that last minute of regulation and we went into overtime,” said Hensch.
    NBC goalie Kaylin Bassett stood on her head and made seven saves to preserve the shutout. She was so good she shared the Defensive Award with Pandl.
    “She (Bassett) had a very nice game,” added Hensch, who thought it was one of her team’s best games of the season.
    Then on Friday, NBC defeated Burlington Township, 3-1, at Burlington Township. The Greyhounds fully expected to win the game by more goals, but with the absence of Pandl in the contest the team chemistry was just a little off on Friday.
    “Rachel Pandl was away on a college trip to Ursinus and there was nobody there who could step up and fill her spot,” said Hensch, who used a few players to fill in for Pandl, who does special things on a field that one can’t teach in a day or two. “When we played Burlington Township the first time we beat them 7-0.”
    Still, NBC had more than enough firepower to defeat Burlington Township and the Greyhounds’ Dana Stefanoni had a magnificent two-goal game, which earned her the Attack Award honors for the day.
    “Dana Stefanoni, the last few games, is starting to step up and play very well,” said Hensch, whose team also got a goal from Pigott, the Hustle Award winner. Smith won the Defensive Award. Bassett chipped in with six saves for the win.
    NBC (5-7-1) is finally playing the way it did last year. Now the team just needs to stay hot to qualify for the post season. NBC was scheduled at Moorestown yesterday (Wednesday). NBC is scheduled at Maple Shade on Friday, at Florence on Monday and at Bordentown next Wednesday.