Florence hockey knocks NBC out of playoff race

By: Sean Moylan Sports Writer
   The Florence Township Memorial High girls’ varsity field hockey team took its’ game to the next level this past week with three more wins, including a 2-0 victory over a quality Northern Burlington squad this past Monday night under the lights on the Florence football field.
    “I’m glad we won, but more importantly we played well,” said Florence coach Gina Smith following the game against NBC. “Our football field has gotten a lot better since last year. It’s flat and it’s fast and more like our field.”
    In the first half, Dezarae Fillmyer distributed a good pass to Sarah Muchowski for a score. Then Muchowski set up a Katie Schreck goal in the second half.
    But defense was as big a factor in the win as any aspect of the Flashes’ game. Florence not only had a strong game marking, its all-
star senior goalie Katie Dmitruck (seven saves) gave another spectacular performance.
    “At the end of the game she came through with some huge clears,” said Smith of Dmitruck, who had to deal with nine corners by the Greyhounds, who score most of their goals off of corners. The Flashes took six shots on goal but they made them count.
    Kristin Tully fired in her 10th and 11th goals of the season and assisted on two others in the Flashes’ 6-0 blowout over Medford Tech at Medford last Friday.
    Although Florence scored three goals in each half, Smith saw room for improvement and remarked, “We didn’t bring our ‘A’ game.” Even so, the Flashes dominated with their “B” game. And by Burlington County rules, the Flashes could have only scored once more as teams can only win by seven goals.
    Schreck had a goal and a pair of assists while Molly Fitzpatrick scored her first goal of the season. Fillmyer (goal and assist), Emily Million (goal) and Brittany Hiros (assist) were also very productive for Florence. Dmitruck didn’t have to stop a single shot to record the win while her team compiled 13 shots. Against Medford Tech, Florence took a whopping 23 corners.
    On Oct. 15, Florence won at Maple Shade, 7-1 as Muchowski (two goals and two assists) and Fillmyer (two goals and an assist) both had terrific offensive games.
    “It was 7-1 but we played very well that night,” said Smith, who did some position switching in that contest but stayed with her successful system. “I really like the 4-3-3.”
    The Flashes built up a 5-1 lead by the half and then coasted to victory. Florence’s other goal scorers in the game were Tully, Schreck and Million. Florence took 16 shots on goal while Maple Shade shot 10 times. Dmitruck had a pair of saves.
    Florence (10-3-1) should get a very favorable playoff seeding this season. Florence was scheduled to play Holy Cross yesterday (Wednesday). It will wrap up the regular season at Cinnaminson on Friday.
    NBC
    They gave it their best shot.
    Knowing that it needed to win just to stay alive in the playoff hunt, the Northern Burlington High girls’ varsity field hockey team came at Florence with everything it had on Monday night at Florence. But a Florence squad which has played some of its best field hockey in years over the last 10 days, defeated NBC, 2-0, in a very well-
played contest.
    “It been a roller coaster season,” said NBC head coach Joanne Hensch, whose team was officially eliminated from making the state tournament with Monday’s loss. “I feel bad for my seniors (Michelle Smith, Rachel Pandl and Kaylin Bassett) because they really wanted to get to the post season.”
    Despite the Greyhounds’ losing record this year, Bassett, who has had a terrific senior season as the Greyhounds’ goalie, made four saves and the Flashes scored their first goal off of her on an impossible to stop high shot by Sarah Muchowski.
    “Bassett was so focused and and fired-up in warm-ups,” said Hensch, whose team was actually very ready to play and not the least bit flat. “Lauren Pigott had an awesome game today (Monday) and so did Jess Kotelnicki.”
    However, NBC couldn’t get a ball past the Flashes’ star keeper Kate Dmitruck and Florence’s defense had a good game too and stopped runs when it had to do so.
    “They have some nice stick work over there. They played their best game against us in the five years I’ve been coaching (NBC),” said Hensch, whose team’s major problem this year has been finishing. “They outplayed us but we had more shots on goal (7-6) and we had more corners (9-3).”
    Last Friday the Greyhounds defeated the Wildcats, 3-0, at Maple Shade. In what was a huge game at the time, Michelle Ghaul had a goal and an assist while Dana Stefanoni and Samantha Gallo also contributed goals toward the win. Kotelnicki and Pigott each collected an assist for the NBC. Bassett needed to set aside just a single shot to post the shutout.
    “We had 26 shots on goal and 23 corners,” added Hensch.
    On Oct. 15, Moorestown hosted and defeated Northern Burlington, 5-0. After playing Moorestown so well in a 1-0 loss earlier in the season, Hensch thought her club played what she described as “panic field hockey” against the Quakers this time around. While Bassett stopped 12 of Moorestown’s 17 shots, NBC did not register a single shot on goal.
    “Moorestown had just got done playing Shawnee (a powerhouse) and we had just got done playing Burlington Township (a slower team),” said Hensch, whose club, despite some good practices, needed some time to adjust to the high-paced flow of the game. Unfortunately, Moorestown scored a pair of goals before NBC could ever get anything going and the contest was decided quickly.
    NBC (6-9-1) may not be going to the playoffs this season but its still got some big games left to play. NBC was scheduled to have played Bordentown last night (Wednesday). NBC is scheduled at Palmyra today (Thursday).