By Wayne Witkowski
When Middletown High School North’s field hockey team hosts Middletown High School South at 10 am. Oct. 8, the Shore Conference interdivisional rivalry will take on added luster.
Middletown North is off to its best start ever at 11-0 and leads the Shore Conference A North Division at 8-0. The only teams close in the division race are Freehold High School and Freehold Township High School — teams it beat by 1-0 scores for their only losses and play again over the next few days in what will be a key stretch of the season.
Middletown South is 7-3 overall, and its 6-2 record in the Shore Conference B North Division trails only unbeaten Wall High School, which has eight wins in the division.
Although both Middletown teams need to keep winning one game at a time in their divisions, their head-to-head matchup assures for the winner a lot of power points for the state tournament, and it will be a barometer for each team.
“It’s on 10 a.m. Saturday morning and it will be packed,” Middletown North coach Devan Crimi said.
“That will be the toughest game,” said Middletown North middie Kaylah Igarta, who is headed next fall to a college career at Quinnipiac University. “We’ve been looking forward to it. Everyone puts in so much emotion for that game, and we all have to keep our intensity up.”
Both coaches feel the closeness among players on and off the field is key to their success.
“This is a big week, indeed. [Middletown] North is our crosstown rival. The two teams have been competitive since I played here, and even before that,” Middletown South coach Jordan Hickman said. “[Middletown] North and [Middletown] South have been very closely matched over the past four or five years, playing at about the same level of competitiveness. We split the division games last year. There is a lot of emotion, passion and determination on the field when [the team play] in any sport. This game, more than any other, is about mental focus more than physical ability. [Middletown] North has had an amazing season thus far, and so have we. It’s anybody’s game. We are all really excited on this side of town.”
Middletown North looks continue to get scoring against Middletown South from senior forward Hailee Hallard, who has 22 goals. Igarta has a team-leading nine assists. There’s solid goalkeeping from seniors Sam Woods and Emily Kernan, who share time in goal and have six shutouts, and defensive support from seniors Megan Kelly and junior Lexi Banta. Midfielders include seniors Stephanie Kinsella and Igarta and junior Emily Cahill. Seniors Jamie Golumbinski and Alexis Limongello bolster the attack with Hallard.
Crimi credits her team’s composure in the second half against Freehold Township when she said it took 19 corners.
“I felt from the start we’d have this kind of season, and we’ve felt more confident as we’ve played,” Igarta said.
Middletown North, which beat Colts Neck High School, 2-1, Oct. 1, had a game scheduled against Central Regional High School (8-2) Oct. 4 and then plays road games against Freehold Township (6-2-1) Oct. 6 and Freehold (6-3-1) Oct. 10 around the Middletown South game.
Middletown South comes into the week off a 4-2 loss at Red Bank Catholic High School, which got a hat trick from Jayne Duignan. Sophomore Ally Friberg and senior forward Kara Gillmann each scored one goal, while junior Jillian Bigos and senior Marissa Colvin each had one assist for Middletown South. Sam Messina recorded six saves stepping in for regular goalkeeper Julia Russo.
Gillman leads Middletown South with 12 goals, and Colvin has eight.
As for common opponents, Middletown South lost, 4-0, to Freehold Township Sept. 23 but played without two starters.
“Field hockey is as much mental as it is physical,” Hickman said. “I think we are physically ready to face any team but need to feel like we are mentally prepared to play with the top teams. We need to focus on one day at a time and continue to work on fundamentals.”
That includes this week, when the Eagles are scheduled to play at Manasquan High School (3-4) Oct. 4 and look to avenge a 5-0 loss to Wall (10-0) in a home game Oct. 6 before playing Middletown North. The Eagles need to beat Wall or they’ll fall three games behind in the division race.
“I think the game against Wall was actually one of the better games we played,” Hickman said of the first meeting. “The girls were focused and composed. We were able to hold Wall to zero goals and get some decent shots off offensively in a scoreless first half. Some things that we did really well were we communicated, worked together and limited the number of fouls we had in our defensive circle. Something we lacked in both halves was the ability to finish and score.
“I think what went wrong overall is that as soon as Wall scored their first goal in the second half, we became frantic and let them break us down. They scored three goals in the last four or five minutes of the game. We were deflated and flat. The score did not accurately represent the competitiveness of the game that day.”
As for the rest of Middletown South’s lineup, senior Lexi Gabion is the other forward. Sophomore middie Isla Brennan’s 10 assists lead the team, and she is joined there by seniors Sarah Corey and Meredith McNamara and Bigos. Seniors Kara Hebbe and Laurel Wong and sophomore Danielle Totilo start on defense.
“Coming into the season in a new division allowed us to have a totally clean slate,” Hickman said. “We came in focused and ready to face opponents that we haven’t traditionally played in the past. We prepared for one game at a time knowing that we would have to adapt to our new competition. We treated every game as if we were the underdog, and it has helped us to overcome most of the teams that we have faced.”