Sean Moylan Sports Writer
Although super sophomore Lauren Pigott assisted on a goal and scored two of the Northern Burlington County Regional High girls’ varsity field hockey team’s four goals in last Friday’s 4-1 opening win over Bordentown, she did not receive any of Greyhounds’ varsity head coach Joanne Hensch’s three post-game awards.
That was because the entire Greyhound team contributed to the victory in major ways.
“We had three goals bang, bang, bang,” said Hensch, who used her bench liberally after her team took the early lead.
One of Pigott’s goals was assisted by Michelle Smith, while the other was set up nicely by Carli DiCioccio. Nonetheless, Jess Nutt played an exceptional game and scored a great goal on a Rachel Panella feed to take home the Attack Award for the game. Panella scored a goal of her own, which was assisted by Jess Koltelnicki, who rarely, if ever, has a bad game. Rachel Pandl was also very instrumental in setting up NBC’s offensive attack.
“I took (Pandl) off the offensive front line and played her as a middie and she earned the Hustle Award,” Hensch said.
Even so the key player in the victory may have been senior defender Jess Ridolfini, who earned the Defense Award. Ridolfini controlled NBC backfield and was responsible for stopping several drives by the Scotties.
After falling behind 3-0 going into the half, Kathleen Timm (assisted by Meaghan Tohill) scored the Scotties’ only goal in what ended up being a very strong second half for Bordentown. Each team took seven shots in the contest. NBC goalie Kaylin Bassett made five saves while Bordentown goalie Ashley Adams had two saves in the game.
“Bordentown played well. They had some nice passing,” said Hensch.
That defense was pretty good in Saturday’s game at Seneca. Unfortunately, NBC couldn’t muster much offense and dropped a 2-0 decision.
“We’ve had some hot (as in temperature) games. They dominated the first 15 minutes and it took us 15 minutes just to settle into the game,” said Hensch, whose defense held strong to keep Seneca off the board in those first 15 minutes. “Their (Seneca) free hits were nice and their defense was nice.”
Even though Seneca’s powerful offense would go on to score a pair of goals, Northern Burlington really picked up its game after the early sluggishness.
“Lauren (Pigott) had a few breakaways and won the Hustle Award. Our offense had beautiful passing. We came back and had a lot of opportunities to turn that game around,” Hensch said.
Once again, Ridolfini earned the Defense Award while Kotelnicki won the Attack Award. And Bassett had another strong game in goal.
Meanwhile Bordentown crushed Palmyra, 4-0, this past Monday at Palmyra. Freshman Lindsey Treptow scored the first two goals of her varsity career to lead the Scotties to victory. Jessica Bernard and Tracy Romberger each picked up a goal and an assist for the winning side. Meaghan Tohill had an assist as well.
