Windham 1
Cheverus 0
The Windham field hockey team is making a playoff push and the Eagles helped their cause with a 1-0 win over Cheverus Monday night.
Laurie Pitts scored off Christina Maiorino’s penalty corner with just 12:39 to go in the second half to lead Windham to the win. The Eagles entered the game ranked ninth in the Heal Points with Cheverus ranked seventh. Taylor Duncanson made 13 saves for Windham to earn her fourth shutout of the year.
“Taylor is nominated as an all-state player and she has had 200 saves this season so far,” said Windham head coach Cory Merrill. “She is phenomenal and works really hard and you can tell. On some of those saves, my jaw dropped.”
The Stags threatened several times in the first half and had a number of penalty corner chances. But Duncanson was there. Cheverus got their best scoring chance with just 1:01 to go in the half. On an odd-man rush, the Stags made a last second pass. But Duncanson was able to side step and make a kick save to preserve the shutout.
“She’s amazing,” Maiorino said of Duncanson. “She has improved so much from last year and she has helped us so much throughout the season. I can’t imagine not having her.”
In the second half, the Stags kept the pressure on. The Eagles had three penalty corners early in the half, but couldn’t get any shots on goal. Meanwhile Cheverus kept unleashing shots and Duncanson kept turning them away.
Finally, the Eagles converted on a penalty corner midway through the half. Maiorino sent the ball into the circle where it was batted around. Eventually the ball found its way to Pitts, who snuck it under the diving goalkeeper. The keeper swatted the ball away but it had already crossed the goal line for a 1-0 Windham lead.
“We only had three shots the whole game, so we really needed to make it count when it was down there,” Merrill said. “The girls are getting better at getting their sticks down on the penalty corners and redirecting the shots.”
The Stags kept attacking over the final minutes of the game but they couldn’t net the equalizer and Windham picked up a big win that will help them as they try to secure at least one home playoff game.
“Our last three games are tough ones with Cheverus, Gorham and Marshwood,” Maiorino said. “They are all really good teams and I’m really glad we pulled this out. It’s a really big win if we want home field advantage in the playoffs which is what we really need.”
With the win the Eagles improved to 6-6. They were scheduled to face third ranked Gorham on Wednesday.
“We got a lot of points for (beating Cheverus),” said Merrill. “We played hard and we played our game, which I was excited about. The girls really wanted it. They knew they had to win to get a good spot in the playoffs.”
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