Field hockey
Marshwood 0
Windham 4
They tossed their sticks in a pile, gathered in a circle, and after yelling “Go Windham!” the Eagles’ spirit lifted them to a 4-0 home win over Marshwood Tuesday.
The Windham girls’ field hockey team dominated this contest from beginning to end, keeping the ball in Marshwood territory and earning victory over the Hawks.
The Hawks won the coin toss and elected to attack first. In the third minute of play Windham took back the ball and displayed excellent stick skills in keeping it.
With control of the ball, Windham kept attacking the Marshwood goal. After a penalty corner by Melissa Bedient, Windham scored when Justine Giroux made the game’s first goal with 18:42 left in the first half.
Marshwood got the ball back but quickly relinquished control and the Eagles caught them on their heels. Windham charged upfield, passing the ball effectively and taking advantage of opportunities in front of the goal. With 15:16 left in the half, Christina Maiorino broke through with another goal to make the score 2-0.
For the remainder of the half Windham and Marshwood exchanged control of the ball at midfield with neither team able to effectively attack the other’s goal. The teams started to wear down from the fast action of the early first half and the defenses took over. When the halftime whistle blew, the Windham Eagles were up 2-0.
The second half showed more aggressiveness by Marshwood, but the staunch Windham defense was too much for the Hawks’ attack.
After a time out by Marshwood in the 15th minute, the Hawks turned up the intensity. The Eagles stepped up to the challenge and took the ball back to the Hawks’ end of the field with excellent ball control and passing. Giroux said “it made us step up when they were aggressive.”
The Eagles took back the momentum of the game with 9:12 left in the half after Maiorino hit a penalty corner to Jess Irish, who scored the Eagles’ third goal of the game.
Windham played ball control and defense for the rest of the game. Windham’s Kelsey Babb scored the final goal with 6:13 remaining, after a penalty corner by Nicole Willey.
After the game, Maiorino said that to “get pumped up” for a game she listens to music, sings on the bus and thinks about the game. The team has a ritual of tossing their sticks into a pile in the middle of a circle of the players before the game and doing a chant ending in “Go Windham!” When asked, Giroux said that it “started a couple of games into the season. The coach started it at the Noble game. It works.”
In her fourth year as a coach in Windham, Cory Merrill was proud of her girls. “This is the best group of girls I’ve had in a long time.” Most of the girls play in the winter field hockey league. “The only time the girls aren’t together pretty much is spring,” said the coach.
For this game, Merrill said “Our goal today: to play to our level no matter how the other team plays.”
Merrill, Giroux and Maiorino all said that they are looking forward to a playoff berth this year.
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