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photo by Pete Cavanna of Cavanna Photography
Shrewsbury's Kathryn Nelson, center, celebrates with teammates after assisting on
Alyssa Ineson's goal, which was enough for the Colonials to take the Division 1 title.
(CHRIS MILLER)
CHRIS MILLER
The Shrewsbury field hockey team explodes from the bench and rushes onto the
field after winning, 1-0,
against Longmeadow.
Shrewsbury streaks into first state final
STATE FIELD HOCKEY SEMIFINALS
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
By Kevin O’Malley CORRESPONDENT
WORCESTER— Junior Kara Mackintire’s penalty stroke with 14:40
remaining in the second half was all
Shrewsbury High needed to beat previously undefeated Western Mass. champion Longmeadow High, 1-0,
in the state field hockey semifinals yesterday at Commerce Bank
Field at Foley Stadium.
The Colonials advance to the first state field hockey final in school history.
“This is our first CMass championship and first state appearance,”
Shrewsbury coach Lauren Chenevert said.
“We were a little nervous coming into the game because they were undefeated, but in the second half we just
played awesome and Kara came up huge with the stroke.” The Colonials (16-2-4) will face the winner of today’s
Acton-Boxboro vs. Walpole semifinal at 11 a.m. Saturday at
Worcester State. Longmeadow’s season ended at 19-1-2.
Colonials goalkeeper Kimi Ryan earned her fifth shutout of the postseason,
stopping four shots.
“She did awesome, they were all big,” Chenevert said. “She
came up with some tremendous saves today. This is
her fifth shutout in district play and she is coming up huge
for us.”
The Colonials outshot the Lancers, 14-4, dominating time of possession, but
the Lancers were not without their chances.
“We had a point-blank shot that was right at the goalie that could have
been the turning point of the game. She
was wide open but she shot it right at the goalie,” Longmeadow coach Ann Simons said. “We had some
opportunities, we just didn’t capitalize. We just didn’t get the breaks that we usually capitalize on. We
just missed our opportunities, that’s all.”
Mackintire’s penalty stroke was the result of Julia Miehm grabbing the
ball with her hand just prior to it rolling into
the goal following one of Shrewsbury’s seven penalty corners. Goalkeeper Shannon DiStefano made the initial save,
but the ball somehow bounced by her, forcing Miehm to take
drastic measures.
“That’s something we talk about all the time — anything
you can do to not let the ball go in,” Simons said.
“Shannon is usually good at strokes, so we were OK with that. She had the initial save, but it went behind her.
We thought she saved it and all of sudden it’s behind
her.”
Mackintire made the Lancers pay, putting the ball by DiStefano for a 1-0 lead.
“I actually play with Shannon, she is on my club team in the offseason,”
Mackintire said, “and we do a lot of
stroking in practice, so I thought she knew where I was going to stroke, so I was a little nervous. But I stroked
before this season and I am 2 for 2, so I just had to give myself confidence and say, ‘I’m going to get this in,
I’m going to get this in.’ I didn’t want
to doubt myself.
“It felt relieving, but 1-0 doesn’t mean much, so the game was
far from over. It felt good I got it in, but the
game wasn’t over yet.”
Friday, November 9, 2007
Historic evening
Colonials score school’s first field hockey title
CENTRAL MASS. DIVISION 1 FINAL
By Jim Wilson TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
WORCESTER— The Shrewsbury field hockey team couldn’t have picked
a better time to avenge its two
regular season losses.
After nipping No. 2 Notre Dame Academy in the Division 1 semifinals, the No.
3 Colonials took down No. 1
Westboro in the final, as sophomore Alyssa Ineson’s first-period goal held up to give Shrewsbury a 1-0 win last night
at Commerce Bank Field at Foley Stadium.
It was the first field hockey championship in school history for the Colonials
(15-2-4), who will face the winner of
tonight’s Western Mass. championship between Longmeadow and Mohawk at 1 p.m. Monday at Foley Stadium.
The Rangers finished 16-1-2.“There aren’t 22 girls that deserve it more,” Shrewsbury coach Lauren Chenevert
said. “Westboro and Notre Dame Academy were incredible teams, but we came through and did what we needed to
do. They had the confidence and they had the heart and they
played incredible.”
The Colonials dropped a 2-0 game to Westboro in October and followed it with
a 3-2 loss to Notre Dame Academy
two days later. Shrewsbury credits those games — as well as games against top non-league programs like Quabbin
and Hudson — for getting the team ready for the postseason.
“We got a little taste of everybody and I think that really helped a
lot,” Shrewsbury senior Erin Crosson said.
“I thought we played the toughest schedule in Central
Mass.”
Shrewsbury controlled most of the flow early on. The Colonials outshot the
Rangers, 4-2, in the first half and
with 3:53 remaining, Shrewsbury drove the ball into the Westboro zone. Colonials’ senior Kathryn Nelson —
the Mid-Wach A scoring leader — worked the ball loose from a scrum and found Ineson open and the sophomore
fired a shot past Katherine Nagengast to make it 1-0.
“It’s the big dance and only two teams get to go for Central Mass.,”
Westboro coach Colleen Debish said.
“They inspire me. They’re outstanding young women and its just an honor for me to have an opportunity to
work with them.”
It was the first goal allowed all postseason by Nagengast, who registered
15 shutouts this year.
“We knew once we scored they probably would score back,” said
Nelson, Shrewsbury’s all-time scoring
leader with over 100 career points. “It was a tight game until there was one second left. We didn’t even know
we were going to win. After we scored we had to play more defense
to hold them back.”
“Once we scored we focused on the marking,” Crosson said. “We
knew they scored a lot of their goals on
tip-ins coming into the circle, so we knew as long as we marked tight and everyone in the circle was marked,
no one would be there to tip it in.”
The Rangers had two penalty corners as the second half wore on but senior
Sarah Becque couldn’t get a clean
shot off. Shrewsbury goaltender Kim Ryan made four saves for her third shutout of the playoffs as the Colonials
outscored their opponents, 9-0.
“You could see it in their eyes and you could tell they were not going
to lose, they just wanted it,” Chenevert
said. “They had this vision in their eye and you could
tell they were not going to lose this game.”
“It’s a low scoring game and we had some opportunities,”
Debish said. “I credit Shrewsbury, both these
teams were back and forth tonight and someone has to go home with a gold trophy and someone goes home
with a silver one.”
Shrewsbury 1, Wachusett 1
HOLDEN — Shrewsbury scoring: Taylor Lincoln. Wachusett scoring: Dani
Dufault.
Records: S 1-0-1 (1-0-1 Mid-Wach A), W 0-0-2 (0-0-2).