Nobles Athletics
Varsity Field Hockey beat Middlesex 2-1 on Saturday. This was a big game for the team, especially the seniors, for whom it was a final chance to beat a rival school.
When asked what the game meant to her, Captain Maddie Jaeger (Class I) said, “the world.”
“This game means so much. The last time was a terrible, crazy tournament,” Captain Addy Keaveny (Class I) said.
In the previous installation of this rivalry last year, Nobles had scored a game-winning goal to make it 2-1 in overtime.
“We got off the field after we scored, got ready to go home, and they called everyone back and then recalled the play,” she said.
After the goal was disallowed, Middlesex scored and won the game.
“It’s a lot of unsettled business,” Jaeger said.
Going into the matchup, the captains hoped to inhibit Middlesex’s six college commits.
Jaeger said, “We’re going to have to think about [their best players] and lock [them] down, getting those players out of the way and making sure that they’re not a threat”.
Middlesex was first to score early in the game. Coming out of halftime down 0-1, the Dawgs started the third quarter with a new level of intensity.
“We came together, we huddled, we talked about it, and then we made adjustments based on what they were playing,” Jaeger said. “The first half was definitely frantic, and the second half, we played more of our game once we got [our] confidence back.”
This newfound confidence manifested itself as the team maintained possession for much of the second half, tilting the odds in their favor. In the week leading up to the matchup, keeping possession was a key theme of practice.
“Possessing the ball, giving quicker passes, playing two-touch hockey, [which entails] quick passing, give-and-goes, and using the outside of the field,” Jaeger said. “That’s definitely something we accomplished. I was really happy we accomplished that.”
Three minutes into the fourth quarter, Presley Upton (Class II) scored to tie the game. Later, with about three minutes left in the game, Upton scored another goal on a 2v1 counterattack against the goaltender.
Upton said, “This is a team that we wanted to beat for a while, so I think I was just thinking of anything to do to get the ball in the net.”
By winning this game, the Varsity Field Hockey team defended their number two spot in the ISL, in hopes of taking the top spot by defeating Rivers on November 5.
Jaeger said, “When we work as a team, it’s like magic happens.”