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Ward Melville boxed Riverhead in its own half of the field for virtually the entire first quarter. It took only 3 minutes, 53 seconds before Alexa Kidd scored the first of her three goals off a scramble with the goalie, Stavracos, on the ground. Kyra Gianelli (assisted by Grace Mulham) and Peyton Phillips followed with goals to give the girls in green a 3-0 lead through 15 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Riverhead showed improvement in the second quarter, but still conceded goals by Kidd and Julia Rotoli in the final 23.5 seconds of the quarter for a 5-0 score by halftime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a show of sportsmanship, Ward Melville coach Shannon Sioss had her team ease off and not press the attack in the second half. Kidd scored her third goal off a pass from Phillips with 20 seconds left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ward Melville took 20 shots (Stavracos saved 11 of them) and earned 20 penalty corners while holding Riverhead without a shot or a penalty corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWell, I knew it was gonna be a tough game, but I think the main focus of the game was to improve,\u201d said Dow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As one of the players making the huge jump from middle school to varsity, Lennon said: \u201cThere\u2019s a big difference, like the game was much faster. There\u2019s a lot more running. It\u2019s a lot more, but I think we played good considering they\u2019re one of the better teams.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Riverhead has a true asset in Dow. An all-division forward last year, Dow has been moved to center midfield where her high work rate is being put to use. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot more running,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Walsh-Edwards spelled out what she is looking for from her young players. \u201cTo me, it\u2019s just going out and working really hard and not giving up, you know, regardless of what the score is,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s the most important thing to me, build the character a little bit and you got to play until the end of the game, you know, and some games you are gonna win and some you\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All things considered, Dow said, \u201cI think for our first game of the season it was exceptional, and we definitely have a good season ahead of us, a lot to improve upon, and I can\u2019t wait to see us at the end [of the season] and how good we become.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For almost half of the players on the Riverhead roster, this was their introduction to high school varsity field hockey. Girls, meet Ward Melville. Yes, that Ward Melville. Mighty Ward Melville. The Ward Melville that reached the Suffolk County Class A final last year. The Ward Melville that is seeded second this year in Suffolk…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":112402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1743,37],"tags":[15391,858,127,13186,240],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-112401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-story","category-sports","tag-charlotte-dow","tag-cheryl-walsh-edwards","tag-field-hockey","tag-premium","tag-riverhead"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n