Swampscott field hockey survives Fenwick in overtime

SWAMPSCOTT – Get ready for Swampscott-Manchester part II.Last year, the Hornets of Manchester-Essex ousted the Swampscott field hockey team from the tournament. And after Saturday’s actions, they’ll meet again (date and time TBA) in Reading in the Division 2 North semifinals.The Big Blue won that right Saturday with a 2-1 overtime win over Bishop Fenwick in the quarterfinals.It was Tori Thistle who delivered for the Big Blue, scoring toward the end of the first overtime to salt away the win on a breakaway.”It was one-on-one with (the) goalie, and I managed to get it in,” she said. “It felt great. Going into the overtime, our coach (Toby Channen) said that if we wanted to win, we had to play like it was the last time we’d ever play together.””She’s a textbook athlete,” said Channen. “She knows who she is, where she is, what needs to be done, and what’s on the line.”However, Channen said, “Tori may have scored the goal, but it wasn’t just her who won the game. Our goalie (Katie Samiljian) made some phenomenal saves; Alexa (Steriti) was all over the place ? played a great game. My whole team won this game.”Danielle Mayblyum scored Swampscott’s first goal after a scramble in front of the net to make it 1-0, and that’s how it stayed through the half.And it looked as if it might stay that way through the second half, too. The Crusaders had plenty of chances, but, as coach Marybeth Mahoney noted, they did everything except put it in the net.Finally, though, they did. Erinn Johnson did the honors, picking the ball out of a traffic jam in front of Samiljian and knocking it home.”We didn’t quit,” Mahoney said. “I was very proud of the way we played. We seemed to outplay them in the first half, but we just couldn’t score a goal.”In overtime, the teams went seven-on-seven, instead of 11 per side.Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].