Swampscott –– The No. 7 Swampscott field hockey team found themselves in a defensive stalemate against No. 10 Hanover on Tuesday, but the Big Blue found a way to forge ahead late in the second half and defeat the Hawks 2-1 in front of their home crowd.
At the end of the first half, the score was tied 0-0, but Swampscott dominated play despite what the score read. The Big Blue outshot the Hawks 6-0 in the half, and Hanover only had possession of the ball twice on Swampscott’s side of the field throughout the entire second quarter.
Swampscott Head Coach Courtney Russo said it was only a matter of time before her team broke through.
“We created a lot of pressure throughout the first half, but Hanover did a good job holding us off from the corners and holding our offense down throughout the half,” Russo said, “Even though the score was 0-0, we felt good about how we were playing, and we talked out what we needed to adjust at halftime.”
The second half didn’t start the way the Big Blue planned coming out of halftime, as sophomore Avery Laundry picked up a penalty, forcing Swampscott to play a player down for five minutes at the 12:30 mark of the third quarter. During the extra-player advantage, Hanover created three strong scoring chances, but the Swampscott defense, anchored by sophomore goalie Cece O’Connor, was up to the task and killed the penalty without allowing a goal.
Coach Russo felt this penalty kill shifted the momentum of the game in Swampscott’s favor.
“I felt we did well covering for each other during the penalty kill,” Russo said. “We played smarter during this crucial time in the game and played with better spacing as well, which carried over once the penalty was over.”
About five minutes after the penalty kill, Swampscott’s offensive attack became too much for Hanover to handle. At the 2:54 mark, junior Sawyer Grouthuis found fellow junior Sophia Ciccotti in the middle, and Ciccotti beat Hanover’s goalie to the right, giving Swampscott a 1-0 lead. Just over one minute later, the Big Blue struck again. This time, Ciccotti assisted on senior captain Olivia Baran’s goal at the 1:40 mark to make it 2-0.
It looked as though Swampscott was going to pull away from Hanover, but the Hawks answered with 23 seconds remaining in third, when Katie Radzik scored and cut Big Blue’s lead in half 2-1.
At the start of the fourth quarter, Hanover had two more solid scoring chances, but the Swampscott defense held firm. About six minutes later, the Big Blue were called for another five-minute penalty, this time against senior captain Brooke Waters at the 7:19 mark of the quarter. Swampscott’s defense again played best when it mattered most, and didn’t allow Hanover a scoring chance the rest of the way.
The final score favored the Big Blue, 2-1. Swampscott now moves on to play No.2 Sandwich in the round of eight, and Russo is well aware this is going to be a tough game.
“We played Sandwich last year in the semifinals, so we are a little familiar with them,” Russo said. “We will watch the film and will be ready for the challenge.”
Gerard DiStefano can be reached at [email protected]
