SWAMPSCOTT — A hat trick for Sophia Ciccotti (3 goals, assist) led the way for the Big Blue on Thursday as Swampscott’s field hockey team (5-0) defeated the Marblehead Magicians (1-4) 5-0 at Blocksidge field.
“[Ciccotti] plays with a ton of emotion. She has a lot of speed and she’s got a knack to find the net…. I was really proud of the way she played in there and kind of held her own,” said Swampscott Coach Courtney Russo.
The offensive explosion for Swampscott had to wait until the second half, as Marblehead’s defense held strong despite constant pressure from the Big Blue in the first 30 minutes.
It was a strong-sided offense led by Sawyer Groothuis and Ciccotti, but even with six penalty corners and a plethora of scoring chances, Magicians’ goalie Maggie Beauchesne stood on her head to keep the visitors in the game.
“[Beauchesne] is getting used to communicating with our defense, finding her voice, and she’s been doing really well, and today it all clicked,” said Marblehead Coach Mia Maccario.
Beauchesne stopped the bleeding for most of the half, but her efforts weren’t enough to keep Swampscott off the board. With 7:36 left in the half, Groothuis split defenders down the left side, eventually finding Ciccotti who smashed it home for her first of three goals (1-0).
Marblehead responded well, using its counterattack to earn two corners, but a stalemate for the rest of the second quarter led Swampscott into the break with a 1-0 lead. Although the Big Blue had the lead – and most of the possession – Russo wanted more.
“We definitely had some opportunities at the beginning, but just were struggling finishing in the circle,” Russo said. “The center circle was crowded, so we needed to kind of pull out a little bit. We had a lot of first opportunities, but we needed to make more of our second and third opportunities. So, I think making those two changes at halftime allowed us to finish those opportunities and turn them into goals.”
Russo’s halftime adjustment must’ve worked, as Swampscott found its stride in the beginning of the third quarter.
Eight minutes into the second half, Maisie Russo tipped one home after a scrum in front of goal (2-0) before Ciccotti found her second of the day in the same fashion just a minute later (3-0).
It was more of the same in the fourth. Lucy Brown caught Beauchesne out of her net and neatly finished, followed by Ciccotti’s third and final goal of the day – a nifty move around the keeper to finish her hat trick.
Russo continued to speak on the adjustments made and praised Ciccotti for her efforts.
“We’re just kind of hitting the outside of the net a few times,” she said. “And so [Ciccotti] made that adjustment and was able to really utilize that side really well.”
Not only was it a five-goal explosion for Swampscott; it was keeper Lilah Caplan’s fourth shutout in five games, leading her side to a perfect record thus far.
Even with the loss and 1-4 start, first-year coach Maccario understands it takes patience.
“It’s all super new to them. New systems and everything,” she said. “It takes a while.”
Maccario also saw progress and believes positives from the first half will translate.
“We have a tendency the last couple of games that we’d wait for the second half to bring [intensity] and today we came out strong, we were ready to go, and I’m super proud of that,” Maccario said. “We now got our defense figured out… we’re just going to keep working on the field.”
