USM Varsity Field Hockey Begins Defense of State Title With a Win

The varsity field hockey team began the 2011 season the way it ended the 2009 and 2010 seasons - with a victory. The Wildcats began the defense of their Wisconsin High School Field Hockey Association state championship by soundly defeating Trinity Academy 5-0 Tuesday afternoon at USM. 

The Wildcats started slowly and did not score their first goal until the final three minutes of the first half. In the second half, however, they looked like a championship team once again, outscoring Trinity 4-0 and allowing the Sentinels to get past midfield only three times in the final thirty minutes. 

“In the first half we looked like we hadn’t played in a while,” USM’s head coach Tom Carter said. “We relaxed in the second half and looked good. We have had only one week of training. It takes time to perfect our game.”

USM’s first scoring play was a picture perfect display of field hockey. Senior Lindsay Neitzel began a long corner with a lightning quick self-start. Moving in, she sent a pass to senior Jenna Seter. Seter immediately moved the ball along to senior Sally James, who sent it back to Seter on a give-and-go. The display of deft passing dazed the Trinity defenders, allowing Seter to move into the circle and fire a fast shot into the far corner of the net behind the Sentinels’ junior goalie Olivia Goltermann at 2:41.

After Carter spoke with the team at half time, USM came onto the field with renewed purpose in the second half. 

“We got the cobwebs out,” senior co-captain Erika Hurth said.

“We had much better passing and communication,” Caitie Downey, another senior captain added.

Not to be outdone, senior co-captain Billie Fritz commented, “We got the momentum to play our game.”

The Wildcats certainly did play the game their way in the second half. They moved the ball into Trinity territory early in the half and rarely left the area during the remaining minutes. Trinity did get two quick runs away, but with jabs as fast as a rattlesnake’s tongue, Downey and her defensive compatriots, sophomores Abby Wigdale and Catherine Jacobus, junior Michelle Bal, and seniors Emily Hendrickson, and Ali Robinson squelched the Sentinels’ attacks before they became seriously dangerous.

USM finally gained some breathing room in the score department. James gained control of the ball in the Trinity circle off an opponent’s stick and sent a pass away from the middle muddle to Fritz on the left side. She immediately blasted a drive into the net, giving USM a 2-0 lead at 23:10 of the second half.

With the scoring gate open, the Wildcats soon scored two more goals within a minute of each other.  Sophomore Kendall Youngblood brought the ball into the Trinity circle on the right side. Youngblood drew the defenders to her and then crossed the ball to senior Cassie Bence who was cutting toward the far post. The pass nearly went across the goal line, but Bence made sure it did as she swept it into the net at 16:17.

USM went ahead 4-0 just 53 seconds later when Fritz scored on another drive off a crossing pass from Bence.

James scored USM’s final goal late in the second half.  As she moved into the middle of the Trinity circle, James took a pass from senior Maggie Schroeder, deked a defender and shot the ball in at 1:10.

In the game, Goltermann stopped 25 of the shots that the Wildcats poured on her.  At the other end of the field, USM’s senior goalkeeper Margeaux Hagemann had plenty of time to contemplate the coming school year as she faced only two shots on goal.

USM is now 1-0, while Trinity’s record is 0-1. The Wildcats will face tough competition in their next game at 4:15 on Friday when Arrowhead comes to USM.