Varsity Field Hockey vs Williston Northampton School

Score/Result: 4-2 W

 Taft 4

Williston 2

This was an intense and exciting game.  Williston has a number of skilled players including a couple of very threatening forwards.  We were missing two players due to injuries so we adjusted our line up and everyone played and stepped up as needed.  The play was fairly back and forth for the first quarter, but we soon got onto the board.  Our first goal came off a corner when Mary DuBois passed it off to Lauren Drakeley who took a nice shot and Collins Grant was there for the tip in.  Less than one minute later we got the ball down into our right corner and Caroline Queally crossed the ball hard into the circle.  She had done this a number of times already in the game but this time Mary ran onto the ball and deflected in out of the air and it just squeezed past the goalie.  It was an awesome goal!  And then again one minute later we earned a corner and Sarah Lindenberg inserted the ball and rushed to the left post.  She was wide open when Caroline passed her the ball and she deflected it right in for her first Taft career goal.  We clearly had the momentum going our way but these three goals came between 19 and 16 minutes left in the first half.  So there was a lot time left in this game.

So it was no surprise when Williston came out after halftime really fired up.  They took advantage of some our lapses and scored two goals at the start of the first half.  They had the opportunity to tie the game when they took a shot that looked like it was going in, but one of their attackers tried to deflect it, but instead stopped the shot.  She quickly took another shot as Amy was diving and she ended up on top of the ball for a split second.  The ref gave Williston a penalty stroke, which went wide.  Our one goal lead remained intact.  We called a timeout in the last quarter of the game and that was the break we needed to get refreshed and ready to finish the game well.  Laura Feidelson continued to improve over the course of the game and made a huge difference at the end of the game with her determined and skilled play.  She scored the insurance goal off a rebound with 4:20 left on the clock.  Williston continued to push and came close to a breakaway with seconds left on the clock, but with a perfectly timed tackle, Maggie O’Neil came up with the ball and she carried it hard out to the side dribbling on her reverse side until the clock ran out. 

Mary DuBois led the forwards today with tenacity and grit and Collins Grant really stepped her game today and earned a well-deserved goal.  Lauren Drakeley, Caroline Queally and Hope Tierney did a nice job controlling the midfield.  And Issy Tabah played with great poise on both the back and midfield lines.  Coco Tautkus also finished the game really well as she repeatedly stopped their forward momentum on the left side. 

We are really looking forward to taking on Deerfield on Parent’s Day this weekend.