HS Field Hockey: Camden Hills Edges Out Oceanside

Rockport, Maine - With temperatures in the low 80s didn't stop Camden Hills field hockey teams from hosting Oceanside on Tuesday, September 8th, 2015 in Rockport, Maine.

It was a tie game in the first half between these two teams. Camden Hills Emily Daggett was able to score a goal that would break the tie. Breaking the tie allowed Camden Hills to edge out Oceanside by a score of 2-1. What a games.

Here is what the Camden Hills coach had to say about the game.

"I think both teams knew that today could be anyone's game, and it would come down to who wanted
it more. Our conference is filled with strong teams, and a lot of the time the games come down to one goal. Today proved to be two evenly matched teams, playing hard despite the heat, and battling for the win.

Every game our players are given a word by their captains- it can be a goal for the day, or something motivational. Today's word was intensity, and both teams played with lots of it. We started the game out strong, but once we scored we fell back into a slower game. Oceanside took advantage of that and they definitely dominated the end of the first half.

The first goal that we scored was a combination of good stick work and aggressive positioning. Emily Daggett had a beautiful shot to the goalie's pads, and Hilary Merrifield was perfectly in position to get the rebound. Hilary's softball skills were put to the test since the rebound was high in the air; she managed to connect with the ball despite defense rushing in.

I knew that Oceanside would not take lightly to us scoring first, and they came back fighting and scored a goal just a few minutes after our goal. Oceanside picked up momentum, but our tight marking stopped them from getting any good scoring opportunities. Our marking was really lacking last week when we played Spruce Mountain so we knew that was something we needed to work on.

In the second half we knew that we would have to pick up the pace offensively in order to score. We aimed for more passes and more talking- both of which led us to our second goal. Our second goal came from a corner. One of our main shooters on corners was in goalie gear today, so we adjusted our corners last minute during warm ups today. Our second goal came from an adjusted corner play that has worked numerous times already this season. Willow Grinnell sent the ball to Emily, who deflected it perfectly past the goalie and into the cage. Emily Daggett is proving to be a tough player to contain on the field, but especially in the circle.

Today was a great game played by both teams. Each team had times when they dominated, and each team had times when they struggled to keep possession. Both teams look well conditioned and skilled, but it did come down to intensity. Our girls knew that today would be a tough game, and likely won by only a one goal gap; they knew that they had to make every second count whether it was marking defensively or capitalizing on scoring opportunities.

Molly Davee was a key leader on the field today with her calm demeanor and great field sense. Molly's execution of skills are so clean and well timed. She is able to see the field and make decisions on the fly: should she dribble or pass, where should the ball go, etc... I've never seen a player consistently able to make the right decisions like Molly.

Caroline Keefe, who is a huge asset to our defensive, stepped into goalie gear today. She's only been in gear one practice, and has out sick the past few days. The last time Caroline was in gear competitively was two years ago at Nokomis when we had no one else. Caroline's angles, timing, and aggressiveness make her a great defender and those skills transfer over to how she plays as goalie. Oceanside had some opportunities that really tested her goalie skills, and she did a phenomenal job at keeping them at bay.

Halsey Yattaw was pulled back to defense to help fill the void of Caroline moving into goalie gear. She played aggressively and kept a positive momentum up for our team to pull from.

Capri Buck, a freshman swinger, played the whole game in Caroline's usual spot. Capri showed up to tryouts as an offensive player, but she has been proving to be a solid defender that we're relying on a lot. She played the whole game today, and watching her level of play you would never know that she was a freshman".

Game Stats:
Camden had 4 shots, Oceanside had 7
Camden had 2 goals, Oceanside had 1
Camden had 6 saves, Oceanside had 2

Camden had 4 corners, Oceanside had 7