The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) field hockey squad shut out Sharon High School 6-0 on their home field Monday. After a slow start, the Vineyarder girls came to life in the second half, exploding for five goals.
Belle Dinning had a three-goal hat trick, and Lee Hayman scored once and assisted three times for the Vineyarders. Sophie McCarron and Kylie Hatt also scored, and each had an assist, for a 6-2-2 squad that is certainly tourney-bound and is currently atop the Eastern Athletic League conference standings.
The win followed a 4-0 blanking of a strong Nantucket High School team in a Saturday home contest.
The Vineyarders started slowly Monday against a winless Sharon Eagles team (0-10) and Lindsay Moses, its acrobatic sophomore goaltender, who would turn away eight Vineyard shots in the game. Julia Levesque had two saves in the Vineyarder net.
Vineyarder Coach Lisa Knight’s halftime speech produced good results as an energized Vineyarder group won the loose balls, converting them into short, crisp passes in space that allowed the Island women to dominate second-half play.
“I wasn’t happy with the first-half play and made some positional shifts, such as moving Lee Hayman from wing to the middle. The kids are really exhausted; we’re in a schedule grind right now, and a lot of them were battling a stomach flu today,” Coach Knight told The Times following the game.
“I just told them that it was now a 25-minute game, and a matter of heart; that it was up to them to get it done.”
More than 80 fans turned out on a glorious fall morning. They were treated to a precisely played second half, fueled by Lee Hayman’s passing skill and Belle Dinning’s superior stick-handling skills, likely honed as a member of the MVRHS girls ice hockey team.
Lee Hayman, a senior who will play lacrosse for Denison University in Granville, Ohio, next fall, exhibited an ability to see the entire field and to find open teammates for long runs on the Eagles’ defense.
“That’s her game. She’s the same way in lacrosse, has as many assists as goals,” Ms. Knight said.
The Island offense sputtered in the first half. The offense consistently pushed the ball down the right wing, allowing the Eagle defenders to create density and to cordon off Vineyard attempts to pass the ball in front of their net.
The game flowed much more easily for the Vineyard offense once they began to use the entire field — wings and center area — to push the attack. In the second half, as the field opened up, players were able to run and to pass into open space and avoid logjams close to the Sharon net.
The Vineyarders need one more point over the remaining eight games to qualify for the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) annual state tournament. Teams receive two points for a win and one point for a tie. The Vineyarders play next at King Philip Regional High School on Oct. 17 and at Bishop Stang on Oct. 20.
The post Girls field hockey team blanks Sharon 6-0 appeared first on Martha's Vineyard Times.
