Somers field hockey wins defensive battle against Fox Lane

SOMERS, N.Y. - On Thursday, Oct. 1, Somers hosted Fox Lane, and both sides put on defensive stops all afternoon long. But one side had one less.

On a big third-quarter scramble in front, the Foxes couldn’t stop Casey Johns’ falling-down shot, and Somers took the day by a score of 1-0.

Neither team was getting much traction in the opening minutes, but Somers was the first to get in deep around the 10-minute mark. On the left, Zoey MacSweeney lifted a shot toward the net, and Phoebe Fisher sticked it out of the air to stop the advance.

Moments later, Somers was back. The Tuskers took the ball away from the Fox attack, transitioned ahead, and Sabrina Guaragna led Caitlyn Mayfield to the goal. Unfortunately, Alyssa Cambereri got there first and won with her kicker at 8:53.

Next, Mayfield was on the back end. After Somers clogged up the middle in front of their goalie, Mayfield got a steal at the 40, pushed ahead to Marissa Petrini, and she got Guaragna going with a pass to the sideline. A shot resulted for MacSweeney, but Fisher was there again to take it away at 7:00.

Back and forth, a free shot put Fox Lane right on the Somers crease. Not good enough. The Tusker defense converged, stymied the attack, and from there, the teams battled between the 20s before the first period expired.

Onto the second, the teams clogged each other up until Guaragna got her team going again. Deep in the Somers zone, she came up with the ball and chopped ahead to Casey Johns. She took the ball on attack, centered to Mayfield, and on the cross pass to the right, Petrini wound up for a shot that hit the side of the box at 10:15.

A minute later, Fox Lane faced another charge when Olivia Girolamo made a steal at the 40. But Sonja Keller picked the sophomore’s pocket and thwarted the advance.

Undeterred, Mayfield took another turn. Off an out-of-bounds play, the senior picked up a loose ball on the left, advanced and shot just wide right with 6:37 left in the half.

Two minutes later, Emma Donaldson got free on the sideline and kept going. Reaching the goal line, she shot, and Cambereri kicked the ball away.

A penalty corner resulted anyway, but the goalie was still up to the task. Petrini took the inbound, passed right to an open Emma Donaldson, but Cambereri stuffed up the works. From there, Somers mostly stayed on the attack, and the game moved to intermission.

Back on the field, Fisher came out in step. She got a steal on the sideline, and her pass ahead put the Foxes on the goal line. At 13:36, Somers still got there and went on the attack.

Of course, Mayfield got the elephants started. She stickhandled through midfield, and Donaldson forced a penalty corner.

The shot going wide, Fox Lane advanced forward, but Mayfield crashed the party again. She got the ball upfield, and while the Foxes ended up with a free shot in their own zone, the middie put her two cents in.

She poked the ball away, headed for the goal, and Vivian Davila ended up with a clear shot at the goal. Unfortunately, her windmill at 10:19 was nicked by Cambereri, and the Tuskers had to settle for a near miss.

The last one that mattered, Mayfield made sure. Another steal on the sideline, the Tusker took it down, cut in and refused to relent to the interior defense. She pushed the ball left, Johns fought against the scrum and pushed in for the game’s only goal.

In at 6:33, Mayfield was back 90 seconds later. Getting to the goal line again, she shot across the crease, but no Somers stick was there to poke it in.

With 4:47 to go in the third, Fox Lane pressured for the next few minutes. So Somers swarmed and converged. Still, the Foxes got close. From the 25, Sofia Valente passed all the way left to the box, but Annabel Ryan could not get enough stick on the ball at 3:15.

Ryan was in the same position 75 seconds later. This time, the interior pass hopped over the attacker’s stick, and Fox Lane had 15 minutes to catch up.

There, Somers played defense by playing lots of offense. The end did have Fox Lane seriously pressuring. Even so, the defense smothered just as well, and Mayfield dribbled the final seconds away for the victory.