Wednesday,
September 24, 2014
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Maeve Gordon scored the game's lone goal as West Milford ended a two-game losing streak with a 1-0 win at Old Tappan on Tuesday. |
OLD TAPPAN – West Milford head coach Krista Provost knew she had to shake things up. After two disappointing losses against Passaic Valley and River Dell in which her team was shutout both times, Provost felt like an alignment change was necessary with the Passaic County Field Hockey Tournament right around the corner.
Anything that could spark the offense would be a step in the right direction, but employing a new system on the fly and having it be successful so quickly do not always go hand-in-hand. Going on the road against a vastly improved Northern Valley/Old Tappan side, the Highlanders just needed a positive result and that started with snapping their long scoreless drought.
It took just over six minutes to end that skid as Maeve Gordon slammed one home. West Milford’s midfield then completely dominated the second half, as the Highlanders did not allow a single shot and Gordon’s goal stood up in a 1-0 victory on Tuesday at Northern Valley/Old Tappan High School.
“Scoring first definitely gave us a lot of momentum,” said West Milford’s Gabriella Catania. “We went with a different lineup and it opened up the field and it seemed like our forwards were open a lot more. That made it easier for us to make good decisions with the ball.”
Old Tappan has been North Jersey’s biggest surprises. After winning just one game year ago, the Golden Knights already have three wins this season and came out of gate on fire. They had three good looks at the net from point-blank range, but were turned away by West Milford goaltender Breanna Csakvary each time.
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Brooke Gavin made 19 saves for Old Tappan, which fell to 3-4-1. |
On the last of those three saves, the Highlanders raced down to the other end in transition with Haley Christen using some nifty stick work to create space and send a cross in front of the net. Casey Butera got a deflection in front and Gordon was all alone at the far post to knock it in, giving West Milford a 1-0 lead 6:22 into the game.
“I just saw the ball in front and reacted to it by hitting it in,” said Gordon. “It’s been awhile since I scored a goal, so it felt really good to get one that early in the game.”
Following the goal, the Highlanders began to settle in and take control of the possession game. Old Tappan had its chances late in the half on a pair of short corners, but could not get a shot off either time.
While the first half went back and forth, it was all West Milford after the break. The Highlanders used five forwards and allowed their midfielders more space to become playmakers. Christen, Julia Norman, and Gabriella Catania were simply dominant in the midfield and barely allowed the Golden Knights to possess the ball over the midfield line, let alone get into any type of rhythm.
Only a fantastic effort from sweeper Haley Symons and goalie Brooke Gavin (19 saves) kept Old Tappan (3-4-1) in the game. With under a minute to play, the Golden Knights finally got a rush up the field and earned a corner. They pushed everyone forward to try to net the tying goal, but Catania picked off the pass from the corner and cleared it out as West Milford snapped a two-game losing streak.
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Haley Christen's open field stick work set up the West Milford goal. |
After giving up the first three shots of the game, West Milford went on to outshoot the Golden Knights, 20-1, over the final 55 minutes. Led by defenders Glenna Dunlop and Samantha Mickens, the Highlanders did not allow a shot over the final 41 minutes of play.
The schedule does not get any easier for West Milford as it faces last year’s Bergen County finalists (Ramsey and Northern Highlands) next before a first-round Passaic County Tournament game against Lakeland, whom it played to a scoreless draw two weeks ago. But with the change in alignment has come a change in attitude and hopefully a change in fortune for the Highlanders.
“We’ve been working on a new forward system and we were much more aggressive offensively,” said Provost. “There was way more movement both with and without the ball. We had more shots today then we’ve had in the past few games and that’s something to build on. We were really motivated to play a quick team like Old Tappan and see how our system worked against them. I’m really proud of our effort after two tough losses in the past few days. It feels really good to play well and get a win; this is exactly the spark that we needed.”
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