There’s a moment in the third installment of the Mighty Ducks movie franchise where a new coach teaches the motley crew of young ice hockey players about how important it is to clean up around the goal. To pick up the trash, and capitalize on loose pucks from close range.
Covenant’s field hockey team did that Monday afternoon against St. Anne’s-Belfield in the LIS quarterfinals and the Eagles picked up a 2-1 victory to advance past the Saints.
“Today when they got in that circle they really made a point of stepping to the ball and picking up that trash, the rebounds, and making use of it and creating corners,” said Covenant coach Annie Gumbs.
The Eagles kept the pressure on through the first half and scored before the break to take a 2-0 lead into halftime, getting goals from Megan McGlothlin and Abby McCartney. While opposing defenses often look to lock up Covenant’s sophomore duo of Lizzy Shim and Maddie Fagan, and with good reason since they’re dynamic threats, the Eagles have proven that any number of players are a threat have the potential to finish. McGlothlin struck on a corner with 8:51 to play in the first half off a well-executed set piece.
“That’s the idea, that’s the concept,” Gumbs said. “(Shim and Fagan) tend to be marked pretty tightly and it’s great when they look for those passes, for those other open players. Especially that corner we scored on in particular was beautiful because it was truly a planned string of passes from those four different people.”
Fagan was credited with an assist on both goals for the Eagles, with Wynston Archer also picking up an assist on McGlothlin’s goal.
St. Anne’s was inches away from an equalizer with eight minutes to play and created a number of good chances throughout the match, particularly on counter attacks. The Saints broke through when Isabel Scholz scored in second half off a short corner. But beyond that the Saints couldn’t find their way past Covenant keeper Santia McLaughlin.
“The girls really responded well to (falling behind) in the first half,” said STAB coach Kim Katsuk. “They fight, they fight, they fight regardless. They battled the whole 60 minutes it’s just one of those things where we couldn’t put the ball in the net.”
The Eagles’ win was big, keeping them unbeaten against Central Virginia squads both public and private this fall. That should bode well as the Eagles prepare for next week’s VISAA Division II tournament. The Eagles were ranked fourth in D-II in the latest poll that was released Monday.
“We’ve bonded a lot over this year and we just work really well together,” said Covenant senior Danielle De Jong. “We all know each other really well.”
The Eagles will face Trinity Episcopal, the No. 1-ranked squad in VISAA’s Division I in the LIS semifinals Tuesday. STAB’s LIS run ends, but the Saints are likely bound for the VISAA Division I playoffs as they’re currently ranked No. 6 in Division 1.
