It’s safe to say that after Friday’s big win against Fredericksburg Academy, the Covenant field hockey team is feeling good about itself. On Tuesday in the VIC quarterfinals against Highland, the Eagles were able to move one step closer to the state championship game with their 6-0 victory.
“We were able to win that big game on Friday and I think that really gave us a lot of momentum and helped us with our intensity,” said Covenant coach Katie Lavie. “We got out to a great start and we were just able to control the tempo from there.”
It took the Eagles little more than a minute to score their first goal, and when Maddie Thornton tipped in a Taylor Brown pass, the Eagles quickly reeled off a 4-0 lead.
“That was really all Taylor,” Thornton said of the game’s first score. “It’s a team effort and my stick was there, but that (goal) was all about Taylor’s pass. I was just able to tip it in.”
Shortly after Thornton’s goal, Brown was able to tuck a shot of her own into the cage, only to have Thornton add her second score just minutes later. Becca Hansell then added the last goal of the first half which put the Eagles out far in front enough for them to work in their bench in the second half.
“Unfortunately you don’t get to do that every game,” Lavie said. “But today our sweeper was able to score today for the first time and that’s always nice to get such a great contribution in a game like this.”
In the second half, the Covenant defense was finally tested, but goalkeeper Kelsey Rund was able to preserve her shutout by stopping shots on the trio of scoring opportunities the Hawks had. The Eagles scored twice, with both goals coming from their defense on shots from Virginia Dittmar and Lina Godine.
The Eagles advance to the VIC semifinals on Friday and right now the team isn’t having any trouble enjoying the success they’ve achieved this deep into the season.
“This has been really exciting,” Thornton said. “This is one of the first years that we’ve been really successful and coming out and scoring early, it’s helped a lot with the momentum in games and just made for a really exciting season.”
