If Virginia Hill can find a way to score a bigger goal than the one she slammed home on Monday, it’s going to have to be pretty spectacular. The Covenant field hockey team, ranked second in VISAA Division 2, was deadlocked in overtime with top-ranked Fredericksburg Academy when Hill picked her moment.
“It wasn’t the exact play that was called that got executed,” said Eagles coach Kate Lavie. “It’s always nice to see when this team can adjust and go above and beyond. It’s very exciting when it comes together like (this).”
Earning a short corner for the 13th time in the game, Virginia Dittmar was able to put a perfect pass on Taylor Brown’s strick. Brown wound up, cranked a shot though the defense, but it hit the post. However, waiting in the weeds was Hill who stuffed in the rebound to hand the Eagles a 2-1 win in sudden death overtime ahead of the Falcons.
“I shot Taylor’s shot and it just bounced out,” Hill said. “The goalie was out of position and was so excited and thinking, ‘Yay!’”
The Eagles dominated the battle of time of possession, and as they applied constant pressure, they also piled up the short corners. After scoring on their first corner of the game, the well went dry until overtime. While the Falcons defense was able to diffuse a significant number of the Covenant plays, in the second half, it was more of an issue of getting the ball in play cleanly in addition to any passes after that.
With a corner chance in the final minutes, Brown pulled Dittmar, the sophomore who’s responsible for getting the ball in play, aside to try calm her down. While there was no goal netted there, Dittmar was able to boost her teammates shortly there after with the helper.
“She knows so much about the game,” Dittmar said of Brown. “She grabbed me and said that I need to get my head in the game. She said I wasn’t keeping my head down. Right after that everything just aligned perfectly at the last second. It was so great.”
There were only 56 seconds played in the sudden death overtime, and all of them went Covenant’s way. After defending Fredericksburg’s attempt to get into their territory, the Eagles worked down field and earned one last short corner. Dittmar got the ball cleanly to Brown who in turn hammered a shot. And just moments after the post check, Hill finished the job.
“Being the underdogs in a close game that’s now in overtime and with an opportunity to score, it’s hard to overcome,” Brown said. “For ‘Ditty’ to be calm and collective and get the ball out strong was huge. (The goal) was all because of her.”
The two squads traded in the first half with Brown unleashing a cannon ball into the cage on a short corner just eight minutes into the game. However, it wasn’t but six minutes later that the Fredericksburg got it’s second scoring opportunity of the game, and with a loose ball in front of the net, Sydney Hawkins put in the equalizer.
“A challenge for us is that we haven’t had a lot of teams get into our defensive zone, especially these last few games,” Lavie said. “As much as we practice you can’t emulate a game situation. It’s a surprise and something we had to adjust to, so I think (the goal) did suck a little wind out of sails, but if Fredericksburg hadn’t answered back, we might have sat back on our heels too much.”
For the next 45 minutes of regulation, nearly everything went Covenant’s way. Whenever Fredericksburg did cross the Eagles’ side of the field, it was short lived and as a result, Covenant outshot its opponent 10-3 and earned 12 short corners to the Falcons’ three before going into overtime.
“Today we came out ready play and ready to win,” Hill said. “I think the last time we played them we weren’t ready to do that. Today we brought it.”
Win likely propels Covenant to a number one ranking in next week’s VISAA poll.
The Eagles (12-2) host Charlottesville on Wednesday at 4 p.m.
