Merrimack field hockey holds off Manchester Central
MERRIMACK – The Merrimack High School field hockey team remained undefeated on Wednesday, but not without a bit of a scare from Manchester Central.
MERRIMACK – The Merrimack High School field hockey team remained undefeated on Wednesday, but not without a bit of a scare from Manchester Central.
The Tomahawks scored two goals in the first half, and then got stuck in neutral in the second, giving up a goal to the Little Green before closing out a 2-1 victory in a Division I game.
Sami Smith and Ashley Grassini both scored for Merrimack (6-0-1), but the ’Hawks had to hang on after Central’s Abby Swenson made it a one-goal game with a little more than 11 minutes remaining.
“They got complacent,” Merrimack coach Ann MacLean said of her players. “I don’t know if it’s cockiness, maybe it’s overconfidence, because we definitely have the ability to do much better. They were resting on that lead and it was scary.”
The Central (1-5) goal seemed to wake the ’Hawks and they held the Green without another serious scoring chance the rest of the way. The problem was, Merrimack couldn’t many opportunities of its own after halftime.
“We were controlling the ball for the longest time, but they put their entire defense in there, so unless you commit a foul, there is no way to score,” MacLean said. “Central played a great game and kept their intensity for the whole game.”
Laure Peltak earned an assist on Smith’s goal, which gave Merrimack a 1-0 lead nine minutes into the game. The ’Hawks had several chances to increase the lead after that, getting a penalty corners in a row, but they couldn’t capitalize.
“I don’t know what that was,” MacLean said. “We had people in the right positions, we had the support. Their goalie made some terrific saves, and we missed a lot by hitting the ball high in the air. They did do some good things, but it needs to be consistent good things.”
Grassini made it a 2-0 game by putting a rebound past Central goalie Abby Deshanais (seven saves) with 6:59 left in the first half.
The teams hit the ball back and forth around midfield for most of the second half, until a breakaway by Central set up the Green for a penalty corner with under 12 minutes to play. Swenson scored off the corner to make it 2-1.
“They let their guard down, and I don’t care if it was kicked in or whatever, the ball shouldn’t have been down there,” MacLean said. “We’re going to have to learn from that and step it up a little bit.”
Merrimack will have to do so against the toughest part of its schedule. The ’Hawks traveled to Bishop Guertin on Thursday before hosting Winnacunnet on Sept. 24, Exeter on Sept. 28 and Pinkerton on Oct. 1.
