Wednesday October 17, 2012

BRATTLEBORO -- Emily Lowell came tumbling down the center of Tenney Field in the last three minutes of OT to stretch a shot past the Colonel goalie and give Otter Valley a 2-1 win over Brattleboro, in a varsity field hockey game played Tuesday afternoon.

"I think we had a lot of good shots on goal," said Otter Valley coach Stacy Edmunds-Brickell, whose team moves to 7-5-2. "But there were also some close calls."

After a foul in the circle, Brittany Bushey flicked in the Otters’ first goal on the stroke at the 8:40 mark, a call that Colonel coach Deb Valliere strongly disagreed with.

"It was a tough loss that is frustrating for our girls," said Valliere. "We had some good opportunities, but there were forces that worked against us."

Otter Valley kept the Colonels bunched up, restricting their movement for much of the first half, though there was resistance from Brattleboro’s Daisy Giroux and Kebrina Howard on defense as they worked around the crowd to get the ball to the inside.

With the Otters leading 1-0 after the half, the Colonels (3-10) spread the field out offensively, which on one drive allowed Katie Damian a chance to get it into the circle through traffic and off to Kayla Savage, who tapped it into the bottom right corner to tie the game with 26 minutes left.

"Damian drove it across and I just tapped it in," said Savage. "We played well today and that’s all that matters."

"Savage

Advertisement
and Damian work well together on the right side," noted Valliere.

Damian put away one goal in the Colonels’ last engagement, helping her team to a 2-1 victory over Springfield Friday night. Meghan Kinsman had the team’s other goal, assisted by Damian.

There were a lot of scraps in front of the Colonel goal as the Otters pushed their way through the Brattleboro defense with controlled passes to set up the shot. The Otters took over a dozen shots on goal, while the Colonels had under 10.

"I’m always happy to see those scraps, because that means our players really wanted to get in there," said Edmunds-Brickell.

Clearing shots all afternoon for Otter Valley was Miranda Bassette, a defender who has been like a rock for the team all season, according to her coach.

Howard had a nice steal in the final minutes of OT, as she faked out the defender, crossed over, then went behind her to travel down the right side. It was the Colonels’ last attempt at goal.

David Aquino can be reached at daquino@reformer.com, or by calling 802-254-2311, ext. 164.