NW Catholic Has More Experience, Wins
Last year was Jeff Cahill’s first year coaching the Northwest Catholic field hockey team. The Lions won six games and made it to the Class S tournament, where they lost in the play-in round 3-2 to Old Saybrook.
Eight starters returned from that team. Cahill has a year’s experience as a field hockey coach. He also has an assistant, Ashley Mara, who played field hockey at Northwest and lacrosse at Central Connecticut State University.
This season, Northwest Catholic is 9-4, with games against Wamogo, Glastonbury and East Catholic left on the regular season schedule. Instead of shooting for a tournament berth, this time around the Lions (a No. 16 seed last year) are shooting for a top eight seed in Class S, with home-field advantage in the first two rounds of the tournament. They are currently eighth in the Class S standings.
“This year our schedule has been a little more generous,” Cahill said. “We’re trying to hold on to eighth place for a home playoff game. The key to that at that point would be a win over Glastonbury Friday.”
That will be a tough one, even though the Tomahawks are down this year, with only six wins.
“What I said to the kids is, we’re 9-0 in games we should have won,” Cahill said. “We’re 0-4 in games we could have won. The games we lost the record of those four teams — Avon, Hall, South Windsor, Southington — is 33-9-4. Those are some tough teams. In every game, we lost by one goal — with Avon in the last 20 seconds of the game. Southington, that one got away from us. We dominated the second half of that game. We had 19 corners, they had 9. We lost 2-1. That’s one we wish we had back.”
So Northwest Catholic needs to find a way to hold on at the end of the game, if the Lions are up, or score if they’re not.
“Late in the game, we just need to find a way to take our game to that next level,” Cahill said. “Like the person in basketball who makes that clutch shot at the end of the game — in terms of that focus and making that big play late. We need to focus on playing our best field hockey in that last 10 minutes.”
Northwest returned all-conference junior defender Sydney Taylor, sophomore Maeve Mullen and junior Keagan Ostop in the midfield and forwards Megan O’Shea, a senior all-conference player last year, sophomore Sarah Lamberty and junior Izzy Mortillaro. Lamberty is the team’s leading scorer (13 goals) and Mortillaro isn’t far behind with 12.
There are a number of teams bunched around the No. 8 spot in Class S, including Old Saybrook (9-4-1) and Valley Regional (8-31-2). A lot could happen out of Northwest Catholic’s control but as Cahill said, if the Lions win the last three games, they will likely have a good shot.
Southington Battling
It’s been a tough year for Southington, which went 10-6 last year but graduated eight starters, including the entire defense and its goalkeeper. Before they faced Hall on Monday, the Blue Knights were 5-6-0-1 and fighting for a spot in the Class L tournament with games against E.O. Smith, Newington and Avon left on the schedule.
“We’re in a rebuilding year,” coach Erin Luddy said. “We have a lot of people starting new positions. It took us some time to gel.”
Southington has had some close games — the Knights lost to Hamden 4-3 and were tied with South Windsor 0-0 at halftime before losing 2-0.
“The issue for us has always been scoring,” Luddy said. “It’s been something we’ve been working on.”
Junior forward Jenna Sheehan, an all-conference selection last year, has been Southington’s leading scorer and junior EmmaDoran is solid in the midfield. Victoria Godlewski, who is starting for the first time as a junior, anchors the defense.
“Those three are pretty much the only ones who returned from last year,” Luddy said. “They’re a good team. They can play. Because of the conference we’re in, sometimes they just hear the name [of a good team] and sometimes they psych themselves out.”