Lackey doubles up St. Charles

Nagle scores twice as Chargers top Spartans in field hockey

Rain has dampened much of Southern Maryland over the last few weeks, but it was still not enough to prevent the Lackey Chargers from hosting the St. Charles Spartans in a Southern Maryland Athletic Conference Potomac Division field hockey game last Thursday.

The Chargers had multiple games earlier in the season postponed and rescheduled due to the weather conditions.

“We had a rough and slow start this season losing our first two games and then getting hit constantly by this never-ending rain that it’s been a different season than last year,” Lackey head coach Erika Prate said. “But we’re getting our momentum and I hope to keep it up for all our remaining games.”

As light, and at times heavy, rainfall fell from the sky, the two teams proceeded to begin their warm-ups and prepared to do battle on the rain-soaked field.

Lackey (3-3, 1-1 SMAC Potomac after a 3-0 loss to Thomas Stone on Monday and a 1-0 win over McDonough on Wednesday) sustained an early pressure to start the game and was rewarded for their efforts when Kayla Nagle scored the opening goal five minutes into the contest. The Chargers grabbed an early advantage that they would never relinquish.

Shortly after Nagle’s tally, forward Caliya Cortner found the back of the cage from around the front of the net to extend the home team’s lead to 2-0.

The Spartans were able to sustain pressure of their own, but unlike the Chargers, their sustained pressure wasn’t translating into goals.

“We just got to move the ball a little bit quicker down the field and get open a little bit more,” St. Charles head coach Duane Hendricks said.

As the game neared halftime, Lackey generated multiple penalty corners and chances to add onto its early advantage.

Spartans goalie Rachel Hendricks made six of her 11 saves in the first half to help keep her team close early on. However, with just over a minute remaining before halftime, Jenna Clark capitalized on her chance in front to strike the ball into the back of the cage and give the Chargers a commanding 3-0 lead.

The final play before halftime was nearly another Lackey goal off of a corner, but the shot from the Chargers attack sailed just wide as the buzzer sounded.

Heavier rainfall to start the second half of play affected the number of shots both teams were generating as less shots were being attempted early on.

That changed though when Nagle began the scoring in the second half just as she did in the first. Nagle’s shot was perfectly placed and found the back of the cage to push the Chargers further ahead by a score of 4-0.

St. Charles, still in search of its first goal of the season, kept fighting back just as the crowd of spectators who braved the weather conditions kept fighting back against the rain in an attempt to stay dr y.

Lackey goalie Karissa Bannister made five saves in the game, but there was one shot that snuck past her in a crowd in front of the cage.

Mackenzie Shughart was able to score the first goal of the season for the Spartans and was swarmed by her ecstatic teammates who circled around her as smiles and cheers rang out from the visitors sideline.

St. Charles would go on to add another tally on a penalty stroke shot by Katherine O’Meara as the clock read zeroes after multiple red cards were assessed

to the home team with 6 minutes 30 seconds left in the game.

Coach Hendricks was proud of his team after the 4-2 defeat and had nothing but positive things to say about their efforts.

“I thought we played a pretty good game. [Lackey] is an aggressive team, so I thought our defense did really well against them,” he said.

Surrendering just four goals against Lackey tied a season low for the Spartans (0-6, 0-1) as the team continues to fight for their first win of the year.

“You know our team is not as established as some of these other schools, but we are still battling and still going at it so I look forward to a good season,” coach Hendricks said.

Prate praised her team’s well.

“I felt that my team fought hard and played ready to win. We have some big games coming up, so we need to be ready.”

Lackey aims to make it back to the SMAC championship game this year and repeat as the conference’s Potomac Division champions.

“Our communication has been improving which makes me happy and I’m excited to see what this what seems like now fast moving season has in store,” Prate said. efforts as