RallyNorth.net

Wed, Oct 31, 2007 02:30 PM @ Pentucket

Team	1st	2nd	OT	Final
Playoff Game
Bishop Fenwick	0	0	0	0
Pentucket	0	0	1	1

Pentucket advances with OT win

The Pentucket field hockey team made Bishop Fenwick very aware of the cruelty of "sudden death" yesterday.

In a split second, underdog Bishop Fenwick went from potential Cinderella to first-round victim.

Senior Katie Studzinski broke a scoreless tie seven minutes into sudden death overtime, giving No. 3 Pentucket a victory over the No. 14 seed in the Division 2 North tourney. But the manner in which the Crusaders saw their season end was anything but predictable.

The Sachems (13-3-4) seemed primed to make fast work of Fenwick | a team that backed into the tournament with an 8-8-2 record. The first half played to that script with the Sachems bombarding goalie Casey Landry with nine shots. The Crusaders, on the other hand, had only one shot.

But the teams broke for the half locked in a scoreless tie, giving Sachems coach Ruth Beaton plenty of fodder with which to motivate her team.

"I told the girls to stay in the game," Beaton said. "We moved well, we passed well and we had plenty of scoring chances. We just weren't converting them. But there was no reason to give up."

Thirty minutes later, Beaton was forced to repeat the speech. The second half was nearly identical to the first half with Pentucket tallying nine shots to Fenwick's one. Still, Landry made save after save to the point that the momentum appeared to be turning.

"We weren't struggling on offense," Studzinski said. "We were getting plenty of shots on goal. But their goalie was amazing. She protected a lot of space, and we were starting to think it might be our last game. It was sad to think about."

What made things even sadder for the hosts was Bishop Fenwick's increased intensity coming out of the gates in overtime; the Crusaders recorded the first three shots in the final period.

"That's when I knew we had to do something," Studzinski said. "We needed to keep going. We have the potential to be one of the best teams ever at this school."

With eight minutes remaining, the home team earned a corner; Studzinski collected a pass from Lyndsay Beaton less than 10 yards in front of Landry and drilled the game-winner.

It is only the second tournament victory for Pentucket in program history. The Sachems advanced to the quarterfinals where they will host No. 6 Winchester (12-5-2) tomorrow at 2:30 p.m.

"It's been our goal all season to win two tournament games," the coach said. "We'd obviously like to win more than two, but we have a chance to accomplish what we set out to do on Friday."