Sports

Veterans Lead Medfield Girls' Lacrosse Past Nashoba, 18-5

With expectations high this season, Warriors race out to 6-0 lead in opening minutes of Thursday's 18-5 victory over Nashoba Valley.

The Medfield High School girls’ lacrosse team continued its fast start to the 2011 season Thursday, posting an 18-5 victory over Nashoba Valley at Calvin George Fisher Memorial Field.

The victory is Medfield’s fifth in six games to start the year and is the type of success the Warriors have come to expect on the lacrosse field.

“We have a really good team this year and we are pretty well-rounded,” said MHS senior captain Kate Wasley. “We have pretty high expectations for the season and we’re off to a good start.”

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With the majority of last year’s team intact this season, MHS senior captain Isabelle Hackett said that familiarity and experience on the field has resulted in early success.

“We have a really good mix of players and there’s a lot of us back from last year so we’re used to playing together,” Hackett said.

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That experience was on display Thursday as the Warriors jumped on Nashoba Valley with three goals in the first four minutes of the game, including the game’s first goal, scored by Emily Zlevor, on Medfield’s first possession and shot, less than a minute in.

“They looked good,” said Medfield head coach Jason Heim. “I’m happy with their performance. It’s been a good, solid week.”

Hackett led the Warriors in scoring with four goals and Wasley added three. Katelyn Noschese, Katie Ott and Molly Crabtree each netted two each as Medfield seemingly scored at will against Nashoba. Sarah Honan was in net, allowing just five goals in the 18-5 victory.

“Like the girls said we got a good core group of players and some very talented players who will be collegiate athletes and they’re really coming together well,” Heim said. “Not only is it on the field, but off the field they are all friends so that’s a big part of having a close team that plays well together.”

Despite the lopsided victory, Heim stressed the importance of taking advantage of every opportunity on the field in order to compete and inevitably beat, the top teams in the league and around the state.

“I think the hardest thing when you have a team that has this much success is not to let them get loose,” said Heim. “We are going to play some of these teams again and I know they’re going to be able to take it to them but we got to keep pushing ourselves and working harder and harder so ultimately when we play the Westwoods, Hopkintons, Duxburys and Norwells we are ready for them. We can’t waste opportunities in practice or other games to work on those things that will help us beat the top teams.”

Medfield’s only loss to this point of the season was a 19-7 defeat against Westwood on April 7. Heim and his players will remember that loss and use it as motivation to improve.

“We’re looking to get Westwood again,” said Wasley.

Heim said he often reminds the girls to take the season one game at a time because it is much more effective to focus on that one opponent on the field and less likely the opponent gets overlooked.

“Take every opponent like they are the number one team when we play, even if in the back of our heads we know they’re [not as strong] because on any given day any team can come out and jump on top of you and you fall behind and you may not be able to recover,” Heim said.

A situation Heim referenced, as an example was Medfield’s 17-5 victory over Medway on April 12.

“Medway scored the first two goals on us and it looked like it would be a game so we really do take one game at time,” said Heim.

At 5-1 overall and 3-1 in the Tri-Valley League, Medfield’s primarily goal is to make the state tournament and see what happens from there – one game at a time.

“We lost in the state tournament quarterfinals last year to the eventual state champions,” Heim said. “It was a really good season last year. Our goal is to make the tournament this year and after that we will see what we can do.”

Medfield hosts Ashland Tuesday at 3:45 p.m.


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