White River Junction
Hartford sophomore Abby Koff was involved in all three goals, netting one and assisting on two others. Sophomore Carol North and freshman Gretl Josselyn scored Hartford’s other goals, and sophomore Mckenna Druge finished the game with an assist.
“It was a good goal from Carol that gets us going,” 12th-year Hartford head coach Jeff Acker said. “Then, a ball we’ve been working on — getting to the front of the net and being tough — Gretl pokes it in. Then, all of a sudden, we’re off to the races. Abby gets the third one in the second half, and it never really was a question from there.”
Woodstock senior Annabelle Lessard scored the Wasps’ lone goal in its season opener with 16:05 remaining in the first half, sending a free kick from just outside the box into the top left corner of the net following a stretch of shared chances for much of the first half. Hartford’s battled back at 6:30 before the break, as North found space with a between-the-legs move that she buried over Woodstock goalkeeper Brittany Poljacik’s outstretched hands.
The Hurricanes (1-1) scored again — Josselyn finishing a scramble in front of Woodstock’s net — about 3½ minutes later. Koff gave Hartford the insurance goal 3:02 into the second half, netting a crossing pass from Druge just below the crossbar.
The Wasps never recovered from the multi-goal rally, spending much of the second half repelling Hartford attacks deep in their own zone. It was the kind of performance Acker was looking for after his team’s season-opening 4-0 loss to VPA Division I Colchester on Saturday.
“I thought we played great,” Acker said. “We did everything we wanted to do.”
The final result left Wasps head coach Greg LaBella, however, with more questions than answers. At least, LaBella said, he was able to see it all out on display.
“We’re a team with a lot of loose ends,” he said.
Woodstock’s strength is in its midfield, with Lessard and Sadie Kuhn making sure things run smoothly. But with only four seniors — Lessard, Kuhn, Poljacik and defenseman Rory Haff — on the roster, LaBella said he’s still trying to put it all together following an 8-7-1 season last year that ended in the D-II quarterfinals.
“I think everyone’s trying to help each other out and not let each other do their own job,” LaBella said. “They had two really good shots from 30 yards out with no one marking that most dangerous spot. There was some confusion in the back.
“There are a lot of girls that are still trying to learn how to communicate,” he added. “We went from all seniors in the back to a whole new backfield. It’s a work in progress.”
Acker said his team’s focus in practices has shifted in the last week to its transitions from defense to offense. It’s part of the veteran coach’s broader strategy for this season, one that — without a primary goal scorer — relies on controlled chaos in an opponents defensive zone to win games.
“The first couple of weeks were all about defense,” Acker said. “Then, in the last week, what we worked on is, how do we transition out of that? How does our defense create those counterattack opportunities? Yesterday, we were in the gym; I set up cones on the gym floor, showed them a couple of things and, today, were just trying to figure out those counterattacking spots.
“We’ll see how that plays out against the top Division II teams. I think, by the end of the year, we’re going to be the team that nobody wants to tangle with because it’s a different system. We’re going to muck it up, and they’re going to hate playing us.”
The Hurricanes travel to Harwood on Friday. Woodstock will have a week off before hosting Mill River next Wednesday.
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.