Springfield, Vt.
A lot has changed in the past 24 months.
On Monday at Michelle Porter Field, Windsor scored three early goals, stuttered through the rest of the first half, then put the game away with a dominating second half, eventually beating the Cosmos, 5-1.
Perhaps a good indication of what was in store for Windsor this fall was a preseason game in which the Jacks outscored defending D-II champion Lyndon.
“And all the girls showed up to all the preseason practices in good shape,” coach Jody Wood said.
Monday was another of those humid summer days, and Windsor came into the game with a roster of 17. Springfield had just two reserves. Even though the officials stopped the game twice for water breaks, the lack of depth on the Cosmos’ bench was telling: Springfield was outshot over the second half, 15-0, and had no penalty corners to Windsor’s eight. The only saving grace for the Cosmos was the sensational play of sophomore goalie Anna Church, who kicked out 17 shots.
“Kudos to their goaltender,” said Windsor sophomore Alyssa Slocum, who was the point person on most of the corners. “She was terrific.”
Perhaps a main factor in Windsor’s second-half dominance was its ability to rest everybody while Springfield didn’t have enough bodies to take some of the players off the field.
Slocum said she was able to deal the heat pretty well because “I was focusing on the game.”
“I think what helped us a lot was that we were able to get the players off the field every eight minutes,” said Wood.
Windsor’s anticipation for this season has been high after last fall’s 9-4-1 record capped by a trip to the D-III semis with a team that had no seniors. There are still no seniors this year, too, with a roster that features sophomore Hannah Wood (22 points last fall) and junior Angelina Bigwood (19).
It looked like a major rout was on when Windsor took a 3-0 lead in the first 20 minutes, but Springfield — which was coming off a 3-2 loss to Brattleboro in its season opener — tightened up the defense and kept Windsor off the scoreboard the rest of the first half.
“I think we just had some defensive lapses,” Wood said. “We just weren’t marking well.”
Hannah Wood is now carrying the family flag that saw her sister, Haley, take away the school scoring record for her mother. Asked if her mother makes her play field hockey all year round, she smiled, glanced at her mother and said, “Let’s just say I love field hockey.”
Hannah Wood had the first of Windsor’s goals from five different scorers.
“Five different goal scorers, that’s great,” said Coach Wood as she looked at the score book.
Hannah Wood’s goal came with just over three minutes into the game as Windsor made life miserable real early for Church in the Springfield goal.
Before 20 minutes had been played, the score got to 3-0 as Bigwood and Jenna Hood hit the tally sheet. Goals in the second half came from two freshmen, Peyton Richardson and Karen Kapuscinski. Hanna Presch had the Springfield goal.
Windsor hosts Fair Haven on Thursday, while Springfield is at Bellows Falls on Wednesday.