WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Alice Piper switched positions late in the Hartford High field hockey team’s regular season. The change of scenery clearly agrees with the senior captain, who scored three times on Thursday during a 4-1 defeat of Mount Abraham in the VPA Division II quarterfinals.
The victory advances the second-seeded Hurricanes to Monday’s semifinals against the winner of Friday’s clash between third-seeded U-32 and sixth-seeded Burr & Burton. Hartford athletic director Jeff Moreno said after the victory that the semifinals’ site remained to be determined.
The Hurricanes defeated U-32 during the season opener and split a pair of games with Burr & Burton later in the schedule.
“We had to reconfigure the front line and the link line after we had a bad week,” said 34th-year Hartford coach Heather Scudder, whose 12-2-1 team suffered its losses within five days of each other two weeks ago. “I thought we had some people not in the right spot and a lot of illness on the team. We switched probably five players’ positions.
“These guys aren’t set in their ways. They’ve been flexible.”
Among them is Piper, who moved up and out to the left wing and who notched the third hat trick of her high school career on Thursday. She opened the game’s scoring during the tenth minute, popping in the rebound of a Madison Willey shot.
“We just all work together, and I’m there in the right place,” Piper said.
“I just put my stick in there and try to push the ball through. A lot of times there are deflections, and I stop them to get a shot.”
Said Scudder: “There are players whose intuition puts them in the right spots. I can’t teach that, but Al has it.”
Piper pushed the hosts’ lead to 2-0 with three minutes remaining in the second quarter. Mount Abraham goalkeeper Greta Dennison shuffled off her line to make a save on a Piper shot from the left side but couldn’t prevent No. 25 from cashing the rebound.
Hartford went up, 3-0, just 15 seconds before intermission, Willey powering her way through a crowded goal front from the right side and lifting a shot past Dennison.
The Hurricanes put the game away with six minutes remaining in the third quarter and shortly after a penalty corner insertion. Nedra Dwinell passed from the right side toward the left post, where Piper completed her hat trick.
The seventh-seeded Eagles (4-9-2) scored three minutes later and spent a good chunk of the fourth quarter in Hartford’s end. The Hurricanes competed down a player for much of the stanza after an accumulation of cards led to increasingly long stints on the sidelines for offenders. Scudder said most were for standing too close to the stroke on restarts.
Hartford’s roster is comprised of four seniors, three juniors, six sophomores and seven freshmen. The Hurricanes graduated six seniors from last year’s team that went 13-4-0 and lost to Mount Abraham in the division finals.
However, they also returned seven starters, including two seniors.
“Last season’s seniors played together for four years in multiple sports, and they knew how each other handled things,” Scudder said. “Now, we have to remember that younger players get more nervous and teach them that handling stress is a skill you can learn.”
Scudder touted right wing Olivia Seaver for also excelling Thursday. Willey, who played there last season, is now more centrally located, but her ominous and powerful windup and powerful crosses and shots remain. Feisty midfielder Dwinnell, the team’s other senior starter, is a relentless irritant who must make opponents groan.
Notes: Hartford could face top-seeded Woodstock (12-1-0) in the finals. The Hurricanes beat the host Wasps, 2-1, on Oct. 5. … Woodstock hosts ninth-seeded Middlebury on Friday. … Hartford’s athletic facilities overhaul continued this summer and fall around the field hockey field. An open-air press box resembling a parade reviewing stand was built, and the former baseball dugouts have been converted to storage sheds. From above, one can still see the old hardball diamond, covered in natural turf several years back. … Scudder, who began her second stint as field hockey coach in 2017, noted that Mount Abraham had ended the Hurricanes’ postseason each of the last three seasons.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.