Despite Loss, Hawks Improving

The Hudson varsity field hockey team’s first half was just too much to handle for the Milford Scarlet Hawks, as Milford dropped its fourth game of the season Friday afternoon, 3-0.

Though Milford struggled in the first half of play, the Hawks looked like a completely different team in the second half, shutting down Hudson’s scorers and not giving them as much space to operate their offense as they had in the first. “We had some adjustments that we needed to make on defense, which they made out there,” said Milford head coach Jennifer Fournier. “We needed to just kind of hold them and we just needed a little bit more of an offensive push today that we were lacking, so we’ll just keep practicing more offensively, so that we don’t have to play as much defense.”

Hudson was led by senior attacks Kat Volk and Janelle Curtis, who both scored goals, as well as junior midfielder/defenseman Andrea Fahey, who netted the only goal Hudson would need all afternoon. Hudson was led defensively by their goalie Michelle Chiasson, who registered six saves. Milford keeper, Jessie Pye, recorded 10 saves in the losing effort.

Hudson came out firing in the first half scoring three goals in a row, the first, an unassisted goal by Fahey to put Hudson up, 1-0, early. A few minutes later Volk found fellow attacker Curtis for the second goal of the game, quickly putting Milford at a disadvantage. With seven minutes left, Hudson found the back of the net again, this time it was Curtis repaying Volk with a pass for the goal and a 3-0 lead.

Milford had a few good opportunities during the last five minutes of the first, including a great goal scoring chance off a corner, but just wasn’t able to put the ball past Chiasson. Though Milford wasn’t able to put the ball in the net, they did have great play from their forward and mids in junior Cierra Meurant, senior Samantha Nichols, junior Ali Furlo and senior captain Courtney Hebert.

Milford looked like a completely different team in the second half, which Fournier credits to the girls playing "aggressively and with more confidence."

“It was more execution on the girls’ part, they just needed to get either a little bit more aggressive or confident and I think that the more they started to play, the more that started to happen,” said Fournier. “Other than knowing who to mark on defense and having tighter defense—that was our big adjustment that we made—there was hesitation today, and Hudson did not have hesitation. Teams without hesitation usually get to the ball first, and they [Hudson] won.”

Though Fournier made certain adjustments at half time, Milford has also made more specific changes to the scheme of their offense by playing less of a defensive front in hopes of getting more shots on net during the course of the game. Over the last two games, Fournier has decided to go with a forward, two mids, three half backs and a sweeper on the offensive end, unlike the first two games, where the Hawks played more of a defensive scheme.

“It’s helped a lot to have more of an offensive push so we get more shots on goal, but we’re still a new team and we’re working on communicating with each other,” she said. “Each game we’ll get a little bit better at that [offense], and I think from going from that [defense] to this week with only one practice in between was a little bit of an adjustment and it took us a half to get there.”

Milford looks to pick up its first win on the road next week as they take on Wachusett Regional High School on Wednesday and Algonquin on Friday.