Undefeated, Central Field Hockey Still Has Work To Do, Coach Says

A three-goal lead wasn’t enough to make for Central Regional field hockey coach Madeline Dutton take it easy on her players.

“Don’t get slappy,” she yelled on Thursday afternoon as the Golden Eagles worked their way to a 4-0 victory over Brick at the Green Dragons’ home field on Thursday. “Don’t get lazy because you’re tired.”

The Golden Eagles (8-0) returned 10 varsity players from the 2010 squad, including four-year starters Ashley Aires and Fran Figurelli, as well as Jess Sudia, who was the team’s leading scorer in 2010.. And while the team has handled every opponent so far – Central’s goalie tandem of Alexa Padula and Taylor Keehn has allowed just four goals over seven games and the duo has recorded four shutouts – Dutton feels the squad still has work to do.

“We still have a lot we have to improve,” said Dutton, who is in her 35^th year at the helm of Central’s field hockey program. “We have to clean up some of our play.”

“We have to stop starting slow,” she said.

Against Brick, in a game disrupted early in the first half by a lightning delay, the Golden Eagles carried the ball into Brick’s zone repeatedly before finally finding the back of the cage at 20:29, when Aires tucked home a feed from Allie Zambito. Less than a minute later, Sudia put home a pass from Haley Louth to give Central a 2-0 lead.

Central spent much of the second half in the Brick end of the field, but couldn’t find the cage until the 53^rd minute, when Sudia managed to slip behind the defense and was all alone when Lauren Castellano’s pass came through past Brick’s goalie for the easy score. Castellano added the fourth goal six minutes later on a breakaway.

While Sudia leads the team with 11 goals, she’s far from the only scoring threat. Aires, who was the team’s No. 2 scorer in 2010, has seven goals, while Castellano has six. Figurelli has five, and Central also has received goals from Brittany Oldehoff, Jessica Hoey and Victoria Nash, who scored four times in the 9-0 victory over Manchester on Monday.

Dutton said Nash has been one player who has surprised her with her solid contributions this season.

Dutton refuses to look ahead to the Shore Conference Tournament, because while the tournament cutoff is 11 days away, the Golden Eagles have to get through the Class B South schedule again, including another meeting with Lacey – which Central defeated 3-0 the first time – on Tuesday, Oct. 4. Central beat Pinelands 4-1 on Friday.

“We take it one game at a time,” Dutton said.