Columbia Girls Edged in Home Opener

The Columbia field hockey team suffered a tough loss on opening day at Underhill Sports Complex against Millburn, 1-0. If there were ever a such thing as a moral victory in sports, Saturday's home loss would've certainly qualified.

"Obviously a 1-0 loss is kind of frustrating, however it's the best we've done against Millburn since I've been coaching," said CHS head coach Maggie Singler. "I think I saw a lot of really good things today."

In the last two times the Cougars had faced the Millers, Columbia had lost by a combined score of 6-1. On Saturday, the game was knotted at zero for most of it, until Morgan Phillips was able to breakthrough for a second half goal against the Cougars.

"It was nice. She put that in, she finished it," said MHS head coach Rose Twombly. "I think the problem is that we had many opportunities to score in the second half and we just needed to finish."

Midway through the second half Millburn's Kate Twombly received a pass from right winger Meghan Lacy as they were moving into Columbia's scoring area. Twombly played the  ball into the middle, where Phillips was able to get her stick on it in traffic and tapped the ball in for the score.

Although Millburn had a few more chances, they were never able to finish off anything else. However, Millburn controlled possession for much of the game and did not allow Columbia very many scoring chances, especially in the second half where they had just one shot on goal.

"I think it was a completely even matched game. I don't think we let up at all," Singler said. "They got the luckiest shot and we didn't today. But I'm really excited, I saw a lot of good things with my team."

In the opening half, Columbia had some scoring opportunities which included five penalty corners, compared to just one for the Millers during that time. However, in the second half Columbia got just one penalty corner opportunity, while Millburn took eight. Although Columbia defended the corners quite well, it did keep the ball in their defensive zone for much of the final 25 minutes.

"I thought we made some adjustments at half time and we played a lot better in the second half. We played with better passing," Rose Twombly said. "... I think it was the first game so we had a some jitters, maybe a little bit at the beginning. We wanted to play at our level. ...They were a physical team and we just couldn't really get in our groove."

Despite the loss, the Cougars did some encouraging things and played about as well as they have at any point during coach Singler's two plus years at the helm. After graduating practically the entire defense a year ago, Columbia's back-line did not miss a beat and played Millburn very tough.

"I'm really excited. I think Mary [Grace Cobbs] did a great job in the goal and I think Sam [Cohen] and Jane [Mousseau] as captains led the team," Singler said. "I think that they did great. Compared to last year, we didn't get our butts kicked."

In the end it was the lack of offensive execution in Millburn's defensive half, or Millburn's defensive execution during those times that stopped the Cougars from being able to score. Columbia successfully moved the ball up field multiple times, but were unable to put the final touch or hit on the ball to convert the chances into points. Millburn seemingly always got a stick on the ball at the last second to spoil the scoring opportunities.

The Millers have their home opener on Tuesday in what should be a very difficult match against Kent Place. Meanwhile, the Cougars also have a tall task in their next match, at home against Arthur L. Johnson. The Johnson game was originally scheduled to be the first ever home night game in CHS history, but technical problems with the lights at Underhill have forced the game to be played in the afternoon instead of at night.