Girls Field Hockey: Cranston East Falls 1-0 to South Kingstown

Cranston East faced a tough division foe on Saturday, as they welcomed South Kingstown to Cranston Stadium. The Lady 'Bolts only allowed one goal to the Rebels but squandered the few opportunities they did have, falling 1-0.

The Thunderbolts came out strong and created several penalty corner situations in the first five minutes. East was unable to score and South Kingstown rallied, as the game moved up and down the field.

The Rebels had a great chance in the tenth minute, as Alexandra Nolan found Mackenzie Iemma in the circle, but the ball bounced over her stick and the Lady 'Bolts cleared it. 

Off that same turnover, Cranston East drove the length of the field and Betty Quinonez found a seam in the defense. She had only the goalie to beat, but she missed wide left, failing to capitalize on a tailor made goal-scoring opportunity.

The Rebels would dominate possession in the first half, but Cranston East played strong defense, which was spearheaded by Sweeper Lisa Huang and Goalie Melody Francisco.

After a couple tremendous plays from the Rebels, which feature pristine passing and teamwork, all of which were stopped but Francisco, there was a foot penalty with a clear shot towards goal, setting up a penalty shot. Fortunately for the Lady 'Bolts, the penalty shot went wide off the stick of Erin McAlice.

Realizing Cranston East was holding on by a thread, Coach Robert Finelli called timeout.

"I said you can't allow your all star goalie and the best sweeper in the division to keep bailing you out in the circle. Lisa had a ridiculous game. She was fantastic," Coach Finelli said.

The pressure continued after the timeout but Francisco made a few more spectacular saves to keep the Lady 'Bolts in it.

Cranston East created a counterattack late in the half, but Betty Quinonez, who had multiple chances, couldn't finish them off and the game went to halftime with no score.

South Kingstown controlled for the first five minutes after intermission and finally broke through when Carly Sheehan fired a shot through a sea of defenders, giving the Rebels the first lead of the game at 1-0.

The Lady 'Bolts were ferocious after Sheehan's goal, controlling possession for the next ten minutes of play. Cranston East had a phenomenal chance in the 50th minute on a penalty corner, as Nina Steiner received a return pass from Beatrix Kanno at point blank range. But Steiner whiffed on the chance.

That was the last legitimate scoring opportunity for Cranston East, and despite the stout defense, they came out on the short end of a well played game.

The win moves South Kingstown to 10-2-1 on the season and keeps them in first place as the playoffs approach.

The loss coupled with Friday's 6-0 non-competitive loss to Smithfield, drops Cranston East to 3-9-2 on the season with two games to play. The Lady 'Bolts currently are in seventh place in the division, with only the top six advancing to the playoffs.

"They played as good as they could play. Especially after yesterday's lackluster performance against Smithfield, where they were not mentally ready to play. Today they were mentally and physically ready to play. And they played great. They played as good as they can play. Now if I can just bottle that and play it against Chariho and Tiverton this week, we win both games. But we'll see, it's gonna be a tough road. We're still breathing but we've gotta hold our own," Finelli said.

Cranston East will likely have to win out to make the playoffs and take over sixth place in the standings over Chariho. They'll face Chariho on Monday and Tiverton on Wednesday to close out the season.