Saugus’ Krissy Italiano, right, and Peabody’s Camila DeOliveira battle for possession. Item Photo by Katie Morrison
By Katie Morrison
SAUGUS — The Saugus field hockey team is strong, experienced and looking to make some noise in the Northeastern Conference this season.
The Sachems scored three goals in the second half to shut down Peabody, 3-1, at Stackpole Field Tuesday.
The Tanners came out firing, scoring after just six minutes. Mallory LeBlanc took a free hit just outside the circle in Saugus’ end, and Nicole Ferrante found the ball in front of the net, giving Peabody a 1-0 lead.
From that point on, Saugus maintained possession for the majority of the game. The Sachems had a few good chances in the first half, including four corners. At one point, the Sachems had three corners over the course of just a few minutes, but couldn’t find the goal. On the third corner, Peabody sweeper Sara Feinstein cleared the ball out of the Tanners’ end.
The Sachems didn’t waste much time knotting the score at one in the second half. Just a few minutes in, Katie Italiano got a stick on the ball after Peabody goalie Sofia Rodriguez came out of the net and broke through the scrum to score the equalizer.
Rodriguez was busy in the second half, and Saugus created more scoring chances right away. At one point, the ball popped out of a scrum in front of the goal and Rodriguez lunged to knock the ball away with her blocker.
Later in the half, Rodriguez slid into the stick of Ailyn Minaya, knocking the ball away. But Minaya picked up her own rebound and put it away, giving Saugus a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
Minaya and Italiano were right in the middle of Saugus’ third goal as well. About three minutes after Minaya’s first goal, Italiano crossed the ball to Minaya, who slipped it past Rodriguez to give Saugus some insurance.
“Ailyn was very aggressive, attacking the goalie…it was nice to see someone making the goalie work,” Saugus coach Barbara Guarente said. “(The Sachems first game of the season) against Gloucester, we didn’t work the goalie at all, so it was nice to see that.”
Guarente was also happy with the communication between her players on the field, which was led by defender Sam Allan.
“They talked a lot more this game than they did in the first game, the communication and movement was better,” Guarente said.
“They were moving to the ball…we still have to work a little bit on that, but for the most part, they were actually cutting to it, so that was good,” Guarente added. She also credited Priscilla Geha, Alessia Salzillo and Liz Schrippa with their strong performances.
The Sachems missed the tournament in 2015, but Guarente and the Sachems have their sights set on playing in November.
“We have 13 seniors, a lot of returning players,” Guarente said. “I told them in the first practice that there’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to go far in the league and make the tournament, and hopefully we keep the trend going.”
As for Peabody, there’s still work to be done, but there were positives to take from Tuesday’s loss.
“We had a really good first half, scoring first, but we came out kind of flat in the second half and lost a lot of confidence after (Saugus’ first) goal,” Peabody coach Pam Grant said. “It took a little talking to, and we picked it up in the last 10 minutes, but it’s a matter of finishing the whole game like we started.”