October 11, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Late surge falls short for GFS hockey
by TOM UTESCHER

Late in the second half of last Tuesday’s Friends School League field hockey game, the Germantown Friends Tigers put away one goal and were on the hunt for another. Host Academy of the New Church had scored three times earlier in the contest, though, and after surviving the late charge by the visitors, the host Lions (5-3-2, 2-0-1 FSL) claimed a 3-1 victory.

“I think we have a tendency to wait till late to really turn up the heat,” commented Dana Griffin, the head coach for GFS (0-5, 0-2). “Sometimes by that point the other team has an insurmountable lead. We need to feel that urgency, that desire, earlier in the game.”

While just two saves were recorded for ANC goalie Mara Metroka, junior Annie Tickel stood up to heavy pressure to stop 15 shots for the Tigers.

“Her goalkeeping skills have elevated tremendously this year,” Griffin said. “I think if she wasn’t back there working as hard, playing as strongly as she is, we’d be a lot worse for wear.”

The Tigers have been changing around personnel elsewhere in the defensive unit, according to their mentor, who noted, “Sarah Schulman [a senior] has really been stepping it up and she seems to get better every game. Anna Bak [a senior co-captain] has been playing center back or left mid, and she’s a strong player. She always works hard and has great stick skills, so she’s definitely an asset back there.”

Unfortunately for Germantown, another veteran defender, junior Sarah Bell, was sidelined with a sprained ankle for the ANC game.

Over the first 15 minutes last Wednesday, GFS took three penalty corners to New Church’s two, but each side fouled on the one shot it got off. Attacking again, the Lions launched a ball that was kicked back out by the Tigers’ Tickel, but Amanda Nash scored off the rebound for ANC. Two more corners for each team went by without incident, then with just 20 seconds left in the opening period, the Lions’ Karenna Genzlinger cashed in off an assist from Rite Herder for a 2-0 halftime score.

On the next two ANC corners, GFS flier Becca Williams (the other senior co-captain) broke up the first play, and Tickel stopped a shot on the second. Midway through the period, Bak brought the ball all the way down the right wing and forced a corner, but GFS couldn’t get off a shot.

Later, on the third of three straight ANC corners, the ball came out the top of the circle, was driven back inside, and then was fired into the cage by Sierra Asplundh. Now down 3-0 with 13:29 remaining, the Tigers took the play to the other end of the field and eventually got on the board with 8:56 to go. Here, the ball was hit high in the circle on a corner, and a group of GFS players steadily beat the ball down towards the goal until senior Annie Sarachan was able to knock it in.

With around three minutes left the Tigers appeared to score again off of an outside drive that went in off of a defender’s stick, but because the ball didn’t touch a GFS stick inside the circle, the marker didn’t count.

As the Tigers strive to turn their 2007 season around, they have some good young players coming up through the ranks. Two of them are freshmen out of Norwood Fontbonne Academy; Caroline Cilio, a JV/varsity swing player, and Alex Gilliam, the JV’s starting goalkeeper.