By Christopher Shaban
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CLAREMONT — As the leaves turn colors and change, so has the Kearsarge field hockey program as they have returned to a competitive game and faced the Cardinals Tuesday night in the city for the first of a back to back series. This rivalry is as competitive as ever between these two solid clubs and tonight was no exception as goals were rattled in until a late goal decided the match.
“This is as good as it gets, it was a big win against a really good Kearsarge team, we took what they gave us and ran onto everything tonight and kept working hard” said Stevens tri-captain Gabby Savo.
With Stevens jumping out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Hannah Geil and Emily Herbert, it appeared that the Cougars didn’t have their legs under them. Isabella Kitapence would erase any thoughts of an easy Cardinal win with two goals, one in the first half and a second early in the second to knot the score 2-2 as Kearsarge began to gobble up the action in the middle of the field as Emily Herbert and Julia Tursky had some fierce battles to control possessions.
“This team has a flame and tonight we generated a lot of positive energy, we kept pressuring the tempo and did what we had to do” said Tursky.
That positive energy led to two more Cardinal tallies as Bri Frisbee and Abby Faro gave Stevens some breathing room and grabbed a 4-2 lead late in the game as the home team was in control.
After a quick strike goal by Kearsarge cut the gap to 4-3, a flood of Stevens attackers pushed toward goal and after a great save by the Cougars Marissa Montagna, it was Zoey Foote who wouldn’t give up on the ball to collect her own rebound for the eventual game winner with a wave of Cardinals looking to score.
Kitapence would grab a hat trick with her third goal of the contest as Kearsarge just had no quit.Alex Perez stood tall in net for Stevens to stop a last ditch Cougar effort to secure a hard fought 5-4 win.
“Our moto is one team, one heartbeat,” said Stevens coach Patty Deschaine and it took an extra effort from the Cardinals to put away the Cougars who just wouldn’t go away. “It was a great game and I’m just so thankful to be able to be playing.”
These same teams will do it all again, this time at Kersarge next week.
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