Varsity field hockey earns second consecutive shutout with win over South Portland-Westbrook

By Matt Pascarella

In a rare Monday game and coming off their Homecoming Week 8-0 victory against Massabesic, Windham’s varsity field hockey played South Portland-Westbrook at Windham on Monday, Oct. 5, rolling to a 5-0 win.

Windham junior Mirabelle Kri passes the ball during a varsity
field hockey game against South Portland-Westbrook on
Monday, Oct. 5. PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA

While Windham was a little slow to start, they scored in the first half and Eagle defense kept South Portland-Westbrook scoreless the entire game. The second half brought intense Windham offense as they knocked in four goals and not only secured their second win in-a-row, but their second consecutive shutout with a win over South Portland-Westbrook.

“I think they see their skill, and they see their teamplay and they see that it works,” said Windham varsity field hockey coach Maddy Perfetti. “It was really nice after a stretch of really tough games to have a game where we could open up, work on some stuff, get some shots on cage. Today they played a really good team game. They came in excited about the game and wanting to repeat. They haven’t had a Monday game (so they came out a little slow); I chalk it up to exhaustion and not being focused on the task at hand. We shook it off, the second half and really just dialed in.”

As the game began, Windham was ready to earn another win and it showed. Windham junior Mirabelle Kri scored in the first five minutes to give the Eagles the 1-0 advantage.

Their intensity remained as Windham entered the second quarter. Eagle defense kept this quarter scoreless, and Windham led 1-0 at intermission.

“To start it off, it was a little bit sloppy on our end,” said Kri. “Once we started working as a team, everything started to click toward the end, we used our units together and pushed the ball up more and that’s what gave us the score, and I think that just boosted moral. After the second goal it really motivated us to get more. Teamwork led to the win. Communicating and looking at passes were positives from today. It’s not a one-man-show; using a team to move the ball up is really good. Attitude (needs work); that’s why we encourage each other and that can brighten up everybody’s mood. We want to end the season with some hard-fought games and make it to playoffs.”

The second half began with Windham speed and strong defense. Kri scored in the first three minutes. Less than a minute later, she scored again.

On a penalty corner, Windham senior Sarah Smyth scored. The Eagles continued pressuring.

“We haven’t had very many Monday games, so we really were focusing on working hard and coming out strong,” said Smyth. “We really had great passing up the field, we had great finishing around the net in the second half, defense was great, getting it out of the circle, our corners worked great; we had a lot of those today. Communicating (needs work). We want to finish the season with wins and go deep into the playoffs.”

Windham controlled the game in the fourth quarter, and with less than two minutes remaining sophomore Haley Johnsen scored.

Sophomore Windham goalie Courtney Cotter had eight saves on eight shots at goal.

“Once we started communicating with each other and letting each other know where we were, we were able to start connecting on those passes; and that’s where we find success is when we pass the ball,” said Perfetti. “Defense played strong through the middle. That pressure through the middle, to then bring it out wide was really good, we’ve been working on that. Being able to be mentally tough is something I’m seeing more and more of throughout the season, this was a good challenge for them today. Dropping on the press needs work; playing that team defense through the whole midfield is exhausting mentally ... we get more reps and they get better at it.” <