Greene’s field hockey players know all too well how elusive a championship can be. The 2009 New York State champions lost in the semifinals the past two years in penalty stroke-offs, essentially a skills competition. The Trojans, though, won’t be the only team on the Cicero-North Syracuse High School field Saturday morning familiar with that heart-breaking feeling. Greenwich, Section II champions the previous two years, lost in the Class C state finals last year, in overtime no less, to Cazenovia.
The unbeaten Trojans steamrolled Cazenovia last week ending the Lakers’ 40-game winning streak. As easy as that win appeared to the layman field hockey fan, Greene head coach Sue Carlin was quite to note the victory was far from easy. “We had to work awfully hard to put ourselves in position to score,” Carlin said of last weekend’s victory. “We just took advantage of some situations.”
Greenwich has won 19 of 20 games this season, and despite being outshot by Bronxville earlier this week 14-6, made its two first-half goals stand up to advance to the final four. Abby Dusha tallied seven minutes in, and Leah Foster added an insurance tally at the midway point of the period. Putting a cap on the Bronxville offense was Witches keeper Sam Whitehouse, who made 14 saves.
Carlin was privy to that contest, and formulated a positive opinion of her opponent. “They were definitely very good, and I wouldn’t say Bronxville had the better of the play,” Carlin said. “(Greenwich) made some good runs at the goal, and capitalized on a couple of plays. Their goalie definitely kept them alive. She is very good and very quick.”
Carlin added that to reach this stage of the season, every team is superb and there will not be any easy games. Still, Greene has won every game this season but one by at least two goals. Aside from a 1-0 shutout win over Maine-Endwell, the Trojans have scored two or more goals in 16 of 17 wins, and have outscored the opposition by a combined 80-3. And those three goals were all scored in separate games by one team: Whitney Point.
Unlike some high-scoring teams, the Trojans’ offense is not coming from one or two players. Seven Greene players have at least five tallies. Jahna Driscoll leads with 22, and Emily Conroe, playing in the midfield, has scored 11. Carlin has rotated the left wing position between Tiffany Borst, Paige Castle, and Jessica Durdon, and that trio has combined for 19 goals. Against a stingy Cazenovia defense, the Trojans had little trouble finding the cage scoring seven minutes in, while repeatedly creating good scoring chances throughout the game. “I just think it’s our experience,” Carlin said in explaining her team’s prolific offensive play. “We have some kids that can finish pretty well.”
That experience includes 10 seniors, and four – Driscoll, Conroe, Colleen Dietrich, and Emma Anderson – played as freshmen on the state championship team. While Greene was unbeaten through the regular season, it hasn’t been as thoroughly dominant since the state title win. The obvious goal tomorrow is to win, but Carlin admitted it is human nature to consider the possibility of ending the weekend with the school’s seventh state championship. “Of course, winning on Sunday will be our final destination, but we really haven’t talked much about winning the state title,” Carlin said. “It always seems like we are prepping for the next game. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Greene and Greenwich square off at 11:30 a.m. with the winner of that game advancing to the state final on Sunday at 10 a.m. against either Barker of Section VI or Southhampton of Section XI.