The 2015 season for Pirates field hockey began with a bang as Cinnaminson traveled to rival Holy Cross and returned home with a 3-2 victory.
“Everyone on the team I think would agree that we were very excited when we beat Holy Cross for our season opener,” head coach Gina Quaranta said. “They took the ball down the field and scored in the first two minutes of the game, but we fought back hard and ended up winning 3-2.”
In fact, the Pirates opened the season on a 5-1-2 run before hosting Holy Cross in a rematch that saw the Lancers split the season series with a 2-0 victory.
Cinnaminson plays in one of the toughest divisions in the BCSL; with champion Delran, Holy Cross and Bordentown all finishing ahead of the Pirates this year.
“I really enjoy playing in our division,” Quaranta said. “It keeps our schedule strong, and at the same time it makes us push to play better and expect more of ourselves as next year we will hope to win it! We will definitely look to build on what we did this year and expect to build each year.”
The Pirates and keeper Lauren Friedrich recorded six shutouts this season, including a 0-0 tie against Pemberton in overtime. On the other side of things, the Pirates offense was blanked six times.
Field hockey recorded a couple early-season victories by a margin of one or two goals, including a 1-0 victory over Florence that moved them to their 5-1-2 start.
“We had one or two lucky days in the beginning where we were able to score a goal or two and win a game, but I felt like we could have pushed more or given more on the field,” Quaranta said.
“A focus of the 2nd half of our season was to make every minute of the game count and give 100% for the entire game. Even if the team was out of our comfort zone (for instance, playing a group 4 school or playing an away game on turf), we were able to know the value in leaving everything on the field.”
Cinnaminson finished the year with a 10-6-3 overall record, a 5-4-1 mark in the Patriot and an 0-1-1 mark in the playoffs.
The Pirates were awarded the four-seed in the Central, Group 1 bracket and a bye in the first round. The second round saw them host five-seed Gloucester in what turned out to be one of the best games of the year.
The teams played to a 1-1 tie after 80 minutes of play that included two 7v7 overtime periods. It meant that a shootout would determine who would advance to play one-seed Haddonfield.
The Pirates received goals from Marissa Porrini and Nikki Teague to win the shootout 2-1. The Pirates also got a stellar performance in the cage by Friedrich.
Gloucester scored on its first penalty stroke of the shootout, but Friedrich went on to make seven straight saves across two rounds of penalty strokes to preserve the victory for Cinnaminson.
Cinnaminson advanced to the third round of the Central, Group 1 tournament with the win over Gloucester, but fell to eventual section champion Haddonfield by a 10-0 score.
This was the second straight year the Pirates put up 10 wins and fourth straight year that they advanced to the postseason, with plenty of younger players making an impact at the varsity level throughout the season.
“It was great for the younger players to have this experience,” Quaranta said. “It was challenging during scrimmages to find a group that would relate well with good chemistry. I am hoping that the younger players from this season will be good leaders in helping to build this chemistry earlier on in the preseason next year.”
As with any program, field hockey will need to fill the shoes of some important seniors when camp begins next August, as Nikki Teague and Brandi Tolan will graduate in the spring.
“We will always miss the dedication and leadership from our seniors,” Quaranta said. “As multi-year varsity starters, we will definitely have some big shoes to fill.”
[…] Field hockey finished 2015 with a record of 10-6-3 overall and a 5-4-1 record in the Patriot Division. Without further delay, let’s take a look at the top 5 field hockey games from the fall season. […]