Mia Lesieur entered the week with four goals on the season. Over the past three days, the Mohawk Trail Regional High School freshman has seen that number swell.
Lesieur followed up a three-goal performance on Monday with a four-goal outburst on Wednesday and the Warriors knocked off Pioneer, 9-1, in an independent field hockey game in Northfield.
The Warriors (5-5-0) have now three straight games. Another freshman, Tess Rancourt, has also been crucial during the winning streak. Rancourt entered the week with three goals but has scored five times in the two games (which also included a 7-0 drubbing of Amherst), including three more times on Wednesday, as both her and Lesieur registered hat tricks.
Mohawk, which led 6-0 at halftime, was playing without Caitlin Johnston, who entered the day tied with Lesieur for the team lead in goals scored with seven. Lesieur scored four times in the win, Rancourt finished with three goals, and Avery Dupree chipped in a goal. Sydney Taylor also scored her first career varsity goal in the win.
While Mohawk coach Lynn Hoeppner was pleased with her goal scorers, she pointed to the play of the girls setting them up as critical. Ashley Williams finished with three helpers in the win, and Abby Sinistore had two helpers. Lexi Williams chipped in one.
“It was the people behind the forwards,” Hoeppner said. “Taylor Williams, Paige King and the Sinistore sisters (Abby and Shelby) were feeding everybody. The kids are so unselfish and I love it.”
After beginning the season 1-3 overall, Mohawk is now back to .500 on the year and Hoeppner has been pleased with the growth of her squad.
“We are young, I have three freshmen on the forward line,” Hoeppner said. “With Caitlin Johnston out today, I had a freshman midfielder, a freshman center back and two sophomore defenders. I had just one junior and two seniors out there today.”
Kordaryl Kendall played the first half and did not have to make a save, while Emma French came in to play net in the second half and turned aside six of seven shots.
Jennie Fuller scored the lone goal for Pioneer on an assist from McKayla Glazier. Hoeppner pointed out the strong play of both Pioneer players as well as Mya Cooke and Sydney Unaitis.
Athena Fowler-Shaw stopped six shots in the loss.
Turners Falls 8, Amherst 0 — Five players scored for Turners Falls on Wednesday afternoon — including two who notched their first goals of the season — as the Powertown dumped Amherst, 8-0, in an independent field hockey game in Turners Falls.
The Thunder (7-2-0) scored six times in the first half with five players notching goals. Recent 100-point scorer Cassidhe Wozniak opened the scoring 35 seconds into the game on an assist from Brynn Tela, and Kaylin Voudrin followed that up with her first of the season on an assist from Wozniak three minutes later. Amber Taylor got the first of her back-to-back goals with 20:48 to play in the first half on an assist from Taylor, and she then scored unassisted with 14:55 to play in the first to put Turners up 4-0.
Kate Boulanger scored her second of the season with 12 minutes to play in the first on an assist from Taylor, and Paige Sulda scored her first of the year with 11:06 to play for the 6-0 halftime lead.
Wozniak scored twice in the second half to earn a hat trick, the final goal coming on an assist from Aly Murphy. Haleigh Greene made eight saves in the Turners net for the shutout.
Lydia Sullivan stopped seven shots in the loss.
Mahar 2, Athol 1 — Athol goalie Ryley Pond did not make things easy for Mahar on Wednesday night.
The senior netminder turned aside 25 shots but the Senators got two goals by her and Mahar edged the rival Red Raiders, 2-1, in an independent match at O’Brien Field in Athol.
Mahar (6-3-0) held a 27-5 edge in shots but Pond was up to the task much of the night as she kept Athol (2-8-1) in the game.
“She was awesome,” Athol coach Emily Hall said.
Anna Wetherbee scored an unassisted goal with 10:24 to play in the first half to give the visitors a 1-0 lead at the break, and Abby Henne made it 2-0 seven minutes into the second half with an unassisted goal.
Athol broke up the shutout with 1.9 seconds to play as Heather Pilling scored on an assist from Aby Lutz, a middle schooler who was recently called up to varsity. Hall also pointed out the play of Ashley Rouleau, who had a big game in the midfield for the Red Raiders, and helped set up several offensive chances. Despite the loss, Hall was pleased with the play of her young team, which is going through a tough stretch of games.
“We have had a tough few games where we’ve basically gotten dragged through the dirt,” she said. “Mahar is a big rival and we were excited to play them and I definitely saw something out of my team tonight that has me really excited. They played with their hearts for sure tonight and it showed. They played like a team.”
Bella Marigliano made four saves in the victory.
Turners 8, Amherst 0
|
Amherst |
0 |
0 |
— |
0 |
|
Turners Falls |
6 |
2 |
— |
8 |
Goals: (TF) Wozniak 3, Taylor 2, Voudren, Boulanger, Sulda.
Assists: (TF) Wozniak 2, Taylor, Tela, Murphy.
Shots: Amherst 8. Turners 15.
Saves: (A) Sullivan 7. (TF) Greene 8.
Corners: Amherst 4. Turners 9.
Mohawk 9, Pioneer 1
|
Mohawk |
6 |
3 |
— |
9 |
|
Pioneer |
0 |
1 |
— |
1 |
Goals: (M) M. Lesieur 4, Dupree, Rancourt 3, Taylor. (P) Fuller.
Assists: (M) A. Williams 3, A. Sinistore 2, L. Williams. (P) Glazier.
Shots: Mohawk 13. Pioneer 7.
Saves: (M) Kendall 0. French 6. (P) Fowler-Shaw 6.
Corners: Mohawk 7. Pioneer 3.
Mahar 2, Athol 1
|
Mahar |
1 |
1 |
— |
2 |
|
Athol |
0 |
1 |
— |
1 |
Goals: (M) Wetherbee, Henne. (A) Piling.
Assists: (A) Lutz.
Shots: Mahar 27. Athol 5.
Saves: (M) Marigliano 4. (A) Pond 25.
Corners: Mahar 9. Athol 5.