GREENFIELD — On a night when two of western Massachusetts’ top field hockey offenses collided at Veterans Memorial Field, it was all about the goalies.
Greenfield High School’s Samantha Smith and Frontier Regional School’s Skyla Burniske stepped up big when called upon and neither team was able to find the back of the net during a scoreless North Division draw Thursday night.
The Green Wave (13-0-3 overall, 7-0-1 North) just wrapped up the North Division title on Tuesday thanks in part to a 4-2 win over Frontier (12-1-3, 3-1-2) during the first week of the season. The second meeting between the teams was much less explosive, but had just as much action on the field.
Much of the action was a chess match. In an effort to slow down Green Wave sniper Raegan Hickey, Frontier coach Missy Mahar enlisted Kimmie Asseng to act as a shadow and Asseng did her job well, using a physical approach to limit Hickey’s chances. The Wave forward did have one great opportunity when she air-dribbled from about 30 yards out toward the Frontier net and unleashed a shot on which Burniske made a sliding kick-out save in the first half. Other than that, Hickey was relatively quiet until both girls were sent off with a yellow card late in the second half following a sparing session.
“We decided to have Kimmie man her up,” Mahar said of the approach. “Kimmie is quick, she is physical, she plays hard and she knows the game and she was able to do exactly what we wanted her to do. I’m so pleased with her tonight.”
Hickey’s chance in the first half was the only shot the Wave got in the first half. Frontier, meanwhile, put five shots on Smith in the opening 30 minutes, as the Hawks dominated time of possession. McKenzie Patterson had one of the best chances when she received the ball five yards in front of the Wave net but had her shot kicked out by Smith with 14 minutes to play. Frontier also had a great opportunity in the final seconds of the half when a scramble in front nearly broke the scoreless tie, but Smith and her defense stood tall.
The second half saw less total shots, as Frontier held a 3-2 edge, but both teams had great opportunities to get on the board. A Greenfield corner with 17 minutes left saw a shot from the top of the circle get nearly redirected into the goal by Olivia Joy. Then with 14 minutes left, Katie Haselton had a chance in front that Burniske kept out of the net. Frontier’s best chance of the half came with just under 10 minutes left when the Red Hawks won a corner, which produced a scrum in front of the net. Smith made at least one save in the scramble but the ball squirted loose and wound up near the goal line, but Wave defender Ashley Hubbard cleared it out of the circle.
Greenfield got the final chance of the game with under 4 minutes when Audrey Bresciano whistled a shot past the post following a corner.
Smith finished with eight saves for the shutout, and Burniske made three saves for her clean slate.