Hurricane Pride

Goal with two seconds left gives Vets first playoff win in 10 years

Posted 10/30/14

With one swing of her stick, Lexi Santos-Smith erased a decade of bad memories for the Warwick Vets field hockey program.

The ’Canes are back.

Playing at home against South Kingstown in the …

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Hurricane Pride

Goal with two seconds left gives Vets first playoff win in 10 years

Posted

With one swing of her stick, Lexi Santos-Smith erased a decade of bad memories for the Warwick Vets field hockey program.

The ’Canes are back.

Playing at home against South Kingstown in the quarterfinal round of the Division II playoffs, fourth-seeded Vets battled all game long before breaking through with just two seconds remaining on the clock. Julie Ye sent a pass from the right side towards the cage and Santos-Smith connected as the ball was moving past her feet, sending it into the right side of the goal to lift the ’Canes to a 1-0 victory.

In the playoffs for the first time since 2007, Vets celebrated its first playoff win since 2005, the year that it won the D-II title.

It was as dramatic as they come, and it was the sort of moment that the team has worked all season long to achieve.

“We practice it so often and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t,” said Santos-Smith of the game-winner. “The cross from Julie Ye, the whole team made just a great play there. I’m so proud of all of them.”

The horn went off immediately after the goal, but the refs brought the teams back out for two more seconds of play. It made no difference, as it just allowed the ’Canes to celebrate once again when the buzzer went off a second time.

Vets advanced to the semifinals, where it will play top-seeded Classical tonight at 7:30 p.m. at East Greenwich High School.

“It feels fantastic,” said head coach Jim Areson. “I’m really happy for the girls. They’ve done everything I’ve asked. I’m glad they were able to overcome some serious obstacles. I thought they played well.”

Playing without the injured Savannah Hersey, the team’s leading scorer, Vets still held its own against fifth-seeded South Kingstown, but it didn’t generate many offensive chances until the final minute.

Then, the ’Canes made it count.

On a penalty corner with well under a minute to play, Taylor Axtmann sent a pass over to Ye, standing parallel to the end line on the right side. She quickly sent a pass towards Santos-Smith and in one motion Santos-Smith used the momentum of the ball to push it towards the goal.

South Kingstown keeper Peyton O’Hara was on the other side of the goal when the shot was taken, and she never recovered.

It was simply the perfect play, and one that featured a relatively unheralded cast of characters. Hersey led the team with 10 goals during the regular season, while Santos-Smith only had four.

Ye, who normally plays defense, had moved into Hersey’s midfield position in her absence.

“Julie Ye, who made the assist to Lexi, she has not played that position all year,” Areson said. “Because Savannah got hurt, I’ve asked her to do more than she has done. And she’s been phenomenal all year on defense. She made a great pass to Lexi and everything worked out beautiful.”

The goal was the most important play of the game, but it wouldn’t have made a difference without the play on the back end for Vets, most notably from goalkeeper Naomi Franzen.

Franzen was credited with 10 saves, as compared to just four for O’Hara. Franzen turned aside two very hard shots from South Kingstown’s Jamie Thomas in the first half, and she helped thwart three second-half penalty corners.

“Naomi played awesome today,” Areson said. “In the playoffs, good goaltending can carry a team a long, long way. The last two weeks, Na has been playing really, really well.”

In the end, it was a gutsy effort to keep its season going. Vets most certainly lost the time of possession battle, and didn’t have as many shots or quality scoring chances as South Kingstown.

When the game ended though, it had the one goal on the scoreboard.

“It’s just incredible,” Santos-Smith said. “We worked four years for this and it’s so good to be here now.”

Advancing to the finals will be a tall task, as Vets takes on a Classical team in the semis that went 14-2 during the regular season.

That said, one of those two losses came at the hands of the ’Canes, 1-0 on Sept. 22.

If nothing else, that should give Vets confidence and the knowledge that it won’t be overmatched.

Hersey’s status for the game is up in the air.

“We’ve played all the teams,” Santos-Smith said. “(Classical), we’re pretty even with, just like this team. We hope to come out strong.”

The other semifinal is between No. 2 Cumberland and No. 3 Chariho and it will take place prior at 5:30 p.m. at East Greenwich, prior to the Vets game.

The Division II championship will be held Sunday at Rogers Williams University at 5 p.m.

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