Pilgrim gets on the board, tops Toll Gate

Posted 9/23/14

Pilgrim and Toll Gate played a scoreless first half in their field hockey match-up Thursday. As the minutes ticked on in the second half and the zeroes remained, both teams could feel the weight. …

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Pilgrim gets on the board, tops Toll Gate

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Pilgrim and Toll Gate played a scoreless first half in their field hockey match-up Thursday. As the minutes ticked on in the second half and the zeroes remained, both teams could feel the weight.

Pilgrim had gone two games without scoring after getting six goals in its second game of the season. Toll Gate had scored two in its season opener and none since, a string of three games.

Something finally gave.

With 13:44 left in the second half, after a sustained Toll Gate possession, Pilgrim broke the ball out, pushed forward and got a goal from Loren Saucier off a scramble in front of the net. Saucier scored again off a pass from Paula Cavanagh nine minutes later, and the Pats could breathe again. They won 2-0.

“I think we needed to prove to ourselves that we could score,” said Pilgrim head coach Steph Shields. “Because that’s what was starting to happen – we were thinking ‘We can’t score.’”

Pilgrim improved to 2-3 in Division II play, while Toll Gate dropped to 0-5. There was progress on both sides Thursday, but only the Pats could break through.

“They’ve really stepped up,” said Toll Gate head coach Leila Connolly. “The midfield is playing more aggressively and the defense is improving. It’s just a matter of getting it into the goal.”

It looked for a while like the Titans would do that first. After Pilgrim came up empty on some quality chances in the first half, Toll Gate owned the possession battle for the early part of the second half. The Titans also had two penalty corners, getting two shots off one of them. One by Caroline Henn was saved by Pilgrim goalie Alex Pouliot, and the other, off the stick of Taylor Spinard, went just wide.

“Toll Gate is doing a really nice job,” Shields said. “Give them a lot of credit.”

The Titans were in the midst of another long possession when Pilgrim suddenly found its offense. A turnover near midfield sent the Pats sprinting forward. With the help of two whistles along the way, they were quickly in the Titans’ circle. Saucier put a shot on goal from the middle that Sam Ventre saved, but Cavanagh hacked away at the rebound in traffic. The ball eventually found its way back to Saucier, who muscled it into the cage for the breakthrough goal.

“We were struggling to move it out,” Shields said. “You see that happen a lot – these big swings in momentum and all of a sudden you can’t get yourself out of it. We did thankfully, and I’m glad we did.”

Toll Gate tried pushing back but couldn’t generate a chance. With under five minutes left, Cavanagh stole the ball near midfield and the Pats were off and running again. She carried it into the circle and slipped a pass to the left post. Saucier ran onto it in perfect timing and tipped it into the cage.

“The second goal was on a great pass from Paula,” Shields said. “Loren’s been working very hard to get at the right angle, to time it right and to get that ball in. It just came together.”

The goals finally eased some pent-up frustration.

“Even some of the crosses we didn’t get goals on, we did some good things,” Shields said. “Chrissy Cavanagh had some great crosses, Paula Cavanagh had a couple of good passes, Elicia Nemirow played a great game in the midfield. We were doing some of the right things. We just needed to score.”

Toll Gate needed the same thing but never got it. After the Pats’ second goal, the Titans again struggled to create a quality chance. Still, the game felt like a step in the right direction for the Titans.

“They’ve pulled a lot of things together after some brutal losses,” Connolly said. “I thought we were even with this team, for the most part. We just needed a little bit more. They know that they played better today and I think they got a little bit of their confidence back.”

Toll Gate was set to be back in action today against Cumberland. Pilgrim will visit Tiverton on Wednesday.

“We definitely had some breakdowns but it was much better,” Shields said. “We were fortunate enough to squeak this one out.”

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