By Karen Phan, Opinion Editor
This afternoon, the girls’ varsity field hockey team played an intense game against the undefeated Harvard-Westlake High School Wolverines but lost with a final score of 2-9.
The first half opened up with Fountain Valley in possession of the ball, but had it quickly stolen by Harvard-Westlake. After a few minutes, the Barons regained control of the ball. The game continued with this back-and-forth movement until the Wolverines were awarded multiple short corners. Harvard-Westlake scored a goal during their third short in the 12th minute of the game, followed by a second goal minutes later.
The Barons’ picked up their pace after giving up the second goal. Sophomore defender Carley Abbott-Hayes cleared the ball out of the Barons’ territory to senior forward Madison Grogran. Grogan passed the ball to junior forward Heather Erickson who pushed it into the Wolverines’ goal cage in the 14th minute, bringing the score to 1-2.
Fountain Valley’s goal prompted Harvard-Westlake to play more aggressively. The Wolverines were awarded another series of short corners before the game returned to a stalemate with neither side taking shots. The Wolverines managed to steal the ball once again and penetrated the Barons’ defense to score a third and fourth goal during the last ten minutes of the half. The remainder of the game continued as an impasse with both teams making strong plays, and the half ended with a score of 1-4.
Harvard-Westlake began the second half of the game with offensive plays that were repeatedly repulsed by Fountain Valley’s defense. However, in the 38th minute of the game, the Wolverines broke down the Barons’ defense and scored their fifth goal of the game.
“Fitness is a major thing we need to work on because we need to be able to recover for each other on defense,” Head Coach Nancy Mendez said.
Despite the Wolverines’ fifth goal, the Barons weren’t phased and pushed back hard with Grogan making a breakaway and shooting on goal. Harvard-Westlake’s defense foiled Grogan’s shot, and they increased their offensive pressure on the Barons to score three more goals in order to increase their lead to 1-7.
After the Wolverines’ seventh goal, the Barons played more offensively. Grogan and Erickson quickly pushed into the opponents’ half of the field but lost the ball. Harvard-Westlake scored their eighth goal in the 54th minute.
“Offensively, we played a really good game because we were able to score two goals,” Mendez said. “The girls were able to make connections up top this time instead of not making any connections at all, and they were talking more.”
In the 56th minute, Harvard-Westlake was awarded a short corner but was unsuccessful. The Lady Barons took advantage of the Wolverines’ slower pace, and Grogan drove the ball into the Wolverine’s goal cage in the 57th minute to score the Barons’ second goal. Harvard-Westlake immediately responded with a ninth goal.
Both teams played with high intensity and energy for the rest of the game. During the final 15 seconds, Erickson made a shot on goal off of a pass from Grogan, but the ball was saved by the Wolverines’ goalie. The game ended with a final score of 2-9.
“I think that [the girls] did really well. I was just making sure that they weren’t playing scared against [Harvard-Westlake] because in the past few years, [Harvard-Westlake] has been the number one team,” Mendez said. “Even though the score was 9-2, I don’t think the score reflected how we played.”
The girls will play at Thousand Oaks High School next Tuesday at 3:15 p.m. Their next home game is next Thursday against Westlake High school at 3:15 p.m.
