2023-10-24 04:16:08
North Salem beat Pawling 6-0 in Class C quarterfinal field hockey
North Salem beat Pawling 6-0 in a Section 1 Class C quarterfinal field hockey game at North Salem Oct 23, 2023.
NORTH SALEM — History is said to repeat itself.
That’s certainly true.
But not always.
Nine days earlier, in a driving rain, the Pawling and North Salem field hockey teams battled to a 1-1 tie.
So, a close game seemed to be in the offing when the two faced each other in the Section 1 Class C quarterfinals Monday, despite North Salem holding the No. 3 seed and Pawling seeded sixth.
But seeding trumped history and in a big way.
North Salem, which had outplayed Pawling in the earlier meeting (it had an 18-2 penalty-corner advantage) but couldn’t find the net, had no trouble doing so Monday.
Enjoying a 13-1 penalty-corner advantage, North Salem romped to a 6-0 win.
The senior-heavy home squad, whose performance in the previous meeting was probably not helped by the fact it was playing its sixth game in eight days, didn’t allow a single shot on its keeper, Allegra Delli Carpini, Monday.
In fact, it rarely let Pawling get within shouting distance of Delli Carpini, nonetheless shooting distance.
What it means
The loss dropped Pawling’s season mark to 6-7-2.
North Salem, now 12-4-1, will play at No. 2 Irvington Thursday in the Class C semifinals.
Key plays
Monday, North Salem broke on top 2-0 early with two goals late in the first quarter.
Molly Videla had the game’s initial score. With 2:13 left in the quarter, she essentially one-timed a pass from Anna Fetterolf.
Fetterolf, who finished with a hat trick and two assists, had the next goal off a penalty corner and an Abby Cassidy assist.
Pawling was able to keep the score 2-0 until the third quarter, in part because of Veronica Webber’s strong defensive play and some luck with Brady Ellicott’s second-quarter shot being deflected just wide of the cage.
But Fetterolf put in a rebound off a penalty corner shot early in the third quarter before North Salem expanded its lead to 4-0 on another penalty corner as Sophia Aversano unleashed a laser from the top of the circle. Fetterolf had the assist.
Videla then recorded her second goal, beating Pawling keeper Ava Riina low off another penalty corner with Ellicott assisting.
Riina had 15 saves. She was especially strong in the fourth quarter. She came out to challenge on a potential 1-on-0, knocking the ball away from a North Salem player before stopping a high, hard shot moments later.
But she had no answer for Fetterolf, who scored her final goal and the game’s final goal soon after, getting by a couple of defenders to go straight in on Riina before lifting the ball high into the back of the cage.
They said it
Coach Rob Walters, whose young Pawling team included only four seniors, two of them defensive starters, expressed pride in how his team performed and improved this season.
He had special praise for the junior Webber, a midfielder who started playing field hockey just last year but had a strong second season with eight goals and three assists and a strong defensive contribution.
Walters called her defensive effort Monday, which included multiple steals and a few interceptions, “fantastic.”
North Salem coach Jen Frohman expressed pride in her team for “coming out strong.”
She and Fetterolf both attributed part of the previous 1-1 tie to North Salem playing its sixth game in eight days at the time.
“We were all mentally and physically tired from it,” said Fetterolf.
She pointed to North Salem as having superior stick skills to Pawling, which allowed it to control and move the ball for the majority of the time.
But she said there was also a bigger reason her team won.
“We have so much heart. We wanted it so badly. We put everything into it,” she said, indicating she and her team’s other seven seniors wanted to continue playing.
The junior Aversano noted North Salem won the section title and made it to the state Final 4 two years ago.
“We know what it’s like to go all the way. It’s one of a kind,” she said.
Up next
North Salem will be the underdog Thursday against Irvington, which it didn’t play during the regular season, and it will be the underdog again in the final if it beats Irvington and faces, as seems likely, Putnam Valley, which beat it twice in the regular season.
But Aversano doesn’t seem to think of her squad as an underdog to anyone.
“I think we can go as far as we allow ourselves to go,” she said.
Nancy Haggerty covers cross-country, track & field, field hockey, skiing, ice hockey, basketball, girls lacrosse and other sporting events for The Journal News/lohud. Follow her on Twitter at @HaggertyNancy.
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