Barnstable Red Raiders Blank Dartmouth 2-0

By: Tom Moran Jr.
Published: 10/29/10

The more things change the more they stay the same, at least as far as Old Colony League field hockey is concerned.For the fifth straight season, the Barnstable High field hockey team laid claim to the OCL championship, topping host Dartmouth 2-0 to clinch the 2010 title on Tuesday.

In winning the OCL title for the sixth time in the last eight years, the Red Raiders posted a 5-1 league record and the win over the Indians also upped their season’s record to 8-3-2.

The Red Raiders were coming off a tough loss to archrival Falmouth and an extra-long bus ride so it took them the better part of a half to get their act together but once the did, the Indians were no match for their guests.

The Barnstable squad went into the game knowing that a loss to the Indians would mean a co-championship and the Red Raiders wanted no part of that possible scenario.

With the Red Raiders late to arrive at the field, the Indians were plenty warmed up by the time the ball was put in play and if not for some stellar defensive play by backliners Brittany Lepore, Stacey Beatty and Maryalice Machado, the home team might have been well on its way to a piece of the OCL title by the time the Barnstable offense got into gear.

As the half wore on though, the Red Raiders began to exert their will on the Indians. The turning point seemed to come after a Barnstable defensive breakdown left Dartmouth’s Jamie Farney alone in front of the net.

The Indians’ forward got off a well-struck shot but the game’s best scoring chance to that point was rendered moot as BHS goaltender Catherine Macallister kicked out the initial shot before sticking the rebound out of the crease area.

That proved to be a wakeup call for the Barnstable attack as the midfield line of Rachel Cocozza, Olivia Costello and Lindsey DeCosta shut down any possible Dartmouth rushes while the BHS forwards went to work on Dartmouth netminder Katy Lowney.

Meghan Talerman, Nikki Melanson and Julia Grover all had shots turned aside by Lowney who came up even bigger to rob reserve forward Jazzy Lambert of her first goal of the season.

The first half ended with the score still knotted at 0-0 but it didn’t stay that way for long as the Red Raiders went right after their hosts and used hustling two-way efforts all over the field to keep the Indians pinned in their own end.

With just over six minutes gone in the half, the Red Raiders took a lead they would not give up as Cocozza set the scoring play in motion with a nice rush through the Dartmouth defensive alignment. As the Indians closed in to cut off her path to the net, the BHS co-captain sent the ball along to Grover, whose snap shot from five feet out beat Lowney to the stick side for the 1-0 BHS advantage.

Not satisfied with their one-goal lead, the Red Raiders stayed on the attack and needed just another five minutes to provide themselves with an insurance goal.

The goal came off the stick of Talerman, who scored from in close after starting the play at midfield. Talerman began her rush about 40 yards out and, after powering her way past three Dartmouth defenders, put back the rebound of her own shot to double the Red Raider lead to 2-0. Lowney made a great save to deny the initial shot but Talerman collected the rebound and made Lowney commit before flicking the ball just inside the right post for the score.

In addition to the great effort of the bench from Lambert, the Red Raiders also got excellent play from reserves Mackenzie Corrigan and Devon Costello.

Clipped by FHS

The Red Raiders were much better this time around against their archrivals but a second-half goal by visiting Falmouth proved to be just enough as the Clippers took home the 1-0 win from the BHS field last Saturday.

The scoring chances were few and far between for both teams but the Clippers got the game’s only goal with less than two minutes gone in the second half and made that stand up as the margin of victory.

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