The Vikings leapt with joy as they left the field following Thursday’s win over previously undefeated St. Thomas, Mascenic’s sixth win in a row and by far their biggest.
“We have a team that loves to compete,” Mascenic field hockey head coach Selena Shaw said after the 1-0 win. “I knew that we could come in and beat them, but I knew that it would take a very good game from us. And I think we put that together today.”
The Vikings came in at 5-3 while the Saints, at 8-0, were the lone undefeated team remaining in Division III. Nonetheless, both teams battled to a scoreless stalemate through the first two-thirds of the contest.
“St. Thomas has had a great season and they’re a really good team,” Shaw said. “You can see that they play well together, they’re fast, and I think that we’re very fast too. So, we were able to match that, which I’m imagining is something that they’ve used this year a lot.”
Mascenic’s strong defensive tradition continues this year with captains Ava Haavisto and All-State returner Brielle Krook both playing on the back line; they’d be put to the test and pass with flying colors against the speedy Saints. Shaw wanted her girls to focus on slowing down St. Thomas’s speedy forwards, assigning Mallee Aho to the task, and she was up for it, helping the Vikings keep a clean sheet.
“She kept her feet, she kept her composure and she handled [them] very well,” Shaw said.
After the Vikings got a good shot on goal during a third-period offensive drive, Iris Traffie darted through a mass of bodies in front of the Saints’ goal to slam home a rebound, break the scoreless tie, and put Mascenic up 1-0.
“She was where she needed to be when she needed to be there,” Shaw said. ‘We had lots of other scoring opportunities that I thought ‘You’re just kind of waiting for it to happen — you gotta make it happen!’ And today, Iris did that.”
Goalie Evelyn Shippee was tested several times down the stretch as the field shifted to a desperation offensive push by St. Thomas, but with Krook and Haavisto keeping the Saints at bay and some good goalkeeping, the one-goal lead would stand.
The victory continued a Viking win streak that began four games into the season following a sluggish 0-3 start. Mascenic only graduated three players from last season, but they played key roles, including defensive anchor Lorelai Shippee, who’s now playing at Hartford College. Shaw said it took her young team – with Krook the lone senior – a few games to figure out where they fit in.
“We didn’t lose a lot in numbers, but we lost a lot in leadership last year,” Shaw said. “The first couple games, it was really figuring out whose job was whose and how our rotation went. We got that figured out and we’re kind of rolling since then.”
Returning All-State midfielder Kiahna Farrey is Mascenic’s big presence in the middle; Farrey and Hailey Saari are the Vikings top two goal-scorers.
The Vikings finished third in Division III last fall but suffered a quarterfinal upset to No. 6 Bishop Brady; after Thursday’s measuring-stick win, Mascenic has to like their chances going forward. Their three early-season losses all came on the road against three teams – Hopkinton, Stevens and Mascoma Valley – that are a combined 24-7-2 as of this writing, third, fourth and fifth in DIII just ahead of Mascenic. Berlin (9-1-1) sits at No. 1.
The Vikings have their home rematch with Stevens on Oct. 7.