Defense stands firm as Lady Trojans beat Jamestown 1-0

New Kent’s Hannah Gilland (left) winds up to blast the ball past a Jamestown defender.

Andre' Jones photo

New Kent’s Lady Trojans field hockey team faced a Jamestown team that took on two personas in the Sept. 21 Bay Rivers contest. But a strong defensive output by the hosts and a lone goal by Maddy Heath proved to be the difference maker against the Eagles.

New Kent defended their home field with a 1-0 victory in what was described as a physical contest by Lady Trojan head coach Matt Duckworth.

“We pressed and we had to keep pressure on them,” he said. “We played through contact and this was a physical game. I thought we responded well.”

Early in the contest, Jamestown opted for a defensive strategy, camping all 11 defenders around its own goal. For most of the first half the ploy worked, but at the 10:12 mark, a deflection in front of the Eagles goal saw the ball roll in front of Heath. The forward punched the ball into the upper left hand side in what would be the only score of the contest.

In the second half, the Lady Eagles turned to an offensive attack, attempting to overload more scores against New Kent’s defense. However, the Lady Trojans stood firm, clearing the ball on multiple occasions, including Peyton Slater’s final launch to run the clock out.

Duckworth added that his team had worked on the mindset to be the aggressor both offensively and defensively over the past few weeks.”

“We look a lot better and our forwards were doing what they had to do to get to the goal,” the coach added. “On defense, we committed to marking up the ball and keeping it in front of our defense and not behind us.”

New Kent improves to 5-6 on the year.