Lone goal enough to lead New Kent field hockey to victory in home opener

New Kent’s Peyton Slater (center) swipes the ball from Colonial Heights’ Olivia Bitner (left) as teammate Emily Montecalvo (right) looks to assist her with the steal.

Andre' Jones photo

New Kent Lady Trojan field hockey coach Matt Duckworth knows that he is working with a youthful team in the 2016 season. If an Aug. 29 indication proved to be a sign of things to come, a bright future is in store for the program.

A goal by freshman Karsyn Justice moments into the second half proved to be the decisive factor as New Kent topped Colonial Heights 1-0 in the home opener for the Lady Trojans.

With both teams deadlocked after one half of play, New Kent seized the opportunity to forge ahead. At the 27:35 mark, the Lady Trojans were awarded a penalty corner, their fifth of the night. After failing on the first four attempts, the fifth put a point on the board.

A pass made to Peyton Slater positioned her diagonally from the goal. Slater elected to forego the shot, opting for a cross-field pass through traffic. The gamble worked as the ball found Justice who was standing by the goal. Her chip in from two feet beat Lady Colonial goalie Katie Kollman for the score.

With 2:30 remaining in the game, Colonial Heights begin to apply pressure to New Kent’s front line. The tactic worked as the Lady Colonials were able to force the hosts to turn the ball over and get four shots off in the final moments of the game. But each shot failed to find its mark as New Kent punched the ball out of range and allowed the clock to expire.

After the contest, Duckworth spoke about the early adventures of his team that currently holds an undefeated record at 3-0.

“We are a relatively young team,” he said. “A lot of these girls are moving up from the junior varsity level and adjusting to this speed of the game.

“This was a very good game to come out on top,” Duckworth added. “We are going to have to work on our execution to maximize our scoring opportunities.”