WINDHAM – Windham field hockey goalkeeper Michaela Hatem found herself in a tight spot.
With time winding down in regulation and the game knotted in a 3-3 tie, a scramble in front of Hatem’s net resulted in a penalty shot for her Hollis-Brookline opponent.

A save would leave the Jaguars with a shot to win. A score for the Cavaliers would give the Jaguars little time to respond.

With all other players herded out of the box, one Cavalier stepped up to take the shot against the Windham’s junior net minder.

The Hollis-Brookline player wound up and slung the ball toward the top-left corner, but just before it crossed the plane, Hatem stretched across her body to hammer the ball away.

The game, on Wednesday, Sept. 12, headed into extra minutes, but couldn’t be decided and finished 3-3, as neither team broke through offensively.

The Jaguars, no strangers to overtime games this year, left the field with mixed emotions.
“It was painful to end in an overtime tie,” said head coach Amanda Ward
.
Indeed, the pain was visible on the exhausted faces of both teams’ players.

Sophomore Courtney Sweeny, who was hounded by extra defenders for most of the contest, was particularly parched by game’s end.

Sweeney had the best scoring chance in overtime for the Jaguars.

Her teammates worked the ball upfield and fed it to her with just the goalie to beat. The two collided and fell into a twisted heap of tired limbs, but the ball bounced harmlessly out of scoring danger.

Hatem had 10 other saves on the afternoon, including two more in the closing seconds before overtime.

“She definitely is a hard worker and commands a lot from her defense,” Ward said of her goalie. “She definitely put up some good saves for us, made it much less painful.”

Although for the first several minutes Hollis-Brookline controlled the ball, the Windham players looked confident throughout the majority of the first half. The Jaguars took a 1-0 lead when sophomore Justine Levesque scraped the ball past the Cavalier goalkeeper.

Each team had chances throughout the half, but the score remained 1-0 heading into the break.
Two quick goals by sophomore Rachel Lanouette early in the second half opened a 3-0 lead for the Jaguars.

Lanouette’s coach was impressed by how much she stepped up against a difficult opponent.
“Definitely a big game for Rachel,” she said.

Soon after Lanouette’s second goal, Hollis-Brookline answered. Hatem made another athletic save on a shot in front of the net, but the rebound fell right at the feet of a Cavalier, who slid the ball into the net.

Hollis-Brookline cut the deficit to one a short time later with a powerful blast, and followed that with another goal on a loose ball that escaped Hatem, which ultimately sent the game into overtime.

Ward also picked out defenders Mackenzie Magee and Fallon Golden as key performers in the game.

With the tie, the Jaguars move to 2-1-1 on the season. All three previous games were decided by 3-2 scores, with wins against Hanover and St. Thomas Aquinas, and a loss to Merrimack Valley.
As the season rolls on, Ward wants her team to work on, “Staying connected and communicating.”