Monday, November 5th, our girls field hockey team traveled to Somerset for a quarter-final battle. The 7 seeded dogs faced off against 2 seeded Somerset-Berkley. This match up felt extremely similar to last years semi final game when Somerset won by one goal in overtime.  Besides one again winning, another thing that didn’t change from last year is the fact that Somerset Berkley still had 2 boys on their girl’s field hockey team.

 

Before we get into the inequality of the last sentence let's do a quick game recap.  All of our girls gave it their all and left it all on the field. Senior Maggie Malloy scored the bulldogs only goal, and sophomore Goalie Riley O'Connor played a tremendous game in net. Despite the amazing effort, the Bulldogs lost 3-1. This game was intense and exciting to watch despite the cold weather and the pouring rain.  This team made the town of Canton very proud.

 

    I have followed this field hockey team all season and was in charge of tweeting the results of  their games and posting their progress for the dog pound twitter. I can honestly say that this team was extremely talented. The main thing you see when you look at this team is the incredible bond between the players; Every single player on this team bought in, and you could tell by the way they cheered each other on that everyone supported one another.  It is a shame that such a special team, with such a special bond, had their season cut short twice by the presence of an unfair law.

 

Anybody who watched this game clearly noticed the advantage to having two boys on the field. They hit the ball farther and harder.  While one made his presence felt on defense, the other one lead the offensive attack. To me, the one on defense clearly stood out, as he was able to send the ball across the field and back into Canton’s zone. Despite his presence our girls didn’t back down, and they kept it competitive until the end.  However the fact that boys are allowed to play in the same field hockey game as girls, is an issue that the MIAA needs to seriously consider-and hopefully make changes to the existing rules. These boys were clearly had a physical advantage over the girls, and as a result dominated and controlled the game, making it easier for their team to win.

 

My advice: Start a boys a field hockey team or don’t play at all. It is a real shame that the MIAA didn’t do anything about this last year and allowed this unfair rule to once again impact the tournament this year. Last year the boys and the rest of the Somerset-Berkley lost to KP in the state final and I wish good luck to the rest of the field hockey teams that play them in the remainder of the tournament, and to the Canton Field Hockey girls, keeps your heads up because you gave everything you had. Here's to a great season, we'll be back.