Meade defeats Glen Burnie in field hockey action

Meade’s second-year field hockey coach Allyson Carter had one goal after she finished her playing career at UMBC, return to her alma mater and turn around the Mustangs’ program.

“Ever since I graduated from [Meade], that‘s the one thing that I’ve always wanted to do is come back and coach because there is no feeder program or anything so I just wanted to come in and teach these girls how to play and hopefully be very competitive in the County,” said Carter, a 2005 graduate of Meade.

After a 2-11 record last season, Carter feels that her team is well on its way in 2010.  On Wednesday, Meade scored three first half goals and claimed a 4-1 victory over host and Anne Arundel County rival Glen Burnie.

“The game today was really good,” said Kim, who is still working on her English.  “I like playing in Maryland and with Meade.  It’s a little different [here] but I love to play field hockey.”

A few minutes later, Kim fired a ball in from about ten yards out to give the Mustangs an early 2-0 lead.  Junior captain McKenna Kennedy also scored twice in the game, once in each half for Meade (1-0).

“We have a lot of new girls this year but everyone has increased their skills dramatically and they are looking great so I can we can be competitive and hopefully win a few more games than we did last year,” said Carter.

Senior midfielder Jordyn Childress scored the Gophers’ goal late in the second half to prevent her team from being shutout.  Freshman defender Taylor Marcus, who has never played the sport before, made three defensive saves to keep Meade from going up by more.  

Goal keeper Tara Sinchak stopped six shots.

The team didn’t have a chance to take part in any scrimmages before the contest with Meade and the players are still learning their positions.

“For us to have not seen an opponent yet, I think they did well considering that more than half of this team has never played [field hockey] before,” said first-year head coach Tracee Torillo.  “They are still adjusting and figuring out their positions but we’ll get it, we’ll get there.”

She added: “At first, I think they were falling back on their heels but in the second half, they came out and dominated because they figured it out. I think now that the first game jitters are over, it will be a different story.”