Normally, Broadneck field hockey coach Shannon Hanratty’s stomach twists in turmoil before she faces a team like Crofton.
This time, her stomach felt simply “curious.”
“Those game day nerves are always gonna be there as a former athlete. But it really was just curiosity of, ‘I wonder how this is going to go,’” Hanratty said, “whereas in years past, your brain is running with situations.”
The two teams that met at Broadneck on Wednesday had little more in common with the two programs that clashed in last year’s Class 4A state championship than the uniforms they wore. Crofton graduated 17 seniors, all impact players. Broadneck bid farewell to a cache of irreplaceable four-year starters, all predominantly competing for Division I colleges now.
Hanratty’s game day nerves eased a bit after the 5-1 Broadneck victory.
“Every game we’ve been making little steps of progress,” Hanratty said, “and I’m really proud of how we connected and played as a team tonight because that was weeks of putting it together.”
Even two weeks and change into the season, Hanratty still doesn’t know what to expect. Instead of narrowing her focus on powerhouse matchups or the county title, the scope widens to tinkering with a young Bruins team (3-2) as a whole. She takes players aside to teach individually, breaks down game film and scribbles all over it. They’re eager to learn, she said.
“Not knowing how it’s going to go … it’s making it a lot harder, but isn’t that the joy of coaching?” Hanratty said. “We’re teaching a lot this year and we’re challenging the upperclassmen to teach the underclassmen, too.”
Both squads used most of the first quarter to feel each other out, pressing each other’s defenses for holes without taking an unnecessary shot.
But when Broadneck freshman Tess Mansfield did strike, she wasn’t going to miss.
The opening goal with seconds remaining in the first quarter had company quickly. Senior Charlotte Robertson didn’t see as much time on the field as most of her teammates last fall. But she remembered what getting shut out by the Cardinals on the state stage felt like anyway.
Planting her first of two goals on Crofton’s — granted entirely different — goalkeeper felt like “1,000 pounds” lifting off her chest.
“It felt so good to see my team so happy,” Robertson said.
When Broadneck figured out how to capitalize on its corners, its momentum snowballed. Freshman Lizzie Hall threaded a pass from Cate Imber through the legs of a pair of Crofton defenders to find Robertson, perched before an open net.
Only two minutes the Bruins went up 3-0, Imber lined a long shot into the cage. Two minutes later, freshman Raelyn Soares followed.
“I think we’ve finally reached a point where we’re working really well together and not just individually,” Robertson said.
The fourth quarter reenergized the Cardinals, led by one of the lone returners, Jackie Kerner. The visitors haunted the Broadneck cage, though any errant shot met its end with keeper Trish Maloney.
“This is a player who’s been waiting for her time,” Hanratty said.
Except for one. Maloney stuffed one attempt off a Crofton corner, which ricocheted back into the fray – and right to Kerner, who swung and scored.
Crofton hunted for more until game’s end, but the Broadneck defense held firm –something that might not have been possible had they not studied the film from its one-goal Liberty loss on Monday.
“We had a lot of self-caused errors in that game,” Hanratty said, “and when we finally sat and watched it, we went, ‘We can fix that and that and that.’ That’s a good problem to have. We made a lot of those corrections tonight.”
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CROFTON – 0 0 0 1 – 1
BROADNECK – 1 1 3 0 – 5
GOALS – BN: Charlotte Robertson 2, Tess Mansfield 1, Cate Imber 1, Raelyn Soares 1; CR: Jackie Kerner 1
ASSISTS – BN: Lizzie Hall 2
SAVES – BN: Trish Maloney 6; CR: Penny Surlis 2