By Darren Lum

The varsity girls’ field hockey team took the energy generated from the spirit rally on Thursday to the pitch and finished the day with a pair of draws worth two points.

The Red Hawks led both games and finished both similarly giving up a goal in the second half and then settling for 1-1 draws first with the Saints of St. Peter Catholic Secondary School and then with the Hurricanes of Holy Cross. The draws followed a rain-out road game earlier in the week.

The Hawks tallied their first league goals: Makenna Robbins scored her first against the Hurricanes and Ava Smith scored hers against the Saints.

Co-captains Emma Casey and Melissa Brinkos were happy to get the two points and highlighted the positives following their double-header on Thursday Oct. 3 in Haliburton.

Casey was happy the Hawks scored first in both games while Brinkos appreciated the strong starts. They both took pride in scoring from a short corner advantage. It was a sign of progress since it was their first goals off set plays this season.

More time playing from the set play contributed to the day’s success Casey said. Brinkos added that winning so many short corners provided knowledge about how the opposing defence were setting up. She said they’ll want to shoot more next time.

Brinkos said the results reinforced that there is a level of parity even though their opponents have rep players and the Hawks don’t. The Hawks also don’t have turf field which is common at other schools.

Casey said the Hawks controlled pace of play for the two games.

“We did really well at keeping it in their end. We definitely – for every game we played – stayed for the most part in their end” she said.

This year’s varsity team has the full range of players from Grade 9 to 12. It is 0-0-3 on the season.

The team appreciated cheers from the crowd particularly during the first game when more people were able to stay.

“It was nice to have all the support from the school” Casey said.

Vanessa Prentice helped coach the Hawks field hockey team.