Junior Varsity Field Hockey: Knights Try to Tap Into Offense

By Ben Spector
Winning After MidKnight

 

The Middletown High School Knights Junior Varsity Field Hockey team is still looking for an offensive spark even though it seemed that they had found it before.  They’ll get another chance to find that offensive talent when they take on the Manchester Valley High School Mavericks on Tuesday September 13^th at 5:15 p.m.

Throughout, Middletown’s first two games of the season the Knights have been held scoreless but it hasn’t been for a lack of effort from the Knights nor a lack of putting the ball in the back of the net.

The Knights would be held scoreless in their opening day contest as they fell to the Westminster High School Owls by a score of 2-0 but would go into their second game against the Francis Scott Key High School Eagles hungry for a goal and feeling confident that they could get that goal.

During that game against the Eagles, the Knights would put the ball in the back of the net. And they would do it again. And then they would do it one more time for good measure. The issue was after every time they put the ball in the net, there would be a whistle and a signal from one of the referees that the goal no longer counted.

When the game ended the Knights had put three balls in the back of the net but had still scored no goals so far in the 2016-2017 season and were left wondering still when that first goal might come.

There are deeper reasons behind that but the goals wiped off the board encapsulate what the offense has been for Middletown this year. The Knights have played well but just haven’t been lucky.

Credit should be given to the two teams the Knights have played as both teams have had super stingy defenses that prevented Middletown from getting a large amount of offensive chances. Combine that with the unluckiness of having three goals called back and it is starting to feel like the Knights might just be snakebitten and might have to wait longer to score.

Middletown will have another opportunity to deliver another goal when they take on Manchester Valley, but this looks to be a more defensive battle as both teams have had limited offensive success this season.

Manchester Valley in two regular season games has taken down Liberty, 3-1 and then fell the next night to C. Milton Wright being blanked in a 3-0 shutout. This means that in the four games that Middletown and Manchester Valley have played in only three goals have been scored while in those four games six goals have been scored.

For Middletown, their youth up front will be the most likely core to quench the scoring drought as the Knights’ four freshmen forwards will look to find some of the offense for Middletown and help the Knights to their first victory of their season.

It would be a big change for Middletown as not only would getting their first win of the season be a monkey off the Knights’ backs but it would also be a prestigious win coming against a Carroll County opponent in Manchester Valley, who has a field hockey history that reads like a novel.

Middletown will look to lock their offense in against Manchester Valley as both teams try to figure out the right parts to make them click.