Junior Varsity Field Hockey: Knights Guided By Confidence

By Ben Spector
Winning After MidKnight

 

At times it might have been hard to see for others, but the Middletown High School Knights Junior Varsity Field Hockey team has held on to a strong sense of confidence throughout their season, even as they began to pick up losses during the Carroll County portion of their schedule.

And, know they’ll look to capitalize on the confidence that they had acquired when they start the Frederick County portion of their schedule against the Tuscarora High School Titans on Thursday September 15^th at Middletown High School.

Middletown (0-2-1) will look to pick up their first win against Tuscarora and the Knights seem to be in a good spot to do it as they have gone through many trials and tribulations over the first three games but have never lost the confidence that things would turn around.

Middletown’s first three games were book-ended by a pair of 2-0 losses with the opening one coming to the Westminster High School Owls and the closing one coming against the Manchester Valley Mavericks, with a 0-0 tie against the Francis Scott Key Eagles coming in between those two.

One could see from watching the Knights that they were a team that wasn’t going to go down easy as in every one of their matches Middletown was consistently battling and fighting to get whatever progress they could in those three games.

The plucky style with which Middletown plays has not translated into results just yet but it has helped to give them this confidence as they have developed a feeling in which they know if they keep playing the way that they have been playing that things will turn around quickly for Middletown.

The game against Tuscarora will represent Middletown’s first chance to do just that as the competition that the Knights will see in the Titans is a couple levels below the level of talent that the Knights’ Carroll County opponents were at.

That means that if the Knights manage to play the same game that they have been playing with the same type of confidence that they have shown then good things will most likely turn the Knights way.

Adding to the fact that the Knights have earned the ability to get a win with their efforts and the confidence that they have displayed against their opponents is the fact that Middletown deserves a win and have been rather unlucky not to have one already.

Middletown, time after time has played close contests but somehow ended up in the loss column and not always through fault of their own. The one that especially sticks out as being outside of their control is the Knights’ match against Francis Scott Key, one in which Middletown would pocket what they thought were three goals only to have each goal get called back leading to the 0-0 tie.

The ups and downs seem to have only strengthened Middletown for the better as the Knights have learned that regardless of what curveballs they are thrown to just keep on swinging until the clock stops.

The Titans on the other hand have not had all of the ups and downs that Middletown has faced as Tuscarora’s only game of the season ended in a 2-0 loss to the Winters Mill Falcons on the road as the Titans have saved the majority of their Carroll County schedule until the end of the year.

The Knights believe that this has served them well as the Knights have had the heaviest part of their schedule at the start of the year not only forcing Middletown to increase their expectations and gain confidence due to the fact that the Knights played inch for inch with the first three opponents on the schedule.

This boost in confidence seems to have been a boon for Middletown as now they’ll look to put that new-found energy into practice against the Titans and pick up a much deserved win.