Varsity Field Hockey: Knights and Titans Rematch Has Different Feel

By Ben Spector
Winning After MidKnight

 

Last year’s newly formed Central Maryland Conference (CMC) created a large degree of opportunities across the board for all the teams that make up the conference.

The league, which consisted of all ten Frederick County teams, decided to do things a bit differently from the old Monocacy Valley Athletic League (MVAL) and one of those changes would have a huge effect on the Middletown High School Knights Varsity Field Hockey team.

When the CMC was created, the upper brass of the CMC decided to create conference championship games for all of the sports except football. This represented a big opportunity for all of the field hockey teams in the conference as because of the way the MVAL was divided up for field hockey the regular season would usually end with two Carroll County teams winning each of the two divisions.

Add in the fact that there were no league or division championships for any of the Frederick County teams to make an account of themselves in and most Frederick County teams were all but shut of any league accolades.

The newly created championship games would give teams like the Knights a chance to prove that they were championship material and when the first championship game came around they would be in it after going undefeated through the CMC during the 2015-2016 regular season.

Their opponent during that match-up would be the Tuscarora High School Titans and it would be a match-up that would fall in the Knights’ favor as at Thomas Athletic Field on the campus of Hood College, Middletown would win 3-1 capturing the first ever CMC Field Hockey Championship.

This will be on the mind of both teams as the Knights will take on the Titans on Thursday September 15^th from Middletown High School at 4:00 p.m. as both teams will look for their first win of the season featuring multiple players who were on both teams last year.

There is a catch to the rematch narrative as this game is not your typical rematch.

While one might be inclined to believe that this would be an accurate rematch of last year’s championship game the rematch lacks any similarities to last year’s contest as the players, the strengths of each team, and the mood surrounding each of the teams has changed drastically.

Both teams have had significant losses in the personnel department meaning that most of the players on the field on Thursday had seen very little time during that game and were mostly bench players or players who were confined to a smaller role during that game.

For Middletown, the Knights have lost a good number of their starters from last year’s contest including midfielder Ali Williams, goaltender Emma Provost, midfielder Emily Delauter, and midfielder Peyton McCracken.

Tuscarora has also had a wide range of losses including defender Kristen Perret, who led a staunch Titans defense into last year’s championship match and senior Megan Forte, the Titans’ top scorer last year. In total out of a 14 player team the Titans lost eight players to graduation meaning that the team you see today will be drastically different than the team Middletown saw last year.

Even with all of those changes the Knights and Titans still find themselves in similar situations, albeit, very different from the situations that they were in last year.

The Knights (0-3) have been close to winning contests in each of the three matches they have played against Carroll County opponents but haven’t been able to finish off their opponents yet as they have dropped all of their matches by a 2-0 score. Those 2-0 scorelines still represent a positive for the Knights as it shows that Middletown played three games in which they were in the contest but couldn’t find a way to push across a goal to make things interesting.

Middletown is best described as a team in flux as the Knights are still trying to determine who will be the breadwinners offensively as Middletown has shown in ability to generate offensive pressure but not capitalize on that pressure.

The Titans are also a team in flux but have not played in a close contest yet as they are trying to shake off the 8-1 loss to the Winters Mill High School Falcons that they received in the first game of the season. Similar to Middletown, the Titans are still trying to determine what players will be playing what roles and are, as a whole, trying to put the pieces together.

While this contest does represent a championship rematch from last year that would be a little bit misleading as both teams are still very young and very raw compared to the teams that squared off at Hood College last year. Still, both teams will look to restart that road back to the championship on Thursday.