Terriers stickers roll over Cosmos

Despite the fact that it was a season-opening game, the 9-0 Bellows Falls win over Springfield in a Division II field hockey game Friday should not have come as a big surprise as the Bellows Falls program is what the new Springfield coaches would like to have someday for the Cosmos.
http://rutlandherald.com/article/20140830/SPORTS02/708309916

Published August 30, 2014 in the Rutland Herald Terriersstickersroll overCosmos By POODY WALSH CORRESPONDENT WESTMINSTER — Despite the fact that it was a season-opening game, the 9-0 Bellows Falls win over Springfield in a Division II field hockey game Friday should not have come as a big surprise as the Bellows Falls program is what the new Springfield coaches would like to have someday for the Cosmos. Consider that Bellows Falls coach Beth Coursen took her lumps as she groomed the Bellows Falls program so that when freshmen who come to play now they have already been playing the sport for several years. “It eliminates a lot of the time we have to spend coaching fundamentals,” said Coursen. “They already know the fundamentals.” Meanwhile, Springfield field hockey is a grassroots organization. Not only do the players have to learn from new coaches, there are not very many players. “We have 20 and sometimes 19,” said Kelly Rando, who along with Lyndsie Perkins,is taking over the program from the departed Bindy Hathorn. What the small numbers mean is that not only are that not enough players to have a full junior varsity squad, when the junior varsity game was played following the varsity game Friday the teams played a seven-on-seven game. “And we had some of our varsity players playing junior varsity,” said Ranado. Still the two Springfield coaches are not throwing in the towel and are knowledgeable enough to know that in Bellows Falls the Cosmos were matched up against a team that was 12-1-1 last year (losing in the championship game) and has lost just four players from that near-title team. “Hopefully we’re in it for the long haul,” said Perkins, who is a Springfield graduate and played field hockey under Joy Benson. Another reason the coaches have a reason to be optimistic is that they both work at the Union School and hope to get some young girls interested in playing field hockey. Right now, the coaches are looking to keep the spirits up and trying to improve as the season goes along. “We don’t want them to lose confidence,” said Perkins. One of those Bellows Falls girls who came into the program fundamentally sound was senior captain Sarah Wells, who scored three goals in the first 22 minutes Friday. Wells is a sniper-type player who seems to wedge herself in the defense then springs free on the ball. “My teammates were handing me some nice passes,” she said as she deflected any self appraisal. ‘We teach sportsmanship here,” said Coursen. While no game is ever perfect, Bellows Falls had few flaws as the Terriers scored six first-half goals and cleared the bench in the second half. “We’ve got some things to work on like getting our feet out of the way,” said Wells. Anna Clark also scored three goals for the Terriers while Cassidy Santorelli tallied twice.