Mechanicsburg’s Carly Valentino says ‘family’ vibe is more important than her hat trick in 5-1 win over Cumberland Valley field hockey
Cumberland Valley dropped their home game against Mechanicsburg on Wednesday.
Mechanicsburg field hockey featured several pacesetters Wednesday in their game against Cumberland Valley.
Carly Valentino was one of them. And, her reasoning makes sense.
“We’re all bonded as a team,” Valentino said. “We’re all like a family.”
The ‘Cats family bond earned them the 5-1 win. Mechanicsburg are 6-1 on the season and Cumberland Valley are 4-2-1. They both play in District 3 Class 3A and the Mid-Penn Conference.
Kayla Weldon, Avery Rutter, Emma Sandusky, Madi Dollman, and Libby Olivetti, along with the rest of the Mechanicsburg squad played a quick paced, organized, structured game.
Cumberland Valley had their moments, but even with the fire power found in Marissa Muza, Lexi Hunter, Phia Hunger, and Gigi Ott, the Eagles had a hard time finding passing lanes and executing clean tackles.
Mechanicsburg shined in fitness, which is something head coach Tonya Brown said she has been strategic about. The team ran hills, weight trained, and have had days off within the past few days.
Both coaches, including Cumberland Valley’s Ashley Hooper, said they understand the importance of rest. They said overtraining could impede productivity on game days, when their athletes want to show off their abilities the most.
Mechanicsburg’s speed was found in their rapid passing, but also running the ball. Valentino scored three goals.
Her second and third goals were separated by 46 seconds. Her second goal, she was on post and punctuated the goal by slamming it off a deflection in midair behind Cumberland Valley’s goalie.
The third goal, she burned the turf with her speed, blazed into the circle, dribbled and dodged a few Eagles defenders, pulled the keep to her weak side, and planted the ball in the cage.
Her first and third goals were unassisted. She also had two assists.
“I’m so proud of our team, as we all worked up the field together,” Valentino said. “I can't take, like, the responsibility or, like, be the one who said I'm the one who scored. Like, we all did that because it starts from the defense all the way up the line.”
Mechanicsburg also had the tactical edge over Cumberland Valley. Olivetti is a good example.
In the fourth quarter, she entered the circle, and earned a corner, by bouncing the ball off the turf, creating a three dimensional move, three consecutive times, and getting the Eagles to commit a stick obstruction just inside the circle.
By observing Olivetti, it was obvious she was glancing out the sides of her eyes to find her teammates, who weren’t immediately near her. Cumberland Valley had the defensive numbers, and her only other option was to be creative by using a 3-D move.
She slowed the pace enough to switch things up by forcing the foul to set up the attack penalty corner.
Cumberland Valley were able to find the cage in the third, a slow roller to the far side of the cage and around an assuming ‘Cats backline that were caught flatfooted.
The Eagles energy came roaring back, but only momentarily.
Beyond the third quarter, Cumberland Valley continued to try to find circle entries and forward movement. They continued to get caught in their defensive 25, where Mechanicsburg remained relentless on the ball.
“They listen well,” Brown said. “They really do. They’re motivated. They’re senior-laden. And, there’s something you can’t teach seniors, that experience. And, they’ve been there, they’ve been to states. They know what it takes.”
Brown said she knows Mechanicsburg is in a tough division, and she doesn’t underestimate any of their scheduled opponents.
“We’ve already had teams exploit some of our weaknesses,” Brown said. “And, now they’re going to see our speed. We have to learn how to deal with that, how to react to that. Cause, we like pressure. We want people to come pressure us and us to blow by them like we just did at certain points. But, I give CV credit. They had a couple of breakaways down our middle, and we just talked about that with the middle of the field. And, we’ll take care of that as well.”
There’s still a full schedule for the Eagles to play, Hooper said.
“We basically told them that we have the rest of the season left to play and that it is only one game.We reminded them of last year, we had a bad loss here, and we then turned it around and had a great rest of the season. So sometimes things happen, right? We were at State College away for a late night the other day and I don't know that we ever fully rested from that. I mean, we limited a great team to eight shots. So that is very impressive in my opinion. I think our defense did a very solid job of limiting them, not only on corners, but shots in general. We had moments where we dominated and we just need to put the ball in the back of the net and take a shot when we have those opportunities.”
Mechanicsburg’s Rutter, and Weldon scored for the ‘Cats. Dani Thompson scored for the Eagles in the third quarter.
Two athletes on the Cumberland Valley field hockey team advocate for Morgan’s Message, which supports strengthening the student-athlete’s mental health. The game was dedicated to the cause.
“I think it's great,” Hooper said. “They are running Morgan's Message here at CV. And I'm always proud when people are involved in the community. I think it's great to not only put the Morgan's Message message out there and promote mental health, but I think that it’s also a big issue across the country. So, I’m very proud of our girls for being involved.”
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