‘Rines Win Keeps the Ball Rolling

Tuesday’s cross-town matchup had all the makings for a Watkins Mill letdown. The Lady 'Rines were only a day removed from their grueling overtime tie against a formidable Damascus squad. On top of that, co-captain and leading scorer Emily Sperling could only cheer from the sideline Tuesday after she fell hard on her neck and shoulder during the Damascus game.

Once the face-off on Watkins Mill’s sloping field got underway, those factors had they came out sluggish than they had in their upstart season.

Gaithersburg pressed that opportunity through the first half, but, as has three of Watkins Mill’s opponents four opponents, they couldn’t get past emerging standout goalie Jillian Gardner.

By the second half, the Wolverines had shaken from their doldrums as the rotation of underclassmen filling in for Sperling started to settle in. Ten minutes into the period, Sara Jane Campbell broke through to score what proved to be the game’s sole goal.

The 1-0 win gave coach Michelle Pettit a birthday present she has never had in her four years as Watkins Mill’s field hockey coach: An unbeaten record five games into the season.

“I think we want it,” she said. “The first half I could tell we were really tired from yesterday’s marathon of a game. Then they really became themselves in the second half and decided they wanted to win. They made it happen.

“It really shows how strong our sophomores are. For those sophomores to come in and fill Emily’s shoes really says a lot to their ability, and hopefully, to the future of the program; that they’re just going to continue to get better year by year.”

For Gaithersburg, the hard-fought loss—their second 1-0 defeat of the season—drops their record to 1-4.

The Lady Trojans are a work in progress for first-year coach Patricia Block, who has instituted a new training regimen and coaching philosophy—a “back-to-basics” approach, she said, that does away with zone formations and brings the JV and varsity together to practice.

The shift in paradigm has had its snags with a squad so heavy with seniors, but she’s seeing the dividends start to show as they learn to embrace the change.

“It’s had to be a rebuilding year because we’ve not only had to unlearn some things, but we’re learning new things,” Block said. “They didn’t like it in the beginning, and then when they started to see how to implement it on the field, then they got it, then they understood.”

After blowout losses to Churchill and B-CC in their two previous games, she was impressed to see that her team didn’t give up, were aggressive and made clear adjustments through the course of the game

“That’s one of the things we’re working on this year, is having any kind of adverse situation be used as fuel—use it as something positive, use it as fuel to really want it and have more desire for the next game going forward,” Block said.

The Lady Trojans next play Wootton on Thursday, while Watkins Mill gets some much-needed downtime ahead of their toughest test of the season on Monday at Poolesville.