The Leaside girls’ field hockey team started the high school season with a 5-0 win over East York at Cherry Beach Sports Fields on Wednesday.
Centre-forward Kristen Lee scored three goals, leading her team to the victory.
“Oh, I feel really good,” Lee, who was clearly happy with her performance, said following the game. “It’s a great way to start off the season.”
The contest, which was delayed for more than 30 minutes due to technical problems with the nets, started with an early goal in the sixth minute.
Madison Stock took a penalty corner and delivered a pass to Lee, who avoided the defence and converted the goal.
During the first half, East York struggled with Leaside’s forward line. Also, the defence had problems while organizing its players on the field.
This was reflected on the second goal after defender Wendy Enman gave away the ball in front of the net that Lee pushed between the players in the ninth minute.
Leaside dominated the rest of the half with two more goals; one of them came from another penalty corner and the other off a miscue by the goaltender, giving the girls from Leaside a 4-0 lead at the break.
In the second half, East York was close to scoring when Victoria Hartsias approached the net, but the defence prevented the shot.
Stock was also rewarded as she scored the final goal after a great play that was set up from a penalty corner.
In addition, the right forward registered two assists, helping to start the season in the right direction.
“I feel very good, it’s our first game,” said Stock. “It’s nice to start it off with a win, especially 5-0. And the fact that we have been practising all week is also rewarding.”
Aside the victory, Stock feels the team needs to get better for its next games.
“[We need to] improve maybe communication,” she said. “We sometimes hesitate to get the ball and people think others have it when they don’t.”
Coach Sara Jones was also excited with the win and the five goals her team scored.
“I think the girls played really, really well,” said Jones. “It was a record for us, we’ve never had that many goals [scored] in a game. It was a nice way to start.”
One of the strongest points from Wednesday’s victory was the players’ stick-handling skills, according to Jones.
“A lot of them are really good runners,” she said. “We’ve got some cross-country and track stars here and that helped.”
“They understand the game [and] they played good together. We also got a lot of our rookies in and they played really well, too. So, it was a good sign.”