Meeting a challenge – Inexperience, injuries pose obstacles to PA

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 20:34:00 GMT

Renee Paquette does not demand perfection. Her Pembroke Academy players do.

But with the final quarter of the regular season remaining and a playoff spot on the line, Paquette is teaching the field hockey team to play through some unexpected ups and downs.

“We lost that game to Portsmouth, and it just kind of spiraled into a bunch of losses we couldn’t come back from,” said Paquette. “The girls play really well together. They’re very close, and as much as you try to prepare for times when things won’t be perfect, they’re having a hard time adjusting.”

After opening the season with wins over Stevens and John Stark, the Spartans have lost seven games, interrupted only by a 3-2 win over visiting Bow on Sept. 18.

Against Class I club Portsmouth on Sept. 21, senior captain Katie Scofield was sidelined 10 minutes into the match with an injury.

Long before losing Scofield, right wing and senior captain Danielle Upham suffered a broken wrist during the preseason.

Despite returning a core of 10 players, now seniors, the team struggled with inexperience at times. Senior Rose Palmer, who stepped in for Upham, joined a group of upperclassman seeing their first varsity action.

“We graduated six seniors but still had a huge chunk coming back,” said Paquette. “The problem was a lot of them hadn’t been starters or were on the junior varsity team last year, so they were really getting used to playing on a varsity level each day.”

On Friday, Sept. 28, the Spartans lost to visiting Plymouth Regional, 2-0. Sophomore keeper Angelina Harwood, midfielder Jill Boucher and center Faye Lesniewski, a senior captain, each played well in the losing effort.

“After three straight losses, we sat down and asked ourselves if we wanted to just call it a year or come back and fight for the playoffs,” said Paquette. “That was really a low point for the team, but then we came out and really put up a fight against (now 7-2) Plymouth. I’m sure they thought they would just come here and walk over us, but hopefully we’re in the mindset … to hit the postseason.”

Seniority – PA girls stopped, but season’s outlook remains bright

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 20:18:00 GMT

BY JERRY LIPTAK

With New England in general, and Pembroke Academy’s field hockey team in particular, even the sunniest forecast contains the chance for a passing shower.

Such was the case for the Spartans, who were doused, 4-0, by the Lebanon Red Raiders on a drizzly Friday, Aug. 31.

But Pembroke’s head coach, Rene Paquette-Paige said the lopsided loss was an aberration, and the immediate future looks bright indeed.

“Historically, when we’ve played teams like Lebanon, it’s hard for us,” she said. “The last two, three years, we’ve tried to turn that around. (The girls) have worked hard.”

Her team of 16, with 10 seniors, is good, just not good enough to handle a squad as strong as 2-0 Lebanon, a perennial Class I playoff team with a middle-school feeder system, something Pembroke lacks.

Paquette-Paige said setbacks like this – the Lady Spartans trailed, 3-0, at the break – have become the exception, even following a deceptively lowly two-win season in 2006. Last year, the team was competitive in most of its defeats, Paquette-Paige said. This year should be better.

If that prediction proves true, the team’s captains – Faye Lesniewski, Kaitie Schofield and Danielle Upham – deserve a large portion of the credit.

Lesniewski and Schofield, whom Paquette-Paige good-naturedly called “goofballs,” set the upbeat tone.

The team waits for Upham to return from an arm injury; the cast comes off in two weeks, and she could return in three weeks. In the meantime, you’ll find Upham crowding the sideline, itching to compete.

And though the hosts were thoroughly outplayed by their guests, PA provided some action. Two shots – one by Schofield in the first half and another by senior Hannah Poirier in the second – beat Lebanon’s goalie, though neither counted because no other Pembroke player touched the ball inside the scoring circle.

Still, Pembroke finds itself at 1-1 early in ’07 thanks to a 2-1 season-opening win vs. Stevens on Aug. 28. In that game, senior attacker Jill Boucher and midfielder Schofield tallied. Sophomore goalkeeper Angelica Harwood earned the victory.

Against Lebanon, Harwood arrived minutes before the game commenced. She watched from the sidelines as fellow sophomore Brianna Hughes took over in goal, was bombarded in the first half, then settled in and played well after the break.

Jen Darby and Meaghan Nunnally represent the junior class on the team, while Haley Raymond is PA’s other sophomore.

But the seniors – Holly Brasley, Katie Cotnoir, Heather Hill, Rose Palmer, Erin Parnell, Boucher, Poirier, Lesniewski, Schofield and Upham – are something else, said their coach.

“I’ve heard this from other coaches, other teachers: this is just an amazing group of kids athletically, academically and with their contributions to the community,” said Paquette-Paige. “To have a group of 10 seniors like this … There’s a bond there. And it’s infectious.”

Pembroke News : field hockey

Meeting a challenge – Inexperience, injuries pose obstacles to PA

Seniority – PA girls stopped, but season’s outlook remains bright