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Sophs provide spark - Jess Peacock
Jess Peacock |
Sophs provide spark
11/18/2005
PALMER -- A pair of
Hopedale High sophomores destroyed Lenox last night at Legion Field.
Midfielder Rachel Miranda paced a relentless Blue Raider attack,
scoring one goal and assisting on three others, while sweeper Jessica Peacock
scored two goals and was a one-woman wrecking crew on defense as Hopedale beat
Lenox, 6-1, to move on to tomorrow's state championship game.
The two
combined on the first two goals of the game, giving Central Mass. champion
Hopedale a comfortable early lead and taking some of the life out of both the
Lenox team and vocal rooting section that made the short trip to cheer on the
Western Mass. champs.
The two goals were absolutely identical, coming
on corner kicks in the fourth and 26th minutes of play.
Miranda took
the kicks and fired low drives from left to right, and both times Peacock was
the most aggressive player to the ball, fearlessly heading it past Lenox
goalkeeper Peggy Steuerwald.
"As long as I have confidence in my kick
then I know my teammates can score on them," Miranda said of the two assists on
corner kicks. "I just have to give it a great delivery and I know that they'll
finish....(Jessica) just knows where I'm going to kick it. It's one of her
great qualities.
"She and Lekia (Cowen) are just great with heading the
ball."
After the two goals, however, Peacock left the offense to
Miranda -- along with Cowen, Lauren Peacock and Stacia Lathrop, among others --
and stuck to playing defense.
Because first-year Hopedale coach Patty
Cronin's philosophy is that the best defense is a good offense, the Blue
Raiders put an inordinate number of players in the offensive zone and are
susceptible to counter-attacks. But Peacock destroyed attack after attack by
the Lenox offense, often beating odd-man rushes by herself.
"She's been
like that all season," said Cronin. "You can see her strength, she could be a
forward, she could be a center halfback and be outstanding, but we have such
high confidence in her at sweeper. She's solid back there for us. She carries
the play, she's very intimidating to other teams and you can see people back
off of her. She played great tonight offensively and defensively."
Eric
Avidon / Daily News Staff |
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