Garden City advances to Class B state final following penalty shootout
Garden City celebrates its win in the New York State Class B field hockey semifinal against South Glens Falls on Saturday at Centereach. Credit: Bob Sorensen
Throughout regulation, two overtime periods and a penalty shootout, defender Maureen Arendt said the Garden City field hockey team repeated the terms “confidence and composure.”
Garden City faced 28 corner attempts from South Glens Falls, but senior goalkeeper Mackenzie Wehrum refused to let one slip by, keeping it scoreless heading into the shootout.
With South Glens Falls trailing in the shootout and needing to score to extend the game, Wehrum didn’t lose her confidence and composure. She made the clinching save in the Class B state semifinal and helped Garden City advance 2-1 on penalty strokes at Centereach High School. Sheila Mullins and Marie Cacciabaudo scored for the Trojans.
Garden City (16-1) will play Vestal in the Class B state final on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. at Centereach.
“I was very excited [before the final shot],” Wehrum said. “We practice 1-on-1 situations a lot, maybe for 30 minutes per practice. I was confident in my capabilities, thanks to my coaches and my fellow teammates, that I was going to make the stop.”
In addition to the ample practice time and multiple scrimmage shootouts, Garden City had won a regular-season shootout against Manhasset on Oct. 19. The Trojans were prepared for this moment, and coach Lauren Lavelle knew they’d win.
“I have 100% confidence in Mack,” Lavelle said. “I didn’t doubt it for a second that we weren’t going to win that, because of our goalie.”
Wehrum made 10 saves and kept Garden City from falling behind when South Glens Falls had long possessions. At the end of the first quarter, the South Glens Falls had five straight corner attempts. However, the constant corner tries allowed Wehrum and the defense to envision some plays before they unfolded. Even with that and film study, Wehrum said most of the defensive stops were reaction-based.
While the shootout came down to just a 1-on-1 with Wehrum, the Garden City defense stepped up throughout the match, making constant stick saves and blocking shots before the ball could reach Wehrum.
“It was definitely vital to our performance,” Arendt said. “We’ve been putting in a lot of work preparing. We knew who their key players were … It was really the whole defensive unit. Gemma Cowie, Arcangela Haffner, they always have my back.”
