Lady Hornets Win On Senior Night
By Laurie-Jean B. Gauthier

The Whitcomb Lady Hornets welcomed the Chelsea Lady Red Devils to Bethel last Friday on Senior Recognition Day. Players Laurel Adams, Demi Aldrighetti, Aneta Merksbauerova, Tia McKenna, Molly Taylor and manager Caro Gonzales were the Hornets seniors recognized. Chelsea seniors Kim Upham, Althea Spencer and Willa Capobianco were present and recognized. Also remembered was missing and injured player, Morgan Wadkins.

Hornets’ Demi Aldrighetti and Laurel Adams made a special presentation of money given by the Whitcomb Student council and the Athletic Department to Joy Driscoll for Wadkins, who suffered life-changing injuries in an automobile accident two weeks ago.

Facing the Red Devils for the second time this season, it was a grudge match that the Hornets hoped to win and avenge and they did just that. Althea Spencer, unassisted, toed the ball into the right corner and just out of reach of goalie Laurel Adams at 3:54 to get the scoring started. Molly Taylor evened the match at 9:23 with the help of Emily Durfee.

Tied at the half, both teams returned ready to rumble, but it was a tumble that put the Hornets into the driver’s seat. A hard push sent Brittany Flint to the ground and put Taylor up for a penalty kick. The kick at 8:44 put Whitcomb out in front. An "own" goal by Chelsea completed the Hornet scoring when a Taylor kick went in off the leg of Jasmine Brayman.

Laurel Adams had nine saves in the game.

Rough Game

In a game that had the Whitcomb Lady Hornets held accountable for every elbow, push, shove and trip they made while Williamstown was not held accountable, with the exception of one hard hit and take-down, it was the visiting blue Devils who took home the checkered in the disappointing 4-2 outing last Saturday in Bethel.

In the first game in four years that Taylor was not present and in, and only the second game that Meredith Kill has played since an opening-day knee injury, it was not the best of days for the Hornets. With Williamstown in possession through much of the game, it was Whitcomb aggressively in pursuit and continually whistled throughout the entire contest.

Whitcomb’s Allison Richards put her team in the lead at 8:20 off an unassisted direct kick, before Williamstown knotted the tie at 26:51, when Stephanie St. Onge footed the ball in, past goalie Laurel Adams. The Blue Devils went up by one at 34:21, when Alli Palin scored off a spinnning, lazy, rolling ball that lolled into the low right corner. At the break it was a 2-1 Hornet deficit.

Returning from the break it only took Williamstown 2:32 before St. Onge and Lisa Mulcahey, in tandem, brought the ball up the middle for the third Blue Devil goal. Mulcahey earned the goal and St. Onge got the assist. Erica Gauthier completed the Blue Devil tally at 6:25 off another unstopped down-the-middle drive.

A hard hit by Wiliamstown earned the Hornets a penalty kick at 27:48. Although it was at first stopped by a line of four Blue Devils, it was finally toed in at point-blank range by kicker Kill. Frustrated by the unfavorable calls made against the Hornets, goalie Laurel Adams stated her displeasure and was yellow-carded for the infraction. That forced fullback Emily Wright into goal-tending position. Wright was immediately called upon to protect the net off a penalty kick, and with three blue shirts practically on top of her and the ball she body-buried the orb for the stop and save.

Emma Lawson had three saves and Laurel Adams and Emily Wright combined for 11. Both teams now stand at 7-6 for the season.

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