|
By Scott Clayton "
Senior Staff Writer
In a
conversation during the preseason, Shore field hockey coach Nancy Williams mentioned
that her program never really gets recognition for its goalkeepers. With senior
Rebecca Lotito coming off a stellar season in net for the Blue Devils"
championship lacrosse team and with a field full of greenhorns it stood to
reason that this would be the year that tradition changed, that if Shore were
to rise to its typical level it would be on the shoulders of their 5-foot,
11-inch goalie.
Then the season began and Shore was back to its old ways,
scoring six goals in the season opening week against a Jackson team that was
expected to be in the Class A South hunt, and Shore's goaltending slid into the
background again. When shutouts were posted, it was usually the play of
defenders Kim Pobutkiewicz, Kaitlin Montiero, Alex Carroll and Aimee Herbert
that made it so, limiting the shots their keeper saw come her way.
The times Lotito's cage-minding ways did make their way
into a post-game conversation with Williams, the tone was not always positive.
There were the two saves "that had to be made," and were not, in a 2-2 tie with Rumson-Fair
Haven. Even in a 5-1 win over Central in the Shore Conference Tournament
semifinal, Williams had to scratch her head at the "bizarre" way that the
Golden Eagles were able to get on the board.
In Wednesday's Shore Conference Tournament final, it was
the Ocean coaching staff that was left scratching their heads after Lotito
delivered the signature moment of the first 60 minutes of action. Off a penalty
corner in the 18th minute, Kat Rodziewicz took Becky Gilman's feed
and fired a shot that may or may not have been deflected " doesn't matter " but
found its way onto the stick of freshman Mallory Nelson just off the right post
of the goal.
|
Just when it seemed like Nelson would have enough time to
mark the ball like Tiger Woods, clean off any loose dirt, replace it and tap it
in, Lotito dove to cut off the angle and, mindful not to cover the ball and
force a penalty stroke, thwarted the Ocean opportunity. For good measure,
Montiero, a senior sweeper, lived up to her position's name just in time and
swept the ball over the end line.
"The whole team is working to keep that ball up there and
when it comes back, all that pressure's on," Montiero said. "You've just got to
keep calm and I just tried to keep it out for my team."
The game would go to overtime, when Shore would triumph
1-0 on a Marguerite Chavez golden goal, one of its only scoring opportunities
of the game.
"That really helped us win the game," Lotito said. "If
that goal goes in it's a whole different outcome."
Completely different - like a loss. Which would have been
the first in 36 Shore Conference Tournament games for the Blue Devils, now
winners of the last nine SCTs.
"It was definitely a wake-up call for us, and a wake-up
call for Tito," said Herbert, who, with Lotito, Montiero and midfielder Devin
Whalen, represented the only seniors in Shore's starting lineup.
|
| Shore's last two lines of defense - Kaitlin Monteiro and Rebecca Lotito - came up big in Wednesday's Shore Conference Tournament win.
|
|
In discussing Chavez's game-winner, Lotito admitted that
she couldn't help but put herself in the shoes of Ocean goalkeeper Danielle
Reichardt.
"I think that, yeah, I would have been scared to death,
but I would hope that I would have made the right choice," Lotito said.
It's
the curse of the goalie, preparing yourself for the worst, knowing that it
could strike at anytime and that until you are in that situation, you have no
idea how you will react. It was that fear that drove Lotito in Tuesday's
practice.
"I stayed at practice and just did dives for 30 minutes
just in case I had to today, and it really came up big," Lotito said.
Lotito had passed her one test of the game and would
rarely find herself in the middle of the action again, making just one more
save, for a total of five, the rest of the game. While Ocean had another strong
second-half opportunity, in which Montiero cut off Jenn Schoch's point-blank
shot, Lotito's save seemed to be the play that turned the tide for Shore.
"I think it definitely lit a fire under our butts,"
Montiero said. "You know it was time to be urgent and we needed to get o |