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Valley News – Hartford does its talking on the turf

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Published: 11/1/2022 9:30:49 PM

Modified: 11/1/2022 9:30:54 PM

BURLINGTON — Hartford High field hockey coach Heather Scudder began gathering her players for a postgame chat Tuesday afternoon. However, Charlotte Jasmin interjected, her stick pointing to Burlington High’s decrepit artificial turf field.

“We don’t need to talk,” declared the freshman back. “We just did our talking out there.”

Well said, Charlotte. The second-seeded Hurricanes are off to Saturday’s VPA Division II finals after dispatching sixth-seeded Burr & Burton, 1-0. They’ll face top-seeded Woodstock (14-1), which beat fourth-seeded Spaulding on the other side of the draw. The Wasps’ lone loss was to visiting Hartford, 2-1 on Oct. 5.

Hartford was once again powered by Alice Piper, who posted a quarterfinals hat trick. This time, the senior wing leveled her stick like a softball bat, effectively “bunting” in a knee-high cross from Madison Barwood at the left post with 12 minutes to play. Such use of the stick is legal when there’s not a defender within a yard.

“The ball came so fast, I don’t really remember what happened,” said Piper, adding that the mid-air tally was her second such play of the season. “I felt like we could have scored earlier and just got caught up in their defense.”

Hartford (13-2-1) utterly dominated the first quarter, and Burr & Burton (9-6-1) didn’t push inside the Hurricanes’ defensive arc until early in the second stanza. The second quarter was fairly even, and then the Bulldogs held an obvious third-quarter advantage.

“We were a little bit tired, and our intensity went down,” Piper said. “But in the fourth quarter, we came back out and wanted it more.”

Scudder noted that her team has numerous lacrosse players, including Piper. The coach said No. 25 gave a preview of her stick skills during an August practice, when she somehow redirected a fast-moving ball out of the air and into the twine, causing the workout to screech to a halt.

“There were maybe 10 of us at an optional practice,” Scudder said. “We shouted at her to save it for the season.”

Piper missed roughly a month of the campaign because of injury and illness, and Scudder credited her player for keeping her skills sharp and quickly returning to top physical condition.

Notes: Barwood, a sophomore, also reached the state finals in field hockey, ice hockey and lacrosse as a freshman. … Hartford goaltender Paige Vielleux, who made several key stops during the third quarter, wore red-and-black plaid pajama bottoms beneath her leg pads. … The Burlington High field’s condition almost has to be seen to be believed. A sort of ripple effect can be detected, as if the surface were a slightly bunched carpet. Seams are clearly visible in some spots and, in large areas, the plastic blades have worn almost to the thickness of a human hair. With the school’s battered main buildings closed, classes are now held in a former Macy’s department store at a downtown mall. … The game was held at BHS because the Vermont Principals Association requires semifinal and final field hockey games be played on artificial turf. Burr & Burton’s artificial field hosted the Woodstock-Spaulding semifinal.

Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.





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