Rye Neck accomplished two feats October 14: they avenged a 2-2 tie earlier in the season by defeating Pleasantville 2-0 on Homecoming Weekend, and qualified for the playoffs with a 7-1-4 record with four games to play. They’re now the most successful Rye Neck field hockey squad in over a decade.

 

By Mitch Silver

 

Rye Neck accomplished two feats October 14: they avenged a 2-2 tie earlier in the season by defeating Pleasantville 2-0 on Homecoming Weekend, and qualified for the playoffs with a 7-1-4 record with four games to play. They’re now the most successful Rye Neck field hockey squad in over a decade.

By scoring two first-half goals on a blustery, threatening afternoon, the team put itself in position to compete for one of the higher seeds in Class C.

 

Head coach Nicole Bolnik put it this way: “The team did exactly as they were told: come out strong. We are seeing improvements with every competition, and we’re focusing on taking our game to the next level.”

 

At Rye Neck, Pleasantville earned three early penalty corners, but that was about it. With 21:11 to go in the opening half, the ball came out to the top of the arc on a corner, and two passes later Athena Nathan had a tap-in for the goal, with an assist to Elena Hurlbut. Seven minutes later, corner lightning struck the visitors again as Nikole Morgan took the ball to her right and shot across her body to beat the keeper to the lower-right area of the goal. Just as the refs signaled for halftime, a deluge drove both teams and all the spectators to take cover.

 

Pleasantville, the “other Panthers”, had trouble mounting an offense in the second half. In all, Rye Neck gave up only two shots on goal. Bolnik was looking ahead after the match. “Our senior leadership is strong and we have high hopes for post-season play.”