Lily Nguyen also contributed to this article.
All photos taken by Haset Tesfaw.
Throughout this season, Malden’s co-ed field hockey team has faced many challenges but remains optimistic. On the team’s ninth game of the year, they started off with their sticks ready to swing against Peabody.
The game started off with a desire to win on both sides. Both teams had their strengths — Malden had great direction and Peabody was great at keeping the ball in their possession. The ball bounced back and forth between the two teams, and 20 minutes into the very competitive game, the score remained 0-0.
Although Malden had their strengths, the team also had their weaknesses. When they huddled together, coaches Cane and Samantha Souza told the team that the spacing was not great, the players were too close together, and they needed to spread out. The main focus was that the team was not communicating with each other, as players would continually go for the same ball their teammate was going for. After being told to “shake off the dust,” Malden went back into the game ready to try and better themselves as a team.
After getting back out onto the field, Captain Daniel O’Toole, also an editor-in-chief of The Blue and Gold, was trying his best to communicate with his teammates. Player Anthony Ford regained confidence and made swift passes. Clearly, Malden was trying to improve, but the coaches still thought they had work to do as they shouted at the team to spread out.
The first score of the game was from Peabody during the second quarter, while Malden still had not scored 40 minutes into the game.
After Peabody’s score, Malden huddled up again to talk about everyone’s performance and how to improve for the remainder of the game. The coaches told the team to get in front of the Peabody players and “make something happen” and not just spectate on the field. Once again, the team was told to spread out and communicate better. “It’s like cooks in a kitchen that don’t know what they’re doing. It’s a hot mess!” Coach Souza pushed.
Coach Cane agreed and told the players that they needed to work as a team. She noticed that some players were working really hard and others were just staying back and thinking, “They got it.”
“I’ll light a fire under [you] if I need to. Just do it. Be hungry, want this!” Coach Cane told the team.
“Let’s make something happen, Malden. Let’s go!” Coach Souza yelled. Now more motivated, Malden played hard trying to stop Peabody from scoring and to put points on the board themselves before the game ended.
Almost an hour into the game, goalie Marianne “Mari” Rivadeneira from Malden made a timely save to stop Peabody from scoring a second point. After a lot of suspense and cheering from both teams and coaches, Malden was relieved that they managed to shut down Peabody’s offense. They now had hope that they could at least end the game in a tie.
As the game progressed, Coach Souza kept yelling to keep the ball further away from them so it would not get caught up in their feet and they would not end up tripping over it. “Peabody is a good team but they’re not killing us. We still have 15 minutes, we’ve done more scores in less time before. We got this,” Coach Souza encouraged the team. They all cheered and were ready to join the game with a new attitude.
The game was still 1-0 with Peabody in the lead, but Malden had hope that they could score in the last 15 minutes of the game. Malden became more and more aggressive, as they were determined to win.
In the fourth quarter, Malden Captain Yara Alves Escobar, Kyle Huang, and Lilleana “Lilly” DeSantis-Cail scored for the first time. However, just when they scored their first score of the game, Peabody scored their second goal just a few minutes later.
Unfortunately for Peabody, Alves Escobar, with the help of her other teammates, got Malden their second score—making the two teams tied at a final score of 2-2. “Tonight’s game was a challenging one. Usually, we get a lot more playing time, but today was a very defensive game,” Alves Escobar said.
“The season so far has been great. Our current record is 4-1-1 for Varsity. JV has played 1 game so far, and their record is 0-1. We are excited to face Everett in the next couple of weeks as they are the team we need to beat to win the GBL…We work hard together on and off the field and I am proud of all the new players who joined this year!” Cane stated.
“As the JV coach, my goal for the JV team is to understand the game, as well as develop skills through practices and games to be prepared for leveling up to Varsity. All of our JV players are first-year players. That said, they haven’t had much experience in game scenarios. I am looking forward to our JV games this season,” Cane explained.
The team’s record is currently 5-4-1—with two of those wins against Revere—bringing them closer to locking up the GBL title.
