SOUTH DEERFIELD — Missy Mahar has been winning games with the Frontier field hockey team for a long team. She reached another career milestone on Thursday.
Mahar entered Thursday’s showdown with South Hadley sitting at 249 career wins. Her team made sure their head coach would reach the 250-win mark, scoring three goals in the first quarter and two in the second to cruise to an 8-0 Suburban League victory.
“I could never have imagined that and it wasn’t something that was on my radar,” Mahar said of the accomplishment. “I’m so grateful having the opportunity to teach and coach here. It’s a wonderful community and to share it with all the hard working student-athletes is special and something I don’t take for granted at all.”
Now in her 21st season with the Redhawks, Mahar said she feels grateful for all the players she’s coached over the years for helping her add tallies to the win column.
“I drive home to Suffield and I’m always thinking about my old players, who’s doing what, how old they are and what they’re up to,” Mahar said. “I’m just really happy. It’s a great place to work and coach. In my 20 years, these kids have been nothing but the best. They deserve all the credit. I’m the one guiding them but they’re the ones that work hard and perform out on the field.”
Thursday’s 250th win wasn’t one Mahar had to sweat. Ashley Taylor slammed home a rebound that came off the pad of Tigers keeper Amaya Dunn in the opening minutes of the contest to give Frontier the early lead.
Minutes later Taylor got the ball outside the circle, made a deke on a South Hadley defender and drove to the cage before dishing a cross-crease to Rebecca Wallace-West who tapped it in to make it a 2-0 game. Lila Roche scored off a rush to make it 3-0 going into the second quarter.
The Redhawks added to their lead in the second. Roche drove in and sent over a pass to Stella Heflin and the eighth grader put it in the back of the cage to make it a 4-0 contest. Heflin added another goal, smashing in a pass from Rowan Reilly off a corner to give Frontier a 5-0 lead going into the half.
The Redhawks finished the first half with a 9-0 corner advantage while also preventing the Tigers from putting a shot on goal. Dunn was plenty busy, making 15 saves in the first half.
Frontier hadn’t scored a goal in their two prior Suburban League contests. They made sure that changed on Thursday.
“We talked about this being our home opener and how we haven’t scored yet in our league,” Mahar said. “We wanted to come out hungry, we wanted to be focused on our play in the circle and be light on our feet. To see them put it in play today was a contribution to how hard they worked in the drills to get it done.”
The Redhawks (2-1-1, 1-1-1 Suburban) continued to light up the scoreboard in the second half. Macy DeMaio scored off an assist from Harper Modestow in the third quarter before Abbi Grover knocked in a rebound in the fourth. Freshman Ashlie Galenski closed out the Frontier scoring, doing so off an assist from Hailey Hutkoski.
Caraghan Wartel played in goal in the second half for South Hadley, making 16 saves. The Tigers (0-3, 0-3) were unable to record a shot on goal, though did earn two corners in the second half.
Despite the loss, Tigers coach Nicole Casolari said she’s seen progress from her young team so far this year.
“We’re a young team,” Casolari said. “Half our team is middle schoolers. We’re starting to gel as a group. We have kids from four different schools. Getting everyone coordinated together is the first challenge. There’s a lot of learning to be done. We’re learning on the field and taking it day-by-day. We have a tough schedule with our league but I’m seeing growth. That’s all I can ask for.”
Frontier is back in action next Wednesday, with a showdown against rival Greenfield as Mahar shoots for win No. 251.
“We have a big week coming up,” Mahar said. “To settle into the weekend with a good win today with some aggressive shots and sense of urgency in the circle, that’ll carry over into next week. I’m feeling good.”