HATFIELD — After the Turners Falls field hockey team scored late in the third quarter to take the opening lead of the game, Smith Academy turned up the pressure.
The Falcons kept the ball in the Thunder end of the field, earning five corners in the frame to Turners’ one as they looked to get the equalizer.
Eventually, that hard work paid off. Bella Gavron got the ball just outside the circle, drove in and blasted home a shot with 3 minutes, 20 seconds to go. Neither club tallied again in those final three minutes, with Thursday’s tilt ending in a 1-1 Valley League tie at Judy Strong Field.
“The Turners goalie did a good job,” Smith Academy coach Judy Strong said of Conner Herzig. “We felt like we had numerous opportunities. We are young. On the forward line we have two seventh graders and a ninth grader, Bella Gavron, who’s very good. She can’t do it all. She feeds it in and tries to go in there and score. Other than a win, I’m happy with a tie with where we’re at and what we’re trying to accomplish.”
It was a scoreless first half between the Falcons (2-10-1) and Thunder (2-9-1). Turners held a 2-1 corner advantage in the first quarter but it was all Smith Academy in the second quarter, as it held a 5-0 corner advantage in the frame but nothing to show for it on the scoreboard.
It was Turners’ turn to put the pressure on in the third quarter, as it drew four corners and got the ball on the Smith end of the field. That paid off after Avery Tela got the ball and smashed a shot into the circle that took a bounce off of Jaade Duncan’s stick and made it into the back of the cage with 5:23 to go to give the Thunder a 1-0 lead.
“We worked really hard for that goal,” Turners Falls coach Renee Tela said. “We pulled it together more in the second half. We just couldn’t pull out the win.”
Strong said she was pleased with the fight her team showed after conceding the opening goal of the game.
“They left it all out there today,” Strong said. “They did a lot of nice things. They could have been demoralized after [Turners’] late goal.”
The tie put a halt to a six-game skid from the Thunder, which didn’t score a goal during that span. In a Valley League that features bigger schools like East Longmeadow, Westfield and Northampton, getting to compete against a similar-sized program like the Falcons — which, like Turners, has a mix of middle school and high school players — creates a fair playing field, something both teams said they enjoyed.
“It’s nice for them to all get out there and play,” Renee Tela said. “It’s hard to get some of our sixth graders in a game against East Longmeadow. Everyone had a chance to play which was nice. They played well and were competitive. Smith has the same situation we have with half middle school and half high school. It was a good game and I thought we played well.”
Renee Tela said her young team has taken steps forward this season and has been growing with each game.
“I’ve definitely seen strides with this team,” Renee Tela said. “We’re just trying to figure out where everybody fits best and plays best where they’re so young. It’s a puzzle trying to figure it out. We’ve definitely come a long way since our first game in Northampton. We’ve improved since then.”
Smith Academy dropped nine in a row during the season — two of those losses via forfeit — but has rebounded with a win over Mohawk Trail on Tuesday before the tie with the Thunder on Thursday. The Falcons will look to keep the momentum rolling against Hampshire Regional n Friday.
“You don’t want to rack it up on another team and you don’t want to be the team on the other end of that,” Strong said. “I felt like we were evenly matched. It was end-to-end action with great goalie saves, great defensive saves, shots on goal, etc. That’s all you can ask for at the end of the day as a coach and as a player. I just want them to play hard until the end of the game.”
Turners is back in action on Tuesday, where it will play host to Mohawk Trail at 6 p.m.