Eastern solves Lenape field hockey riddle

There are different ways to play against the Eastern field hockey team, and nobody has found the right one for about a decade.

Often teams try to pack in their defense against the Vikings, the 10-time defending state Group 4 champions and last season's Tournament of Champions winner.

For the longest time yesterday, the strategy worked for Lenape. But as had been the case with so many opponents, Eastern finally found the opening and barreled through the door.

After leading by just 1-0 at halftime, Eastern scored six goals in the second half, all with under nine minutes remaining in yesterday's 7-0 victory in the opening game for both opponents in the Olympic Conference's American Division.

Eastern, ranked No. 1 in South Jersey by The Inquirer, received an offensive explosion from a familiar source, senior Kelsey Mitchell.

The Iowa-bound Mitchell, last season's Inquirer South Jersey player of the year, scored four goals, giving her 106 for her career.

"It was tough when they were playing their team back like that, but we eventually adjusted and got it going," Mitchell said.

Mitchell scored the lone goal of the first half, and when she increased the lead to 2-0 with 25 minutes, 8 seconds left in the second half, it appeared as if the Vikings were ready to break the game open.

But the Indians hung tough until the goal barrage began when Cory Allen scored with 8:40 left. In addition to Mitchell, Julia Osisek and Jaclyn Beasley scored.

"For the longest time, our team played out of their minds," Lenape coach Sarah Moretti said. "Then we forgot that the game is 60 minutes and not 50 minutes."

This was a good opening test for Eastern, seeing a team more interested in stopping goals than mounting an attack.

The Vikings are likely to see plenty of different defenses as teams go to any measure to find an answer to the Eastern offense.

"It was frustrating because they were dropping everybody back," Eastern coach Danyle Hailig said. "But once we made adjustments and looked up the field more instead of trying to make the safe possession pass, it opened things up for us."

Lenape 0 0 - 0

Eastern 1 6 - 7

Goals: E-Kelsey Mitchell 4, Cory Allen, Julia Osisek, Jaclyn Beasley.

Saves: L-Denise Thompson 10, E-Alana Barry 1.