Field hockey: Lisbon and Oak Hill battle to a tie

WALES — Lisbon and Oak Hill had their chances to be victorious, but the field hockey teams settled for a 2-2 tie after two overtimes Wednesday.

“We played pretty tough, but we didn’t finish like we wanted to,” Lisbon coach Julie Petrie said. “We had a couple of close ones that we don’t put in. Oak Hill is a good team, so I am proud of us staying with them.”

Oak Hill coach Lexi Fuller said the Raiders didn’t back down for the entire 76 minutes.

“Every one of my starters worked their hardest today,” Fuller said. “We played a really tough team. We were really on point today when we needed to.”

Fuller also lauded the Oak Hill bench players, who got water for their teammates, and the subs for playing well.

The Raiders took an early 1-0 lead when Izzy Whitaker sent the ball into the circle to Madalyn Sikora, whose shot beat Lisbon goalie Sophia Cote 4:14 into the first quarter.

Lisbon responded when Avia Russo put home the ball in he back of the cage off a penalty corner 11:46 into the first. Riley Hoyle had the assist.

Petrie said that goal helped the Greyhounds’ confidence.

“We weren’t happy that they scored right off the bat,” Petrie said. “So we needed to get opportunities and capitalize on them.”

Oak Hill’s Madalyn Sikora hits the ball in front of Lisbon’s Emma Bourgoin during a Mountain Valley Conference game Wednesday in Wales. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Both teams struggled most of the second quarter to generate offense in the circle. Oak Hill broke the 1-1 deadlock 13 minutes in following their first corner of the game. Cote made the initial save, but Grace Behne put home the rebound for a 2-1 Raiders advantage.

Fuller told her players to not rest on their one-goal lead.

“I told them at halftime: it’s 0-0, and go out there like it’s a 0-0 game,” Fuller said. “(Lisbon) is never going to give up and they aren’t going to back down.”

The Greyhounds started to put pressure on midway through the third quarter. Oak Hill goalie Sierra Lane made back-to-back saves. However, at the 8:12 mark, Lisbon’s Melanie Simmons put a shot past Lane to tie the game 2-2.

“She’s scrappy, she works hard, and I was really happy that she got a goal today,” Petrie said of Simmons. “She wanted one.”

Oak Hill’s only offensive shot of the third quarter came with 10 seconds remaining, but Cote came out and made the challenge for the save.

The Raiders carried the momentum into the fourth when they received four penalty corners within the first six minutes of the quarter, but they couldn’t get a shot on goal.

Lisbon had back-to-back penalty corners midway through the fourth quarter but couldn’t get the ball past Lane.

Oak Hill had two more penalty corners in the final two minutes of the quarter but couldn’t get a quality scoring chance.

Whitaker had the best opportunity in the first overtime to score when she was on a breakaway but her shot went wide of the left post.

Lisbon peppered Lane in the first overtime with five shots and had four more chances in double overtime, but didn’t get one past the Oak Hill goalie.

“That will come,” Petrie said. “This a good game to grow, move on and keep working on finishing.”

Whitaker had another opportunity the second overtime, but her shot went wide of the left post again.

“She works really hard, and she didn’t get a sub today,” Fuller said of Whitaker. “She tried her best to get it in and I couldn’t ask for anything else.”