Red Hawks repeat Division II crown

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WEST SPRINGFIELD — Jordyn Roberts watched from the bench when older sister Kacey scored the golden goal in the 2011 Western Massachusetts Division II Field Hockey Tournament championship game.

On Saturday, it was the freshman’s turn to score the title game-winner for Frontier Regional School.

Kacey’s performance “was definitely something to live up to because I want to be like her,” Roberts said. “Going out and doing that today was special because I want to make her proud.”

The Red Hawks added a late insurance goal to defeat Mohawk Trail Regional High School, 2-0, at Clark Field.

Frontier (14-4-1) moves on to play central Massachusetts champ Oakmont Regional High School (17-0-3) of Ashburnham, which defeated Littleton High School, 2-1, in its sectional title match. The state semifinals are back at Clark Field at 5 or 7 Wednesday night.

“We’re so excited,” Red Hawks senior defender Amy Hanas said. “We want to come out on top of that one. (Playing at West Side) will feel like home.”

With the victory, Frontier became the first back-to-back western Massachusetts Division II champion since winning the titles in 2004 and 2005.

Kacey Roberts, who is now attending Keene State, scored the championship goal in last year’s 1-0 double-overtime win over Smith Academy.

On Saturday, Jordyn Roberts collected a feed from Taryn Marquis at the top of the circle and blasted her shot past goaltender Cassie Kudlay (six saves) with 24 minutes, 37 seconds remaining in the game.

“When I heard it hit the back of the net, I was just so happy,” Roberts said. “I jumped in the air. I’m just a freshman. I never thought that would happen.”

The younger Roberts, who played on last year’s team as an eighth-grader but was on the bench for the 7-on-7 championship-game overtime, got her freshman year off to a fast start with four goals and an assist in the team’s first five games, but was slowed by a midseason ankle injury and has not felt right until the tournament began.

“You could see it today,” Frontier coach Missy Mahar said. “She was finally making the runs and the cuts that she needed to be making. It’s good to see her back at 100 percent at this time.”

Roberts ran into some more bad luck late in the first half, when she got a hard whack on the knee from Kesheal Henderson and had to leave for the final 6:35 before halftime. But she returned in the second half and came through with the goal.

“For her to come back, ice, listen at halftime and power through, that’s all about heart and work,” Mahar said. “I’m very proud of her to come out and show that.”

Mohawk (8-7-4) picked up the pressure after the goal, carrying play for the next 10 minutes and earning three corners. But the Warriors never got a shot on Red Hawks goaltender Gwen Thayer, who did not have to make any saves.

The Warriors “kept the press on and kept the pressure up,” Mahar said. “We talked about it being all about composure, about making the least amount of mental mistakes and not getting frazzled, because that’s what they are hoping to do to you. I’m proud that they held their own. There were a couple of shaky runs, but they held it together.”

After struggling to get the ball out of its defensive end for some time, Frontier finally called time out with 7:31 left and settled down from there. Less than three minutes later, the Red Hawks earned a corner and converted to double the lead. Brenna Sicard entered the ball from the left side to Sydney Judge up top. Judge then sent the ball to her left to Rose Moscaritolo, who put it in with 4:41 remaining.

“That was real exciting because we had been kind of struggling with our corners,” Mahar said. “We’ve been getting our injection out, but on the initial shot and second shot, it hasn’t really been working. It was great to get one today and will give us more confidence going into that state semi game.”

Oakmont ended Frontier’s season last year with a 1-0 overtime win in the state semifinals.