By Jim McConnell
special correspondent

After watching her players repeatedly squander scoring opportunities during the first half Tuesday against Prince George, Trinity Episcopal field hockey coach Margie Snead knew the Titans’ 2-0 lead should’ve been much larger.

Trinity added two more goals in the second half to complete a 4-0 victory and reach the final of its own four-team, season-opening invitational tournament.

Still, Snead wasn’t satisfied.

While Prince George and Colonial Heights squared off in the consolation game, Snead gathered her team together in the student commons and emphasized the fundamentals that so often make the difference between merely generating chances to score and turning those chances into goals.

Obviously, the players were listening. Trinity scored three times in the first six minutes against Powhatan, led 5-0 at halftime and cruised to the championship with a 10-0 victory.

“This sets the bar. This is the team we can be,” Snead said following the trophy presentation. “After the first game, we talked about how our passes have to be sharper and more purposeful, how it’s not enough to just get people into the circle but people have to be in the correct places. We did all that in the second game.”

As she did against Prince George, junior Caroline Fletcher needed less than three minutes to give Trinity a lead in the final. Freshman Lauren Cravens converted a breakaway to make it 2-0, then junior Sage Parker and Fletcher hooked up for their second goal of the game with 19:16 left in the first half.

While her players jogged back toward their own end of the field, a beaming Snead turned and addressed those on the bench.

“OK, that part about finishing and being in the right spot … we’re doing much better at that,” she said.
Trinity decimated Powhatan’s defense several times with lightning-fast counterattacks launched by sophomore Abby Carls, who earned tournament Most Valuable Player honors for her dominant performance at center midfield.

Fletcher, Cravens, Parker, sophomore Alex Upadhayaya and junior Whitney Hyatt were the main beneficiaries of the Titans’ snappy give-and-go passing. Each scored two goals as Trinity outshot Powhatan 16-3 and kept freshman goalkeeper Christina Boyles under constant pressure.

“I think the frustration helped us,” Cravens said. “We had our opportunities and in the next game we made sure we got them.”

Even more encouraging for the Titans was the fact that all 21 players on the roster got into both games, and the team maintained its high level of play despite frequent substitutions.

“We’re gelling as a team and starting to trust each other,” Carls added.

With only two seniors on the roster, the impressive start can only help Trinity’s confidence as the season marches onward.

“This tournament was to see what kind of team we can be,” said junior Nina Stinson, who helped lead Trinity’s defense to back-to-back shutouts. “Today proved we’re going to be one heck of a team.”

Trinity placed four players on the all-tournament team: Carls, Cravens, Upadhayaya and freshman Cammie Lloyd. Powhatan was represented by juniors Maddie Zatkulak, Jennifer Redmond and Sarah Bennett, while Prince George (Hannah Taylor and Kristalea Sheaffer) and Colonial Heights (Paxton Rosser and Megan Benton) had two players apiece.