NEWINGTON - The Newington field hockey team took one step closer to post season tournament play with its 3-1 CCC win at Wethersfield’s Cottone Field Thursday, Oct. 9.

       â€�"I’m very pleased with our effort tonight. We’re 6-4 now, so we’re getting close to qualifying for the tournament,” said Indians coach Paul Macchi. â€�"That’s our goal, as it has been every year. That would be huge for us because we haven’t gotten to post season play in four or five years. We know that if we work together we can make it happen, so each day that is what we try to do--we work hard so that we can win games and make it to the tournament.

       â€�"We’re scoring and working well on transitioning the ball up the field,” Macchi said of the Indians, who have already exceeded their 2013 victories and goals scored. â€�"I’m happy with where we are but we will continue to work hard and get better each day.

       â€�"Six of our first eight games have been played at home, so we’re used to playing on grass. It took us a while to adjust to playing on turf tonight. It’s different playing the first half of the season at home and the rest of the games away, but my girls are ready because we want to make the tournament, so wherever we have to play, we will. It doesn’t matter to us,” continued Macchi.

       â€�"This was the first game where our opponent scored first and then we came back to win, so I’m extremely proud of my team. I saw a fight in the girls that I hadn’t seen in a few games and I think it will help us going forward this season,” Macchi said.

       Wethersfield was â€�"super excited to score the first goal and get the first jump out,” Eagles head coach Courtney Fleming said of sophomore Evelyn Devaux’s shot past Newington goalie Neve Manion 10 minutes into the game. â€�"Evelyn is a great offensive player who’s been our leading scorer this year as well as last year.

       â€�"We held Newington for about 23 minutes, and then they had a lot of pressure on us and we needed to collect ourselves and continue on with the rest of the half,” Fleming added.

       Indians’ senior midfielder Macee Buckley scored her first goal of the season on a hard shot after the ball rebounded off WHS goalie Vanessa Carbone to deadlock the score at 1-1 with 7:04 left in the first half.

       The visitors tallied the game winner off a corner, 2:55 later, when senior McKayla Pratte inserted the ball to forward Karlene Welles, who crushed it.

       â€�"Their #8 had a powerful shot and there’s nothing you can do about that,” Fleming said of Welles, who scored her seventh goal of the season against the Eagles.

       Newington struck quickly to tally its final goal, 1:09 into the second half, to salt away the 3-1 victory when sophomore McKenna Gerander passed the ball to the center of the circle, where forward Hope Mowchan was waiting.

       ”Having three different players score in this game was huge. I’m happy to see that multiple people are able to score, which makes us much harder to defend,” said Macchi, who’s coached field hockey for nine years, the last seven at the Newington helm.

       â€�"Neve Manion has worked hard to earn her spot as the varsity goalie in her first year playing field hockey. She’s doing a heckuva job and has really stepped up. Neve’s intense and goes after the ball. She’s starting to feel more comfortable with the rest of the defense so she’s kind of taking over. Her strength is her willingness to listen and learn,” Macchi said of the sophomore, who finished with a trio of saves while Carbone, her Wethersfield net-minding counterpart, totaled five.

       â€�"I think we played really hard and didn’t give up,” said Fleming, a Wethersfield alum who played four years of varsity field hockey. â€�"We play until the last second no matter what. We’ve played a lot of tough teams this season and we’ve learned how to fight. That shows a lot of character. Our girls never give up. They keep pushing forward.”

       Sophomore Jessica Roberts also drew praise from Fleming. â€�"Jessica did a great job coming out on the corners, playing hard defense with her stick down and going strong. She and Taylor Scutari anchor our defense in front of goalie Vanessa Carbone. 

       â€�"Newington had a lot of hard shots coming in off corners and Vanessa played well for us in goal. She was really light on her feet, moving from side to side. She’s made great progress and has shown a great deal of motivation to improve. She’s gotten much faster around the goal, better clears and communicates more on the field,” Fleming said.

       â€�"Wethersfield does not have a youth field hockey program. Many of the girls are playing field hockey for the first time.We came in focused and ready to improve our stick handling, passing, positioning and conditioning, so the improvement from the first day of practice to now has been impressive.

       â€�"We’ve had stretches in each game where we’ve played sound fundamental field hockey. Our goal is to avoid lapses and letdowns and get a solid 60-minute effort in our final five games,” Fleming said as she and the Eagles look for their first win against 11 losses. â€�"We’ve got some good competition coming up so we have a great opportunity to finish the season strong. I think tonight against Newington was the start of a new season for us.”