Walpole is now the number one team in the state, according to The Boston Herald.
By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter
When asked what her team’s record was after a rather routing victory over Milton, Porker head coach Jen Quinn hesitated to remember how many games the team had won.
Well, she was really trying to remember how many games the team had played, because those two numbers are the same. At the time of print, Walpole has played eight games, and they’ve won all eight.
Milton was in the game for a while. In the first quarter, a Kerin Birch goal off a pass from Senior Captain Caroline Whelan was the only ball to see the back of the net, which gave Milton some hope as they headed to the sideline down only 1-0.
The second quarter was when the Wildcats started to lose hope. After a Lindsey Jacobs goal off another Whelan pass, Walpole really took over the game. Another assist from Whelan, this time to Lauren Wong, resulted in Walpole leading 3-0 with a little five minutes left in the half.
The closest Milton would come to a goal was in the third quarter, when a Wildcat went five-hole off a corner into the back of the net. Their sideline erupted, only to find out that the goal wouldn’t count because they never took it out of the circle. Dejected, Milton couldn’t muster much more of a defense and Walpole’s Caitlyn Naughton added two fourth quarter goals, including one off an assist from - guess who - Caroline Whelan, to cruise to a 5-0 win.
While many coaches of dominant teams may have opted to give the clichéd “lot to work on” speech after the game, Quinn instead acknowledged her team has been playing very well.
“I actually thought my girls looked great. We’ve been working on our transfers and so some of those things we’ve been trying to put into play they did today, and it looked pretty nice. So that was good. And we’re trying to set the goals for ourselves - like making that right cut - they did a good job.”
When asked who stood out to her, Coach Quinn pointed to Lauren Wong, who had to adjust to a positional change before the game.
“Lauren Wong has been doing a great job. She’s one of my side wings and I moved her from the right to the left today. And then, my two senior captains, Caroline Whelan and Jess Tosone, they’re fantastic, good athletes. And my goalie has made a couple key saves over the year.”
When pressed on what her message to the team was, going forward, Coach Quinn talked about the goals the team has set for itself, mainly to improve their communication, swinging the ball and their off-the-ball movement.
“We’ve been talking about individual and team goals, so kind of setting those goals for themselves and checking them off as they meet them and moving on to the next ones. Always trying to get better. As a team we’ve been talking a lot about communication and swinging the ball and off-the-ball movement. So, I think those have been three key goals for us as a team, with communication being the biggest.”
