By Harry Lichtman
GAITHERSBURG — On a sunny Monday afternoon, the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Barons varsity field hockey team looked dominant in their 4-0 shutout road victory against the Gaithersburg Trojans.
The Barons were able to keep the ball in their possession and prevent clears from the one-win Trojans. A few shots on goal went wide early on for B-CC, until multiple players scrambled for the ball near Gaithersburg’s net and B-CC forward Nora Pulizzi knocked the ball in for the 1-0 lead.
Junior forward Delia Blumberg had a multi-goal game for the Barons. Her first score came late in the first half, while her second tally came in the second, when she knocked the ball out of a pile and past goalie Olivia Boughton.
While Blumberg scored the second and fourth goals, junior midfielder Gabi Schumacher got credit for the third tally of the afternoon, which came early in the first half.
B-CC head coach Colby Wright was very impressed with her team’s performance. “We have a lot of different people scoring goals every game,” Wright said. “It’s not the same person scoring, so that gives us more weapons than most teams that have just one main scorer. We kind of spread it out throughout our team.”
Gaithersburg struggled throughout the game, as they were able to carry the ball past the center line only occasionally, only to get pressured by the Bethesda-Chevy Chase defense and turn the ball over.
The Trojans were not even able to attempt a shot on goal, which was good enough for Barons’ junior goalie Emma Volkers to claim the shutout.
Gaithersburg senior defender Meghan Subt suffered an ankle sprain and left the game in the second half. According to Trojans head coach Elliott Shiotani, however, Subt should be fine to play the rest of the season.
Shiotani kept his head up after the shutout loss. “B-CC is a good school,” he said. “We don’t have a huge team this year, and two of their goals came when our best player [Subt] got hurt; they sort of scored right away after that. But overall, I’m happy with their performance.”
While Boughton was the one in net to face multiple shots and allow goals, she did make a few saves in the afternoon.
“She was not supposed to be my goalie this year,” Shiotani said. “My senior returning goalie ended up not being able to make the team.”
Boughton was originally the JV goalie who got called up for varsity. “She’s been doing very well this year,” Shiotani said. “She still has a little bit to learn, so I’m glad that she’ll be coming back next year.”
The Barons improve to 5-3 with the win and will host the Kennedy Cavaliers on Wednesday, Oct. 10 at 3:45 p.m., while the Trojans fall to 1-8 on the season and will continue to search for their second win when they host the Blake Bengals at 7 p.m. that same day.
“I feel that our team is peaking at the right time during the season,” said Wright. “We had a rough start, but I think we’re coming together, playing together as a team when it counts.”