It’s very difficult to sustain a quality program at the high school level, particularly for a small school.
But the New Hope-Solebury field hockey team has been doing just that.
The Lions shut out host Cheltenham by a score of 10-0 on Monday to continue their winning ways in the Suburban One League Freedom Division.
It was the fifth win in a row for New Hope and the fourth in league play, all shutout victories.
The Lions scored early and often, with Mia Gomolinski finding the cage in the first few minutes of play. Gomolinski scored again on a corner, and Avery Mendola put one in on a direct corner from Sophia Cozza. Ava Cozza took a ball from Mendola and put it in the net, and the Lions led 4-0 after one quarter.
They added two in the second quarter, as Sophia Cozza scored with an assist from Gomolinski and Gomolinski scored again to give New Hope a 6-0 halftime lead.
In the third quarter, Madie Thistlewaite put one in on a direct corner from Sophia Cozza for the Lions’ only tally in that frame.
New Hope finished off the contest with three more goals in the fourth quarter by Ava Cozza, Kat Thistlewaite on a corner from Mendola and Gomolinski capped off the day with her fourth goal of the game.
“We all work so well together, and we’re mostly younger players,” said Gomolinski, a junior forward. “We only have three seniors and four juniors. The rest of our team is all underclassmen and they all stepped up so much. When you have a team as small as ours, whenever you graduate people, it’s a loss, but I feel like each year new people come in and step up.
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