Bernards Field Hockey is having a fantastic season this year with a solid overall record of 13 wins, six losses and only two draws. Their overall conference-division record is 4 wins, 3 ties and only 1 loss. The team began their season with their first game away against West Morris and began a 5 game winning streak beating Lenape Valley, Franklin, North Plainfield, and Delaware Valley. The only teams able to beat Bernards were Somerville, Pingry, and Voorhees. Mia DiLeonardo, a junior and the team’s center mid player said, “Our first scrimmage we lost 10-0 against Madison and that freaked everyone out, slowly we all merged together and starting working much better as a team. Everyone expected us to not be as good as we were last year, but that just drove us to work harder and prove everyone wrong.” Mia then also talked about her team and she said “I’m proud of my team for making it to finals and I’m so excited for states.”
“We have exceeded the expectations of many,” head coach Sarah Falzarano said. “After graduating many great players, other coaches and papers thought we would not have a good season. But many players of all grade levels stepped up and filled spots that needed it and we have done very well.” Then she said that team’s biggest strengths and weaknesses are, “Strengths – no one expects us go far in states – no one expected us to go to county finals again! So the fact that we really have nothing to lose helps not only our confidence but helps other teams not take us as seriously. We really have some amazing players that produce amazing things. Weaknesses – We need to work on finishing plays, following the ball, and making great second efforts to win little plays up and down the field in order to get (and prevent!) scoring opportunities!”
The most recent states game was on Wednesday November 4th against Madison. I asked teammate Hanna Christian her opinion on the game and she said “Overall we played very solid. It was a bit of a rough game but we kept our composure throughout and played as a team perhaps the best we have all season. I’m not ashamed that we lost it was a good fight and am proud on the way we ended our season.” The team had an overall fantastic season and should be very proud of themselves for all their hard work.
