High School Field Hockey: Eastern’s Mission was a Success Wednesday, November 9, 2005 By Joyce Sagerty SJSports Special Correspondent The Lady Vikings from Eastern has an impressive record. Six consecutive conference championships, six consecutive sectional championships, six consecutive state champions and have been labeled as the number one team in the nation for the past three years. The Vikings would take their 18-1-2 record before this game and go for lucky number seven. Head coach Danyle Heilig's field hockey team has demonstrated what it takes to continue that success and keep that winning tradition at Eastern. Against the Minutemaids from Washington Township, Heilig was not too pleased with her team’s performance during the first half. The Lady Vikings would respond in the second half and defeat Washington Township 5-1 and advance to their seventh consecutive sectional finals. Washington Township controlled the play early in the first moments of this game. The fifth seeded Minutemaids were playing like they were the number one seed and had several chances to get the game’s first score. Goal keeper Lyndsie Johnson would come up with some big-time saves to keep those chances from entering the cage. Eastern would finally get their first possession into Township’s end of the field, but the Minutemaids would turn the possession back into their favor and were looking at another scoring opportunity. By this time, there were some concerns from the home team’s bench as they were not use to being the team back on their heels. Eastern would finally calm the fans down a bit when they scored with 23:49 on the first half clock when Meghan Bain hammered in her shot off a rebound. Stephanie Carney would expand Eastern’s lead and the Vikings would lead at the half 2-0. Washington Township would begin the second half the way they started this game, deep into Eastern’s end of the field. Yet again, the Vikings would prevent them from scoring. Jessica Allen, Katie Amundsen and Jen Bolger would score the next three goals giving Eastern a commanding lead. The Minutemaids would avoid the shutout when Nicole Muracco scored late in the game. Photos by Art Redd