The Forest Hills Varsity Field Hockey team surrounded the net in a sea of white jerseys about midway through the second half. The ball was batted around from white jersey to red jersey, off the goalie, off the post.

Suddenly, the ball squirted in at the back post off Madisyn Bunke’s stick. The cluster of white and red broke as number 8, Madisyn, jogged to mid-field followed by a string of teammates looking to celebrate.

That goal put the team up 2-1, and the combined Forest Hills team never looked back in a 3-1 win over University Liggett to push its record up to 6-1. FH had every aspect of the game clicking, especially in the second half.

The scoring started early with a tap-in on the back post from Kirsten Fentzke off of a beautiful cross from Josie David. Madisyn scored the next two goals, including a shot ripped into the upper half of the goal. They created many more scoring chances through penalty corners and crosses.

“We have a system that we use,” head coach Andrea Shaner said. “Our big thing is to get the balls down sides and into the corner where that empty space is.”

FH gained around 10 corners in the victory today. These corners were earned through quick, crisp passing and holding the ball. This lead to FH taking the ball inside the arc and getting shots off. These chances were generated through time of possession.

“I think we played really well,” junior Anna Tomsheck said. “We slid the ball nicely, we all communicated, and we were able to get the ball down to [our end of] the field. It was kept down there for the majority of the game.”

The defense wasn’t fully tested as a result of this time of possession. They had multiple pass breakups to give the ball back to their offense. Besides the first half goal by University Liggett, the FH defense was stellar.

“[The defense] had a tough task,” said Shaner, whose team plays Dearborn in their next game next Saturday. “We definitely had to adjust our defense a little bit.”

Shaner’s adjustments worked extremely well as there was only one breakdown and a second half shutout for FH. The team was extremely pleased with their performance.

“I think they played extremely well,” said junior Molly Growney, who is the starting goalie for FH. “Everything was perfect. Defensively and offensively, we were mostly down at their end the whole time, so I think we did extremely well.”