Milestones keep falling for Schalick field hockey; Alward sets single-season assists record, establishes 20-20 Club; team scoring record hits 100 goals with three 20-goal scorers
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
PITTSGROVE — The Schalick field hockey team is such an offensive juggernaut it has reached a point in the season where they seem to hit some kind of milestone every time they take the field.
The unbeaten Cougars reached three individual milestones and hit 100 goals on the season Wednesday in a 7-0 rout of Salem in their final regular-season game before the playoff cutoff date.
The seven goals extended their single-season school record for goals to 100 on the nose. They’ve outscored their last three opponents 26-1.
“We always struggled scoring,” Cougars coach Heather Cheesman said. “We always struggled in past years just getting the ball in the cage and this year they’re killing it scoring-wise. We’re very strong in offense, we’re very strong on defense and I just think collectively they just play very well together.”
Individually, Phoebe Alward set the single-season school record for assists during the game and became the first member of the 20-20 Club, at least under Cheesman’s watch. Luci Virga scored twice to get her 20th goal of the season and give the Cougars three 20-goal scorers in the same season for the first time.
And, of course, Ava Scurry extended her single-season goals record with two more and had an assist. She has 36 goals this year and 56 in her career, which is six shy of the school record.
“I’m happy for all of them,” Cheesman said. “They work so hard and they work so well together. They’ve been playing together for years, like since they were like 10. Maybe even younger. They’ve been playing together for a while.”
Alward scored her 20th goal of the season (and 40th of her career) in the second quarter to give the Cougars a 4-0 lead and her four assists gave her 22 for the season, breaking the previous record of 20 set by Marisa Rizzo in 2010. The junior is two assists shy of joining the 40-40 Club for her career.
“To be honest, I just do what I need to do to get our team going and just to win,” Alward said. “I love doing both (scoring and assisting).”
“Phoebe is just an all-around good player, so she does set up a lot of stuff on the field,” Cheesman said. “She is very generous because she is capable of taking the ball down, doing her stickwork and scoring on her own, but she does set up a lot of stuff on the field, so she’s a team player. I think it’s great she’s hitting these milestones. She deserves it. She’s work hard for it.”
In the best set of statistics publicly available, the Cougars have had only six 20-goal scorers before this year since 2010. The 2011 team had two of them.
Virga became the third Cougar player to notch 20 goals this season when her second goal of the game gave her team a 5-0 halftime lead. The sophomore has 29 goals in her career.
“I kind of knew it was coming up, but I don’t really pay attention to those kind of things,” she said. “I just want our team to win. I want everybody to have an opportunity to do everything. Goals are really important, but it’s also everything that comes into the goal, like all of our great passing and coming down the field as a team.”
At 16-0-1 the Cougars are one of only four remaining teams in the state without a loss and the only one in South Jersey. They are currently No. 2 in the South Jersey Group I power points standings, behind No. 1 Shore and a half-point ahead of No. 3 West Deptford. The cutoff is Saturday.
Schalick 7, Salem 0
| Salem (7-5-1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0- | 0 |
| Schalick (16-0-1) | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0- | 7 |
SCORING
SCH-Ava Scurry (Phoebe Alward), 11:17 1Q
SCH-Luci Virga (Phoebe Alward), 7:29 1Q
SCH-Addi Shimp (Luci Virga), 4:26 1Q
SCH-Phoebe Alward (Ava Scurry), 14:20 2Q
SCH-Luci Virga (Phoebe Alward), 4:07 2Q
SCH-Caylen Taylor (unassisted), 12:11 3Q
SCH-Ava Scurry (Phoebe Alward), 6:51 3Q
Riverview Sports News 