RYE – Field Hockey New York

Rye had an enjoyable and successful day out at the 2nd annual Drew University 7-a-side Tournament. With just four teams competing, the tournament followed a round robin format with each side playing each other twice. Rye got off to a sloppy start in its first game against a Tristate team playing a man short. Rye dominated for much of the match, but conceded two soft late goals to end up with a disappointing 3-3 draw. Rye picked up its first win in the following game against the New York Islanders. A combination of good finishing and a well chosen fill-in keeper gave Rye a comfortable 5-2 victory. Against a skillful Malvern side, Rye was pushed all the way in an open, attacking third game. After looking the more likely winner for most of the contest, Rye conceded two quick goals due to defensive lapses to find itself behind 6-5 with 3 minutes to go. However, two well taken penalty corners by Chris Cheetham, the second after the final whistle, gave Rye a thrilling 7-6 win.
The most complete performance of the day came in Rye’s return match against the Islanders. Rye demonstrated the effectiveness of a well executed simple passing game on the Drew University pitch to easily prevail 6-1. With the withdrawal of Tristate, Rye just needed just a draw from its final game against Malvern to secure the title. That result looked unlikely when Rye found itself 3-0 down with less than 10 minutes to play, but after a goal each from Cheetham and Stutz, the determined comeback was completed when Stutz converted his second goal of the game with just 90 seconds left on the clock to level the scores.

Rye FHC: Stutz, Cheetham, Tiku, Singh, Torres-Puyalto, Kalasch, Von Thein, Khadapkar.