Martlets Win Opener

The Martlets hosted Northfield Mount Hermon on 3/27 at Hovey Field for their season opener. The contest opened with the Martlets controlling most of the play in Q1. Owen O’Farrell ’24 opened the 2024 season scoring with a terrific goal in transition after Drew Knight ’24 forced a turnover.  The Martlets came right back to make it 2-0. However, we struggled to find the back of the net and NMH capitalized on some unforced errors late in the quarter to tie the game at 2-2. The turning point of the game came in Q2 when NMH was penalized for an illegal stick, and we were awarded with a 1 min non releasable extra man opportunity. We scored 2 quick man-up goals on terrific shots from Owen O’Farrell ’24 and Jackson Alpaugh ‘24, followed by another 4 to extend our lead and go into halftime with an 8-2 advantage. The Martlets came out strong in Q3 scoring 7 goals to NMH 0. Q4 was more evenly matched as we took our foot off the gas and began to rotate in players given our 3 games in 4 days schedule. NMH outscored the Martlets 4-3 in the final quarter. We also took unnecessary penalties. While the final quarter stung, we learned a lot about our preparation and approach very early in the season. Top performers include,  AJ Kraus ’26, 88% FO win %, Owen O’Farrell ’24,  4-1, Jackson Alpaugh ’24, 5-0, Jake Carbone ‘24 2-1, and Reid Bulger ‘24 1-2 round out the top scorers. Jackson Raymond ’24 was strong in goal posting 5 saves, Drew Knight ’24 scooped up 5 GBs, 3 caused turnovers and went 1-1, and Ben Norten ’25, 4 GBs and 2 caused turnovers. Overall, a good first win of the season. Much to improve upon. Belmont Hill next.