Monomoy Field Hockey Tested By Tough Schedule Against Top Opponents

HARWICH – The Monomoy field hockey team is pounding through an absolute gauntlet of a schedule, matching up with multiple out-of-division teams in a bid to harden itself before a potential postseason state tournament run.

The trial began at the outset of the season, first against Scituate and St. Mary’s — the ninth- and tenth-ranked teams in Division 3 respectively. Both games were one-score losses for the Sharks, who at the time were in the midst of figuring out who best fit on defense after losing five defenders from last year’s roster.

Monomoy then dominated against Division 1’s Wachusett and handed Division 4 No. 1 seed Dennis-Yarmouth and Division 3 No. 7 seed Lynnfield their first and only (so far) losses of the year. 

Last Saturday, Monomoy (6-3-1) did the same thing, beating Division 3 No. 3 seed Dover-Sherborn 1-0 to give them their first and only loss of the season. When it’s all said and done, only two of 18 total regular season games this year for the Sharks will have been against fellow Division 4 teams — the rest are higher-division opponents.

That slate against strong programs tests and prepares Monomoy, head coach Kyle Cappallo said. If the goal is to get to and be ready for the playoffs, there’s no benefit to crushing teams and not getting any better, only to finally start seeing tougher competition in the later rounds of the tournament.

“Whereas it's entirely possible that in Division 4, if we're fortunate enough to get to the finals, that whole road will be an easier path than any of the games we played,” he said.

Indeed, Monomoy is currently ranked as the No. 2 seed in Division 4 behind Dennis Yarmouth (5-1), whose only loss at this point in the season came from the Sharks. Among the entire state, Monomoy has the ninth-highest opponent rating — a metric calculated by the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association to measure strength of opposition.

Still left for the Sharks on their challenging quest toward the playoffs is undefeated Division 2 No. 12 seed Longmeadow, Division 2 No. 16 seed Duxbury, undefeated Division 2 No.1 seed Hingham and Division 3 No. 23 seed Swampscott. There are also rematches with Dennis-Yarmouth and undefeated Division 3 No. 2 seed Sandwich (to whom Monomoy lost 1–0 last week). 

“We think we can be competitive with pretty much any team that we have on the schedule this year, so we're just not thinking too far down the line,” Cappallo said. “We're just thinking to the next game. What do we need to do to position ourselves better, to give ourselves chances to win each game? And that's kind of how we approach it.” 

The key to being a perennially high-ranked field hockey team, as the Sharks are, is having a young core brought in and developed on varsity each year, thus staggering the talent through each of the classes, according to Cappallo. The Sharks, to be sure, have that, with seniors like Sam Clarke, Tessa Grodzicki, Jillian Dittrich and Lauren Henderson, a junior class with Emery Cappallo and Kate Huse, sophomores Sophie Larivee and Maddy Swett, and freshman Mia Zimmerman.

On senior day last Saturday, Monomoy outlasted Dover-Sherborn, who entered the game undefeated, in the summer-like heat. Gracen Burrill whipped in the decider off an assist by Cappallo midway through the third quarter. Swett in goal made 11 saves. 

Dover-Sherborn looked to have put in the equalizer right at the start of the fourth quarter, but the play was called off after officials ruled the ball had gone out of bounds. A tough game against a tough team, Cappallo said.

“We got the breaks when we needed it,” he said. “We got the one goal that we needed.”

The win showed that the Sharks could beat the hard teams, Clarke said.

“We just play hard, and we all just show up for each other, too,” she said.

Along the formidable track on which they’ve set out, Monomoy has also passed multiple milestone markers. Clarke recorded her 100th point last week against Nauset, and Monday against Falmouth, Emery Cappallo scored her 100th point and Swett made her 200th career save.