This story originally ran in The Standard-Times on Oct. 30, 2002.

By Nick Tavares
Standard-Times correspondent

LAKEVILLE -- The Apponequet girls field hockey team took a tie score into halftime, but Wellesley took over in the second half, winning 4-1 and effectively eliminating the Lakers from the preliminary round of the state tournament.

"We hung with them for a half," said Apponequet head coach Cindy Cuthbertson, "but they outshot us 22-5, so when that happens it usually isn't in your favor."

Wellesley got things started with a goal at 26:48 of the first half, but ten minutes later Courtney Pare answered back for Apponequet (8-7-3) when she was able to take a pass from Meghan Couet and put it in the back of the net.

Wellesley basically took over the rest of the half, controlling the ball and forcing goalie Samantha Gauthier to make some diving saves to keep the game close at the half.

"I was very pleased with the first half," said Cuthbertson, "the way we hung right with them, especially when they scored first and we came right back and tied it.

"If I had had more time-outs, I would've used them, not because we were playing scared but because we were sitting back on our heels a little bit and we need to try to out-hustle them to the ball, and to their credit they out-hustled us in the second half."

Both Gauthier and Melissa Mastrangelo both saw time in net, but Gauthier saw the majority of the tough shots and made more than a few close saves, totaling 16 for the evening.

"I would like to compliment Sam. She kept us in the game for a long time."

The Lakers' best scoring chance came with about three minutes to play when they were already down 4-1. Beyond that, they were unable to apply much pressure towards the Wellesley net in the half.

Catherine Sorrentino had two goals on the day for Wellesley, including what would prove to be the game winner at 21:00 of the second half.

Wellesley had almost full control of the ball in the second half, taking many of their shots off of penalty corners and taking the ball from the Lakers as a result of a high hit, while Apponequet got only three shots off.

The Raiders dominated penalty corners, taking 17 on the day against Apponequet's two.

This story appeared on Page C1 of The Standard-Times on October 30, 2002.