The Northampton field hockey team bounced back from an opening day 3-1 loss to Liberty by pounding East Stroudsburg North 9-0 last Thursday and beating Stroudsburg 3-1 on Saturday.

The Mountaineers entered the season coming off a 2018 campaign that saw them reach the District XI 3A semifinals. In the young 2019 season, they had outscored their first three EPC opponents by a combined 25-0.

Junior forward Bri Sell opened the scoring just 2:45 into the game when she came out of a scrum in front of the Stroudsburg goal with the ball and slipped it past the keeper. Sell’s excitement after the game was evident as she remarked that it was the Kids’ first win over Stroudsburg in her Northampton career.

Neither team scored over the next 27:15 and the first half ended 1-0.

Junior co-captain Morgan McEntire knocked in a shot into from the right side of the 25-yard arc to give Northampton an insurance goal with 14 minutes remaining in the game.

Sell tallied her second goal of the contest when she collected the rebound off the Mountie goalie’s pads and found herself one-on-one with a wide-open net. The satisfying thunk off the backboard signaled a 3-0 lead for the Kids.

Stroudsburg ruined the shutout with a nicely tipped shot with seven minutes left in the game.

Northampton keeper Cassie Borzillo kept the margin at two with the biggest of her eight saves with 3:28 left on the clock.

Postgame, head coach Carrie Saul awarded the Offensive Player of the Game to Sell and the Defensive Player to sophomore Taylor Kranzley.

Saul emphasized the importance of the win the over Stroudsburg.

“This is a great win,” she said. “We wanted to build on our 12-win season last year and this was a game that we lost (last season) and we turned this one around. If we can turn a few more around, we’re going to be in business.”

The remaining Kids’ schedule is heavily backloaded. Over the next two weeks they only have one home game out of six total, Saturday morning against Freedom.

However, those games are against teams that Northampton should beat. They figure to own an 8-1 record before EPC powers Easton and Emmaus come to visit on Sept. 21 and 24 respectively.