Katherine O'Hanlon's all-around play leads Garden City field hockey to victory

Katherine O’Hanlon plays just about every position for Garden City field hockey.

Need her to defend? She’ll be there. Need some shots and timely passes? She can do that, too.

The sophomore patrols the midfield, not allowing passes to reach the defense and pushing the ball through for offensive chances.

That style of play was on display Saturday as visiting Garden City (6-1) defeated Massapequa, 4-0, in a rainy Nassau I match.

“We really study (our) mistakes, and we make drills out of those mistakes,” O’Hanlon said. “We really worked on splitting the defenders on the right side and then getting it down low and crossing it. We just practiced that over and over and over again, and it became in our repertoire.”

O’Hanlon, who normally plays on the right side of the field, controlled her area, splitting Massapequa (1-8) defenders with stick handling and precise passes to set up scoring opportunities. Three of the four Trojans' scores came off corners.

Sophomore Catalina Suau led the team with two goals. Her first came with 10:54 remaining in the first quarter. Suau was among a cluster of Garden City forwards in front of the net when she scored unassisted.

O’Hanlon scored the second goal of the game just two minutes later via a corner. She passed the ball to junior captain Arcangela Haffner, who sent it right back to O’Hanlon for a slow-rolling shot that found the net.

Suau scored her second goal of the game with 7:38 left in the second quarter off an assist from Haffner. Stephanie Morgan, a senior, scored two minutes later off an assist from O’Hanlon.

“You just have to see the gap and you have to time it perfectly,” O’Hanlon said of her passing. “You try to fake out your defender and try to get in between them, and then you try to get the fastest sweep you can into the middle.”

Garden City tallied 13 corners, all of which came in the first half. Massapequa earned just one corner late in the fourth quarter.

 Garden City coach Lauren Lavelle said the rain in the second half made scoring much more challenging. Madeline Mitchell and Ellie Rosato combined in goal for the shutout.

"I think at this point of the season, our team is really coming together nicely and connecting,” Lavelle said. “We have been having beautiful stick-to-stick passing, and we were opening up the field nicely .”