Injured Abby Martone Out: Burroughs Responds With a Win

Talent wise, the John Burroughs field hockey team is forced to partially play short the rest of the season. Charlotte Martin, their everything player graduated last spring and took her ample talents to the Northwestern University program.

The Bombers turned to senior Abby Martone for scoring and leadership. She did not disappoint, leading the team with 9 goals and 19 points, tops on the team. Wednesday in practice, she was tripped, fell and fractured her right hand. She is due for surgery as soon as some of the swelling goes down. Her season is over.

The rest of the Bombers are forced to step up. And they did nicely, shutting out Edwardsville, 1-0 at home Thursday.

Burroughs scored its only goal of the game which turned out to be the game winner at the 20:08 mark of the first half. Claire Sweetman jammed it home for the winning shot.

If goal keeper Liz Rill tells you she is 5-foot tall, she may be stretching the truth. Small in stature, she came up huge in this decisive win. She turned away an abundance of shots with a combination of kick saves and pad saves. Twice, she wandered out some 20 yards from the net to cut down an Edwardsville attacker’s shot.

“Yea, I did come way out twice, but sometimes, you just have to play aggressively,” said the senior net minder.

“Your really not supposed to use the stick because if you think about it, you have more surface area on your foot.”

Rill enjoyed the opportunity to both play with and clash with members of her Gateway Field Hockey club team. They mugged for a group shot at the conclusion of the game.

Katherine Fox played a very strong game for the Bombers. She had her own theory on the injury to Martone.

“We think its too early to tell, but today was a good indicator in times of a crisis like this we can all step up and share the work load and we’re all very good players. Everyone is capable of playing on their own. It’s just a matter of how we work together and how we communicate together.

“We have 8 seniors this year and each of us is getting better and grown so much. It is a different dynamic for us this year and it’s working well,” she said.

Proof is in the record. The Bombers are 12-3 this season, heading soon for the Midwest playoffs.