FIELD HOCKEY: Saline Advances to the Quarterfinals with 3-0 Win Over Hartland

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Payton Maloney scored twice and Ella Talladay also scored as Saline defeated Hartland, 3-0, in the Michigan High School Field Hockey League playoffs Wednesday at Hornet Stadium.

Saline has advanced to the Division 1 quarterfinal. The Hornets will play Bloomfield Hills at Pioneer Oct. 24. Bloomfield Hills defeated Pioneer, 2-0, to advance. The two teams did not face each other in the regular season.

Coach Sophia O'Connor was pleased by her team's play against an aggressive and athletic Hartland team. Hornet Stadium and the auxiliary stadium were being used for a middle school cross country run and a football practice, so the field hockey team couldn't get its usual warmups in.

"We had a little shorter warmup today. We had a little bit of a rocky start, but we faced that adversity and came back and won 3-0. We played them earlier in the season and we knew how they played. They have an aggressive team with a lot of lacrosse players. It was a tough battle," O'Connor said.

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Saline opened the scoring in the first quarter on goal by Ella Talladay.

"Payton was at the top of the circle. She sent it in and I ust tipped it in with my stick," said Talladay, who also helped set up Maloney's goals by playing in corners.

The all-important gave Saline a cushion as they found their game.  At points in the second quarter and early in the third quarter, Hartland carried the play.

Midway through the third quarter, the Hornets turned on the jets.

"We realized we needed to want it more," Maloney said. "We felt like they were wanting it more than us and knew we wanted to kick it up if we wanted to win this game."

The Hornets applied all kinds of pressure and had several corners but couldn't add to their lead. Finally, with time expired at the end of the third quarter, the Hornets made good on a corner.

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Talladay played it in to Maloney, who passed to the right to Claire Arvai. Arvai drew a defender to her and then passed back to Maloney, who spun around her check and then put the shot past the keeper.

"It was a big goal. I think it helped us kick up the intensity," Maloney said.

Nearly the entire fourth quarter was spent in Hartland's zone.

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Maloney scored on another corner - in similar fashion. Talladay played the ball in. Maloney took the pass from her right, spun around her defender and then scored.

Maloney it was important to capitalize on the penalty corners.

"It's easier to score on corners because there are less girls in the circle. Against Skyline, the only goals we scored were the two corners we got. So the execution to be able to do it here is good. We need that to translate to the other games," Maloney said.

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