Steinert’s Hannah Hart drives toward the net with Nottingham’s Oliva Benton giving chase. Photo by Wes “The Media Mogul” Kirkpatrick.
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
Apr. 12: The Steinert girls’ lacrosse team has had some impressive scorers over the years, but the best one yet may be playing right now.
Junior Hannah Hart scored five goals today to lead the Spartans to a 15-5 victory at Nottingham. Hart was joined by sophomore Emily “Mini Melt” Paternostro, who also scored five times.
Michaela Donnelly of Nottingham picks up a pass against Steinert. Photo by Wes “The Media Mogul” Kirkpatrick.
Notice we’re not saying which one may be the best scorer yet. That could take a while to decide.
In two-plus seasons, Hart has 88 goals while in one-plus campaigns, Paternostro has 32.
“I think we work really well together in the middle,” Hart said. “We’ve actually been playing with each other since we were in the third grade. We were very in unison, we worked well together already, and coming out here we were able to work well in the midfield.”
Barring anything unforeseen, Hart will become the first Spartan girl to score her 100th goal during her junior season.
“She’s a very smart player and she’s obviously experienced,” coach Lorraine Heisler said. “She had that (experience) coming in as a freshman, that’s really helping us out. She’s going to be crushing records. That’s awesome.”
The coach was quick to note she has other scorers as well, and Hart is eager to set them up.
Nottingham’s Amelia Duffy and Steinert’s Hannah Hart give chase to open ball. Photo by Wes ” The Media Mogul” Kirkpatrick
“She’s able to also find other players and assist well too,” Heisler said. “She’s able to read the field. She’s good either shooting at the net or helping set somebody else up.”
Hart scored in a variety of ways today. Just what is her secret?
“I honestly don’t think I have one,” she said. “I just go for it. If I can’t make it, then they can get someone else to score. We have lots of options.”
Paternostro and Hart gave Steinert a 2-0 lead. Amelia Duffy scored the first of her two goals to make it 2-1 before Paternostro and Hart did it again. Michaela Donnelly then scored the first of her
two to cut it to 4-2. It was 7-3 at the half, and Steinert pulled away by scoring six of the game’s final seven goals.
Ashley Goimbert added two goals for Steinert, while Kaylie “The Lifeguard” Skillman, Madison Padilla and Katie O’Boyle had one each. Erin Kopec had assists while Heidi Martz made five saves. Jezenia Sanchez also scored for Nottingham, while first-year goalie Giuliana Pocino put on a show with 15 saves for the Northstars.
Pocino came out to help first-year coach Matt Paglione – who has the Northstars playing hard – and is looking like someone who was born in the goal.
Guliaiana Pocino in net for the Northstars. Photo by Wes “The Media Mogul” Kirkpatrick
“She played awesome,” Hart said. “She did great, she really cut off all of her angles. She did very well.”
But Steinert had what it took, as the Spartans have won three straight since an opening-day loss at Lawrence.
“I think we’re enjoying it,” Heisler said. “We’re finally able to get outside and able to work on stuff we need to work on. We’re trying to take it one game at a time and not look past anything. We’ve had all our divisional games and we now know what to expect from those teams, and we know they’ll come back harder the next time. We know what to work on, and we gotta just keep playing our game.”
