EUREKA – During the Gateway Classic earlier this month, the Ladue field hockey team was deadlocked in a scoreless tie as the final seconds ticked away.
Before the final horn, the Rams resigned themselves to accepting the result, let their guard down and absorbed a buzzer-beating goal and a heartbreaking loss.
“That stuck with us for a minute,” junior captain Samantha Hillman said. “It was upsetting that we lost in the last few seconds of the game, but as a team, we learned to stick with it and not give up.”
Perseverance was a major theme Saturday, as Ladue continued its stellar play in a 4-0 victory over Eureka at Eureka High School.
Ladue (7-6), which received goals from four different scorers, won for the fourth time in its last five contests and surpassed the .500 mark for the first time this season.
After a scoreless first quarter, Ladue earned its first penalty corner and made it count. Junior Whitney Rygmyr, who earlier had been denied on an excellent save by Eureka goalie Colby Durbin, received the insert and rocketed another shot towards the cage.
Durbin stopped it with her right pad and also stopped a rebound attempt from freshman Charlotte Wilson, but Wilson stayed with it, attempted a second shot and scooted it past Durbin to give Ladue the lead.
“It’s important to get that first shot off,” Rygymr said. “It raises the team’s energy and intensity when we can get shots, get rebounds and get it in the goal.”
Ladue sophomore Victoria Derdoy unleashed her booming shot on the Rams’ second corner opportunity. After accepting the insert, Derdoy’s initial blast was blocked, but she gathered the rebound and fired a scorcher that Durbin denied with her right pad.
“I thought (the corner attempt) was going in and it got stopped, but instead of letting it get to me, I just tried to get the ball back,” Derdoy said.
Derdoy regained possession in the midfield less than a minute later, dribbled into the circle and flicked a shot inside the left post to build a 2-0 lead for Ladue.
It was the 12th goal of the season for Derdoy and eighth in the last six games. Her torrid streak began on Sept. 12 with a goal against Villa Duchesne, a school she once attended, and continued with two-goal performances against Summit, Lindbergh and Parkway South.
“We have a really fast team, and we use each other’s speed to get the ball up, so it really comes from my teammates. I’ve just been in the right place,” Derdoy said of her recent goal-scoring tear. “And I think a lot of it comes from just wanting the goals. I’m really competitive and I like to score.”
The Ladue speed was evident when junior Kate Myckatyn raced with the ball through the midfield and dished a pass to freshman Annie Tilghman, who snuck a shot underneath Durbin to bolster Ladue’s lead to 3-0 two minutes before halftime.
Eureka (1-8) made an adjustment in the second half, and led by sophomore defenders Mia Cunelo, Addison Proffitt and Amelia Weick, the Wildcats began to limit the Rams’ transition opportunities.
“Ladue is so fast, probably the fastest team we’ve seen this season, and there were a lot of fast breaks and a lot of unsettled play,” Eureka coach Melissa Menchella said. “(Our defenders) haven’t seen speed like that, but I thought they did a good job adjusting to recover for each other.”
In the fourth quarter, Hillman became the fourth Ram to put a checkmark in the goal column. On a Ladue corner opportunity, she accepted the insert from junior Zoe Tenenbaum and delivered a perfectly-placed shot to the edge of the cage.
“On corners, I always focus on receiving first and then looking for the left or right post. I want to get it in every time or get a good shot for my teammates to tip,” Hillman said.
Hillman recalled a Pilates class Ladue players took part in earlier this season as a team bonding activity.
“It was really hard. We suffered together,” Hillman said.
It was not unlike the suffering the Rams endured at the buzzer of their 1-0 loss to Casady (Okla.) at the Gateway Classic on Sept. 2.
In both instances, the Rams became stronger.
“That game taught us to play until the play is over and hustle until the last whistle,” Derdoy said.
And with Derdoy’s goal-scoring ability, relentless team speed, and a never-quit attitude, Ladue is peaking as the calendar turns to October.
“I feel like we have a fire in us,” Hillman said.