Robyn Gawlak’s Hat Trick Powers Fourth-Seeded Norwood Field Hockey Past Bridgewater-Raynham-November 4, 1994

Playing Through Foot Injury, Senior Forward Scores All Three Goals in Div. 1 South Sectional Opener

Robyn Gawlak, the leading scorer on Norwood High School’s field hockey team, was planning not to play yesterday. Gawlak has been experiencing pain in her right foot for a week and did not start in the Mustangs’ first-round tournament game of the Div. 1 South Sectional. But she came off the bench with a hat trick, powering fourth-seeded Norwood to its 3-1 victory over Bridgewater-Raynham. Norwood will now host fifth-seeded Durfee at 2 p.m. tomorrow.

Earlier this week, Gawlak thought she might have a stress fracture. She went to the doctor Tuesday, was informed it was a sprain and told she should consider not playing against B-R. She talked it over with coach Sharon Steih and they decided she would only play if it was necessary. Gawlak, it turned out, was in the game early, after a Norwood injury. She responded with her 29th goal of the season on an assist from Jennifer Gillis at the 15-minute mark of the first half.

Gawlak put the Mustangs up, 2-0, midway through the second half on an assist from Kerry Lyons, then scored her 31st goal with seven minutes left, assisted by Melissa Montesano. Steih then removed Gawlak from the game and the senior forward got to ice her sore foot. “(The foot) hurts,” said Gawlak, “but once you’re in the game, you don’t notice it that much.” She said she would see how it feels today before deciding what role she will play against Durfee.

Even with the injury, the team’s top scorer was still ready to burst down the field on a breakaway at any moment. “She’s really quick and she’s goal hungry,” said Steih, whose team improved to 17-2. “She always knows where she is in the circle and she’s not afraid to pounce on the rebound when it comes out.” Gawlak, a Patriot Ledger All-Scholastic who is in her third season of field hockey after playing soccer as a freshman, was more eager to praise her teammates than credit herself. “It was a case of being in the right place at the right time,” said Gawlak, “but I got two nice setups (on the first two goals) from my teammates Kerry Lyons and Jenn Gillis. A lot of cutting with the other teammates helped, because usually it’s crowded and we kept it pretty much open. It worked out really well.”

B-R’s goal came on a scramble in front of the net when Leah Varney slammed in a score with five minutes left in the game. Despite Gawlak’s performance, Steih believes her team will have to perform much better if it is to make a run in the sectionals. The Mustangs started slowly, which may have been due to the six-day layoff between their last regular season game and yesterday’s first-rounder. “We are definitely going to have to improve,” Steih said. “I don’t think we played one of our better games, but I give Bridgewater-Raynham a lot of credit. They played very well. They were quick to the ball and got great goaltending.”

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger