If you control the draw, you control the game.

Highland’s Caitlin Becker has been taking the draws for her team for only two years, and she controlled her 100th draw on April 9 during the Huskies’ 17-2 win over the Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks at Highland Middle School.

“I knew it was coming, but it felt good because I only started doing the draw like two years ago,” Becker said. “It feels good to get 100 after only doing it for a little bit.”

Her ability to take the draw was a big reason the Huskies were able to win by 15 goals to get their first win of the season. She took all the draws in the first half, won six of them, and limited the Goldbacks’ offensive opportunities.

“If we have that ball, we can dictate the tempo,” Highland coach Ian Becker said. “I don’t like being put in the position where the other team dictates the tempo. So, the more ball control we have, he better we are.”

Caitlin Becker didn’t factor as much into the scorebook as she did the Huskies’ ability to possess the ball and dictate the tempo. She scored one goal.

Leah Klotz did most of the offensive damage, scoring six goals. Logan VanZandt had three goals and Kelcey Whalen and Quinn Ahrenholz had two goals each.

“This felt very good and very exciting,” Klotz said. “I feel like we went into it very energetic, so it definitely came out on the field. We definitely picked it up in the second half a lot more than the first.”
However, they did well in the first quarter.

The Huskies took control of the game immediately when they put their first goal on the board just 51 seconds into the game for a 1-0 lead, but the Goldbacks tied things up about two minutes later.

Klotz followed by coming around the back of the goal to give the Huskies the lead for good with 7:45 left in the first quarter.

Then with 5:30 left in the quarter Danica Valente scored what turned out to be the game-deciding goal with 5:30 left in the first quarter, after taking a pass from behind the cage, giving the Huskies a 3-1 lead.

Logan VanZandt scored two more goals in the quarter and Caitlin Becker’s only goal gave Highland a 6-1 lead after the first quarter.

The Huskies added two more goals to start the second quarter before Newburgh’s Vivian Gage scored a goal with 5:45 remaining in the second quarter.

“I think they played and executed well,” coach Becker said. “We didn’t know what to expect and we didn’t play NFA last year. This was their first game, so we came out with the same intensity that we had against Goshen last week, and we let our players dictate the tempo of the game.”

The afore mentioned Goshen game was a heartbreaker for the Huskies, as they dropped a 9-8 double overtime decision.

However, it drove the Huskies into their home opener.

“We practiced really hard for the past couple days, and I feel like the loss against Goshen made us try harder because it was double overtime,” Klotz said.

“It was a sudden death, so we had to really try hard and it really got us all worked up and excited for the game today.”

Klotz caught fire in the second half with five more goals in the third quarter as the Huskies put the game away.

“Every game she gives everything she has,” coach Becker said. “She’s sable to get in front of that crease and get the ball past the goalie a majority of the time.”

The Huskies finished the week with a home game an 11-10 loss to the Saugerties Sawyers on Thursday.

“The team’s coming together really good,” Caitlin Becker said. “We’re looking better than last year and hopefully by the end of the year, we can get that gold medal.”