Jess Frew, Northern Lehigh's field hockey coach, offered a couple of reasons her team didn't play very well against Lehighton on Saturday.

They might have been tired from playing three games in three days. Possibly the field surface affected them, since Lehighton has grass and the Lady Bulldogs stadium is turf. The game was in Lehighton.Whatever it was, the Lady Indians defeated their opponent, 2-1, in a game that didn't seem so close.Lehighton took a 2-0 lead on a penalty stroke and then a lightning, right side blast by Lauren Marks.With just 1:21 left in the opening segment, the Lady Bulldogs added a point when Kassandra Beller whooshed the ball past the Indian goalie from the right.That point by Beller was the only shot on goal during the first half for Northern Lehigh.By comparison, Lehighton had 11 shots on goal in the half, four of them by Marks.For the game, the Tribe took 19 shots compared to just two by their opponent.The first point of the game came when Maddie Teno got a free penalty shot and sent the ball into the net without goalie Veronica Green even touching it.Very little time was spent on Lehighton's defensive end of the field in the first half. A lot of the credit belonged to Emma Sawyer, Lehighton's left midfielder who stole the ball eight times. She had a total of 10 steals during the game.Marks was also strong, taking five shots on goal in the first half (six total), making four steals, and, of course making that decisive goal.Jenna Beck had six second half steals for the Indians.The Indians' coach Karen Wall said she was understandably pleased with the first half performance."They were talking, they were communicating with each other," she said. "And they could move the ball up and down the field all-together as a team.""Lehighton has great passing and they're on grass," said Frew. "We're a turf team. I feel like they're a little bit stronger on the grass. This grass is super soft and super thick. Sometimes it's a disadvantage for us playing on a field that's thick, while we're used to something that's slick and fast."SEEKING WINNING SEASONS ... Both teams have a good chance of finishing the year with a winning season. The Indians are now 6-2-1. Northern Lehigh is 4-4-1.WHO SHOULD HE CHEER FOR?... Watching the game was Gary Schoenberger of Lehighton, father of Northern Lehigh Coach Jessica Frew. Both Schoenberger and Frew were Lehighton High School graduates and outstanding athletes at Lehighton.CORNERED ... Another indication of how one-sided offensively the game was for Lehighton was the number of corners. The Indians had 12 of them while Northern Lehigh had just four.SO MANY GAMES IN SO LITTLE TIME ... Frew feels that having three games in three days was a definite factor in how her team played. She said, "I don't like to make excuses but I would have liked to have seen us be a fresh team for this game because I knew they were going to be a very good team."