(The Pulse is an online feature in which Glory Days staff catch up with an area coach to gauge where their team is at the moment, which players are exceeding expectations and what fans can expect the rest of the season.) By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Publisher Egg Harbor Township field hockey coach Jen Costa made her team run three extra sprints at practice today, one for each of the goals 
Egg Harbor Township center back Courtney Richard, right, has been the top defender for Eagles coach Jen Costa all season, and Costa said Richard has become a complete player, increasing her skill level to match her aggressiveness. (Glory Days Magazine photo/Dave O’Sullivan) Mainland Regional scored on the Eagles during Wednesday’s 3-2 loss in Linwood. Costa doesn’t want her team to forget their first loss of the season and hopes that defeat will refocus her squad and motivate her players as they steam toward the state playoffs as one of the best teams in South Jersey. The loss to Mainland (11-2, 9-1 Cape-Atlantic League American Conference) was the first of the season for EHT (9-1, 7-1 CAL American) and Costa said it might turn out to be a positive. No longer do the Eagles have to worry about how long they can stay undefeated. And a little bit of humble pie is always good for a team that is used to just showing up and winning every game. “It was difficult with it being our first loss of the season, but after thinking about it now the pressure of being undefeated is off,” Costa said. “Mainland ran all over us. They wanted it more than us.” Costa said she wasn’t shy about reminding her team during today’s practice about what happened Wednesday, her intent being to plant a seed in her players’ mind that on any given day they could lose and if it happens in November their season is over. “I know that the girls are going to bounce back,” Costa said. “At practice (the loss) was still a hot topic. I kept asking them ‘how many goals did Mainland score?’ And they kept saying ‘why do you keep bringing that up?’ It’s because I don’t want them to brush it off like it was nothing. I want it to be a wake-up call. I don’t want them getting cocky like nobody can beat them, and that’s what I was afraid of when we got to 9-0.”
Despite the loss, EHT has the type of team that can make some noise in the sectional playoffs and maybe surprise some higher-seeded teams. They already have beaten Mainland and Ocean City this season and have the CAL’s leading scorer in Mackenzie Meyer, a University of Delaware-bound senior who scored her 20th goal of the season against Mainland. Courtney Richard has really come into her own as a defensive center back, Costa said, and goalie Brianna Magner has been solid all season, notching 12 saves against Mainland on Wednesday. “Richard and Magner, I mean, if Courtney wasn’t in the back end I don’t know what we would do. She’s running all over the field every game,” Costa said. Costa said that Richard always has been a very aggressive player but now, as a senior, she seems to have put it all together and gotten her technical skills on par with her tenaciousness and non-stop motor. “She’s been playing varsity since her sophomore year but this year her thing is ‘this is our year.’ She is showing more skill stick-work wise,” Costa said. “Now her skill is coming together with her aggressiveness and she’s becoming a more complete player, where as before she was more of a ‘don’t mess with her because she’ll knock you down’ type of player.” The Eagles face a tough stretch in their schedule the next week and a half as they will be on the road until Oct. 21, when they return home for Senior Day. They are scheduled to face Millville on Friday, weather permitting, and Hammonton on Monday in a 10 a.m. start. Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays.
