By ERIC RUEB

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

NORTH KINGSTOWN – It was opening day, but it might has well have been the last game of the season. Championship-caliber field hockey from teams that know a thing or two about winning titles.

It probably wasn’t ideal for North Kingstown to face Barrington – who’s titles in 2005 and ’06 are sandwiched between NK’s 2002-04 run and last year’s title – but the Skippers took the first step in their Division I title defense with a 3-1 overtime win over the Eagles.

“We hadn’t really talked about the opponent,” NK coach Julie Maguire said. “We were concentrating more on the aspects of the game we were practicing, so maybe it wasn’t Barrington as much as it was the first game of the season.”

“I think it was good for us, just a chance to get out,” said NK’s Cassie-Raye Stuart, who scored the go-ahead goal in overtime. “We were all pumped to play. It was good to start out with a different team for once than the one we always start out with.”

The scheduling quirk happened because the Interscholastic League pushed back all team’s usual opening day opponents – for NK it was Lincoln – to the final game of the season and made Game 2 the new opener.

While the change wasn’t that big for most teams, it pitted the two best field hockey programs in the state against one another in a matchup better fit for midseason than opening night.

And it was fitting that Stuart, the spark of the NK offense last season, scored the go-ahead goal 2 minutes, 53 seconds into overtime on a pass from Victoria Dolce, who later assisted on an insurance goal from Alexis Ward with 4:22 left in OT.

While North is known most for its defense, the 2007 Southern Rhode Island Field Hockey MVP has a knack for scoring and will be relied upon to score for the Skippers this season.

“More than anything (Stuart) brings speed and she has an uncanny ability to put the ball in the net,” Maguire said. “Some kind of sense.”

“I have no idea. I don’t know,” Stuart said about her offensive talents. “Right place at the right time I guess.”

The offense wasn’t just Stuart.

North Kingstown managed a solid attack most of the game and took 19 shots and had 15 penalty corners. If the ball bounced a little better for the Skippers, it could have been a blowout, but n only three of 15 corners wasn’t a huge concern for the team.

“It hasn’t been an aspect of practice we’ve worked on yet. It’s something you build on the entire season,” Maguire said. “It’s nice to have 15 penalty corners – which means you had 15 opportunities inside their circle – and if you didn’t convert it to a goal, at least you converted it to a penalty corner. The next step would be take 15 corners and convert them to more goals.”

North played atypical to last season, using a strong defense to keep Barrington off the scoreboard. The Eagles managed only 11 shots and six penalty corners, converting only once on a loose ball early in the second half.

“I was happy with the defense. I think we were being beat to the ball a few times though, especially in the first half. The second half, defensively, was much better for us and they have a couple nice players on the right side, No. 9 (Hillary Anderson) and No. 7 (Kelsey Perkins). They’re real nice players so you have to find a way to mitigate their offense.”

Goalkeeper Melissa Barry played a big role in keeping the Eagles off the scoreboard, redirecting passes in front of the net and making big save after big save.

Maguire spoke highly of her senior tri-captain, remembering her big game as a sophomore against the Eagles where she made 35 saves and how she always seems to play well against Barrington.

But for Barry, there’s nothing special about Barrington that makes her play harder – it just seems that way.

“I don’t think it’s one team in particular, it’s every team,” said Barry, who finished with 10 saves. “We want to push ourselves the most that we can and I guess it shows.”

Maguire did say there were things she wasn’t happy about in the first half of the game the team managed to fix a little in the second half, and she was pleased with the performances of her bench, namely Ward, junior defender Hannah Farrelly and junior defender Nancy Heidt.

So things worked Tuesday, there are 15 games to go in the long season. Game two is this afternoon at Cumberland.

Tuesday’s win, however, will not be lost on the Skippers.

“I think it was good for us, just a chance to get out. We were all pumped to play,” Stuart said. “It was good to start out with a different team for once than the one we always start out with.”

Barrington        0          1          0          -           1

North Kingstown          1          0          2          -           3

First half: NK, Catherine Brennan, 18:45. Second half: B, Hillary Anderson (Rebecca Maddock), 27:10. Overtime: NK, Cassie-Raye Stuart (Victoria Dolce), 7:07; NK, Alexis Ward (Dolce), 4:22.

Penalty corners: Barrington 6, NK 15. Shots: Barrington 11, NK 19. Saves: Barrington 9, NK 10.