Athlete Of The Week: Samantha Clarke

HARWICH – As the pressure of the postseason ramps up, each goal becomes a little more valuable.

For the third-seeded Monomoy field hockey team, it was sophomore Samantha Clarke that helped the Sharks get off to a fast start during Saturday’s Division 4 state quarterfinal against No. 11 Clinton.

With less than a minute remaining in the first quarter, Clarke buried a rebound off a Monomoy penalty corner to give the Sharks a crucial 1-0 lead. The team never looked back, adding two more insurance goals en route to a 3-0 victory that propelled Monomoy back to the state semifinals for a third straight year.

“It felt really good,” said Clarke, a Harwich Port resident, of her goal. “It was really good to celebrate with my team. It definitely hyped us up a lot and felt really good.”

Clarke’s heroics helped Monomoy move just one victory away from reaching the state championship. After reaching the state semifinals the past two seasons, Clarke said it felt great to advance back to the Final Four yet again.

“Since we’ve done it two times in a row, it’s really special to come back here and rebuild that,” she said. “We definitely took a lot of time to build ourselves up to where we are, but it feels great.”