By ALEX SPONSELLER The Toll Gate field hockey team has gotten off to a stellar start to the season, jumping out to a 3-0 league record and a 3-1 record overall.

The Lady Titans cruised past Chariho 3-1 last weekend to improve to 3-0 on the season. Hope Flaherty led the way with a hat trick on the senior night showdown.

“It’s been fantastic, I’m really happy for the girls. The thing that I have been trying to tell them, it’s a coaching cliché, but I keep telling them that we just need to get better every day and every practice. Every game we have gotten better which is a testament to their hard work. We’re playing good field hockey. We have three weeks on our schedule and have already qualified for the playoffs. Any season that ends in the playoffs is a good season,” said Toll Gate coach Jim Areson.

Areson credited his senior leaders for the hot start and hopes to see them continue to shine as the Titans enter the meat of their regular season schedule, which includes two showdowns with undefeated Classical.

“They have done a tremendous job, practice has been going really well, the whole season is unique. But they’ve settled in and the confidence is rising every day. That has to do with senior leadership starting with Meaghan McCamish and Sara Rhodes, all of them have been awesome and doing a fantastic job. I just want us to get to the finish line, that’s the goal,” said Areson.

The Titans have also been a force defensively, allowing just one goal in their three victories.

“It’s been a total team effort. (Toll Gate goalie) Meghan Merrow has been playing much better the last few games, but we defend as a team and we score as a team. But our effort as a team has been excellent. No one has outworked us yet which makes me incredibly happy. What you can control is your effort and they’ve done a really good job of that,” said Areson, who also hopes to see the team’s offense stay hot down the stretch.

“We scored three goals which we need, I would like us to score over two goals a game. So hopefully we can do that and sustain pressure more on the offensive end,” said Areson. “If we can get better with those two things then our season could very well end on a high note.”