Journal photo / Carolyn Thornton
Jess Perkins, left, and Julie Ruggieri, right, are co-captains of the 14-0 Barrington Eagles field hockey team.

The Barrington field hockey team kept its perfect record intact this week with victories over Lincoln High and Tiverton. We caught up with senior co-captains Jess Perkins and Julie Ruggieri to get their thoughts on what the defending Division I champions have accomplished thusfar.

Question: There seems to be a core of athletes who have been contributing to Barrington's success both in field hockey and lacrosse over the past two seasons. What do you think is working so well for you?

Julie Ruggieri: ``I just feel like we have a really athletic grade and we all click so well. We're so used to playing with each other, we have great stick skills and we know where each other is.

Jess Perkins: ``A lot of us were on varsity as freshmen and we didn’t have a lot of upperclassmen in front of us, so we have been playing together for a long time at the varsity level. Off the field, we hang out on the weekends and we’re all pretty close. We know where everyone’s going to be and we communicate really well. It’s just fun for us to play together.’’

Although Barrington came away with a 2-1 win over Lincoln High on Monday, the Eagles co-captains said the game served as a wake-up call, as it was the first time they had ever trailed in a game. The Lions were leading, 1-0, at halftime on a goal by Katelyn DiSano before Ruggieri and Hillary Anderson scored in the second half to give Barrington the win.

Jess Perkins: ``At halftime, it was a little more intense than most games. We've noticed that we've come out sort of flat before sometimes in the first half, and I think this really was a good representation of that, and that's something that we really have to work on going into the playoffs. A lot of teams get up to play us, so we really have to get motivated for each game no matter who we're playing.''

Julie Ruggieri: ``It showed that we can be beaten if we let down that much and that we really need to stay motivated in order to make it to the championship.''