This morning, with a whistle blown on the same fields where Tracey Fuchs, head coach of your current NCAA field hockey champion Northwestern, played her prep ball, a panoply of games will begin.
Today, from 9:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., there will be five state finals in New Jersey and four in Maryland. There will be a panoply of quarterfinals in Pennsylvania, the New York and Virginia state semifinals, and playoff action in Delaware, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. The cherry on top is the championship final of the Open Division bracket of the CIF San Diego Section.
In play today are nine teams within our Top 11. When we write a story involving one of them, we’ll bold the first sentence. There will be storylines playing out all day long, and we’ll try to keep tabs on them here on the blog. Just make sure you hit “refresh” every once in a while to see what is going on below.
The first game of the day is the NYSPHSAA Class A semifinal between Cicero-North Syracuse (N.Y.) and Clarence (N.Y.). Both are from the “snow belt,” where sudden snow showers are possible from mid-October through mid-April. Clarence is 18-0 on the season, while C-NS is 15-2. As an institution, CN-S should know a thing or two about championships, as the school was the host site for the field hockey semifinals and finals for a time.
The game is on, with C-NS on the front foot and looking for a goal shot, but Clarence, which has a dozen shutouts this year, is holding fast.
But what’s this? Clarence gets its first corner and the L1 option shot is knocked wide.
In Bordentown, N.J., the first of five NJSIAA finals are about to start. In Group I, you have West Long Branch Shore Regional (N.J.), winners of 17 state championships and the last three on offer. Meanwhile, West Deptford is coming back from a period of time a couple of decades ago when they didn’t have enough to field a varsity team. It is the Eagles’ first state final since winning the 1996 state title.
That game has started already, and the teams are trading possessions in the midfield. But Shore cuts out a diagonal and leads to a free hit in a promising position for the Blue Devils.
But now, West Deptford has a penalty corner. The 1-Up is saved and the ball hits a Shore foot.
Back over in Centereach, we have C-NS taking a 1-0 lead over Clarence as the other New York Class A game between No. 6 Northport and Scarsdale begins on a nearby pitch. Northport has a 55-game win streak, which includes last year’s state final; the previous year, the Tigers won their section but there was no state tournament to win because of the Coronavirus.
There is an unusual concentration of girls’ sports talent at the school, as the lacrosse team has done very well the last three years. Scarsdale, playing its best hockey in a couple of decades, was invited to the National High School Invitational, but went 0-3 on the weekend against some very tough competition.
There was a delay to start this match because Northport’s goalkeeper did not have a helmet with a throat protector. But Northport has opened the match with full gas, getting a penalty corner in the second minute, but the inserter duffed the pass and the entire play was lost. Yes, you do have to realize that we are watching 14- to 18-year-olds.
In Bordentown, West Deptford has taken a 1-0 lead as Eva Mikulski was able to arrive at the same time the ball got into some open space in the goalmouth, and she scores to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead. The crowd, with a sizable WD student section, erupts!
Interesting bit of trivia: the West Deptford school campus was gifted an enormous bronze eagle statue from a Strawbridge & Clothier department store in the midst of the chain’s bankruptcy shutdown
Shore gets a penalty corner now, as the clock ticks down to under four minutes in the first half. Maggie McCrea cranks in her 42nd of the season, and it is 1-1.
While we’re here, and games are now at the half, I want to point out that today is the final league fixture of the 2022 season. That is, a regularly-scheduled match not leading to a playoff.
It used to be that Hightstown Peddie School (N.J.) and Blairstown Blair Academy (N.J.) would play their league game the Saturday before Thanksgiving, as part of Peddie-Blair Day. But that date has been moved up two weeks, meaning that the latest league game currently being played is today’s game between Philadelphia Penn Charter (Pa.) and Fort Washington Cermantown Academy (Pa.). Penn Charter is leading this game 1-0 in the first half.
A nice sweep shot by Christina Wagner, her second of the game, gives Cicero-North Syracuse a 2-0 lead over Clarence in the New York Class A final.
But right after that, C-NS gets a two-minute green card, which pushes Clarence forward. Clarence gets a PC and the team gets a goal on a penalty corner! It’s a power play goal!
Cicero-North Syracuse leads 2-1 and it’s all to play for!
Meanwhile, McCrae has scored another! Her brace has given Shore a 2-1 lead in the 36th minute of the New Jersey Group 1 final; timeout, West Deptford.
But only a minute and a half later, West Deptford ties it up! This should be interesting.
They’re about to start the Maryland 4A final between Annapolis Broadneck (Md.) and Potomac Winston Churchill (Md.). Undefeated Broadneck has the stands of Stevenson University’s stadium jammed; the motorcade taking them to the college was reflected in a traffic report this morning.
Winston Churchill has not won a state championship since 1983. The Bulldogs were an early rival of Severna Park when it came to state honors. But while SP has 25 state titles to its credit, Churchill has had four decades of heartbreak.
We’re under four to go in Bordentown as Shore and West Deptford are tied at 2-2. West Deptford is on the front foot here, getting two late penalty corners but are not able to get a shot on goal on either of them.
But what’s this? Shore gets a PC in the final half-minute. THe Blue Devils with the Brooklyn start to McCrae and the ball just went wide of the cage! We’re going to overtime!
Back at Stevenson, Md., we have a goal for Broadneck on a penalty corner as the Bruins take a 1-0 lead. It’s one move towards an undefeated season.
As we head to overtime in Bordentown, one thing to note: without a Tournament of Champions, the probability of a co-championship after a drawn game after overtime has quintupled.
And let’s take a look at yesterday’s NCAA octofinal round. Half of the games went into overtime, and only one of those ended in a conventional goal from a corner or from field play. The other three were from a penalty stroke and two penalty shootouts.
I have an uncomfortable feeling that, somewhere, the four most discouraging words will be announced over the public-address system: “Co-champions shall be declared.”
West Deptford has had some delicious chances, but Shore’s goalkeeper has been awesome.
While one of the New York Class A semis finished 3-1 in favor of C-NS, we’re going to overtime in Centereach as Scarsdale and Clarence are tied 0-0. The team are exchanging possession ans looking for some kind of opening.
Northport gets its eighth corner in Minute 67, but Olivia McKenna was thwarted by the Scarsdale goalkeeper.
Two minutes later, McKenna with a Zig-Zag corner to beat the goalkeeper and win the semifinal! Golazo! That’s 56 wins in a row for the Tigers in a hard-fought effort.
We have a goal from West Deptford off the stick of Natalie McGivern on a penalty corner in the 78th minute! McGovern is being carries off the field by her teammates! What scenes on the field! It is the first state title for West Deptford in 26 years!
Shore Regional had its chances in extra time; barely two minutes before, the game was on McCrae’s stick, but the Eagles defense has been stout.
Back to the Maryland 4A title game, and it’s Broadneck doubling its lead, scoring to make it 2-0. The Bruins are not resting, and are pressing the advantage in the third quarter. Broadneck has gotten a couple of corners, but have not gotten a third goal. We head to the fourth with the Bruins up two.
It looks like the New Jersey Non-Public final is about to take place. Despite the late finish of the previous game, Oak Knoll and Camden Catholic were able to warm up on the adjacent turf. The site has enough turf for three simultaneous games if need be.
Camden Catholic is the side that stopped Pottstown Hill School (Pa.) from having an undefeated season; Oak Knoll was one goal from winning the final Tournament of Champions game in a Garden State Firm classic against Voorhees Eastern (N.J.).
The interesting matchup: U.S. women’s national team member Olivia Bent-Cole against Oak Knoll’s penalty corner defense.
The Virginia High School League’s Class 6A semifinal has already drawn first blood, as Fairfax (Va.) has taken a 1-0 lead over Stafford Colonial Forge (Va.). The Lions have a record of 22-1-1; they went 1-1-1 at the National High School Invitational.
