October 23, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Mount hockey falls in league final
by TOM UTESCHER

Mount St. Joseph Academy’s four-year reign as Athletic Association of Catholic Academies field hockey champion officially came to an end last Friday evening, when the Magic bowed to Villa Maria, 5-2, in the AACA championship game at Cabrini College.

A successful penalty stroke gave the Mount an early lead, but Villa answered almost immediately, going on to lead 2-1 at halftime and 4-1 in the middle of the second period. The Magic pulled back within two goals with 13 minutes remaining but couldn’t score again, and the Hurricanes netted their fifth goal in the final minute.

Mount St. Joe (12-5 overall) now moves on into the District 1 Class AAA tournament, where the two-time defending champions are seeded sixth this year. Villa, having gone 14-0-1 against AACA opponents (including playoffs) and 16-1-1 overall, is the top seed in the double-A class.

“It’s hard to beat someone three times,” noted longtime Hurricanes coach Maurene Polley. “When you beat them twice during the [regular] season you want to really finish it out, but it doesn’t always happen that way.”

The Mount’s Lois Weber, who coaches the Magic along with Tina Reinprecht, acknowledged, “They’re a strong team and they outplayed us in the game. They were aggressive and very quick going to the ball.”

Villa had prevailed in both regular-season meetings between the teams, winning 4-0 at the Mount, and then sinking a late goal to take a 1-0 decision in the rematch out at Malvern. The third setback reflected in the Magic’s 9-3 tally in the AACA was a 1-0 loss to Merion Mercy while MSJ co-captain Julia Reinprecht was away playing for the U.S. Under-21 Team at the Pan-Am Junior Championships in Mexico City.

Mount St. Joe had beaten Merion earlier, and the Magic secured the second seed for the playoffs behind Villa Maria. Merion, which had lost to Villa in one game and tied them in the next, also had a win and loss against Gwynedd Mercy, netting a 9-3-1 mark good for the third seed. In the semifinals last Tuesday, Villa dispatched number four Gwynedd, 4-1, and Mount St. Joe beat Merion, 3-0.

In the first half, the Magic’s Nicole Franzen assisted the opening goal by Allie Sabia, and then scored herself off a corner insertion by Sabia’s twin sister, Brooke. The third goal came with 20 minutes to go in the game, when a cross by Franzen was deflected by the Merion goalie and Reinprecht popped in the rebound. Mount keeper Kat Matchett made eight saves for the shutout, and the Magic took eight penalty corners to just one for the Golden Bears.

Friday night’s final had just gotten underway when the Villa Maria crowd erupted, as a shot was heard striking the backboard of the Mount goal. It was a false alarm, though, as the officials determined that it was a kick, not a stick, that sent the ball into the cage. Instead it was the Magic who would draw first blood, thanks to a penalty stroke that was awarded when a Mount shot was blocked at the goal line by the leg of a Hurricane defender.

The resulting shot by Reinprecht glanced off the left post and into the goal, giving Mount St. Joe the early lead with 23:07 left in the opening period. The advantage lasted for one minute and 44 seconds; Villa charged up on the attack and from high in the circle Kathy Young hammered in the tying goal. A little later a lift shot by the Hurricanes’ Olivia Maggitti struck the MSJ crossbar, and at the far end of the pitch Villa goalie Anna Zarkoski (seven saves) made a stop on a shot from the left by the Mount’s Jen Sabia.

As the clock ticked down from 15 to 10 minutes, the Magic were on offense much of the time, but seldom forged far into the scoring circle. Having come up with the tying goal right when they needed it, the ‘Canes struck again at an opportune moment, carrying the momentum into the intermission by scoring with just 14 seconds left in the first period. On a penalty corner, M.E. Bolles received the ball and pushed it down low to set up a short deflection shot by Katie Briglia.

“That was kind of disheartening, because we were thinking we’d go into halftime still tied 1-1 with them,” Weber remarked.

Each team had taken two penalty corners in the opening half, but Villa had outshot the Mount, 8-2.

The Hurricanes earned the first three corners of the second half, and had a near miss at the right post on a shot by Sam Ostoich. With 17:25 on the clock, the same infraction that gained the Magic a penalty stroke in the first half now went against them. Villa’s Maggitti converted high on the left for her team’s third goal, and just three minutes later Sera Berlacher scored from the midst of a passel of players, putting the Hurricanes up 4-1 with 14:21 to go.

On several corners from the right of the cage, the Magic put the ball in play farther out to the right, and then sent it across towards the opposite post, looking for a deflection or tip-in. They didn’t score directly with this tactic, but on their second attempt they kept the ball in the Villa circle and Reinprecht punched it in with 13:03 remaining.

Mount St. Joe continued to attack for much of the next seven or eight minutes, and Villa’s Zarkoski made kick-saves on shots by MSJ’s Nicole Schuster and Nicole Franzen.

“They had a little spurt there and put us back on our heels for a while,” said Villa’s Polley, “and it’s always nice when you’ve got that extra goal.”

Weber revealed, “One thing we shared with the kids later was that it was unfortunate that by the time we hit our rhythm we were in a pretty deep hole.”