A goal by senior forward Nicole Schuster (No. 8) moved Mount St. Joe’s into the District 1 quarterfinals.

After receiving a bye in the opening round of the PIAA Class AAA field hockey playoffs last Monday, fifth-seeded Mount St. Joseph Academy won its first outing in the district tournament on Wednesday afternoon, turning back visiting number 12 Downingtown East High School, 1-0, on a first-half goal by senior Nicole Schuster.

Since this was the last round of the single-elimination phase of the tournament, the Downingtown East Cougars put away their sticks for the season with a final record of 14-5, while the Magic moved on with their record now at 14-5.

Most of the Mount’s opponents in the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies compete in Class AA in the PIAA tournaments. One of the things that worked in the Magic’s favor in the seeding for the AAA tournament was a Sept. 4 non-league victory over Pennsbury High School, which went on to have a solid season.

Due to heavy rain the day before, host MSJ had last Wednesday’s playoff game moved from its own campus to the artificial turf at Colonial Middle School. The Magic were still smarting from a 1-0 semifinal loss in the AACA semifinals at the hands of Merion Mercy, which went on to upset Villa Maria (previously the top-ranked team in the region) in the finals.

“We’d been working really hard all season, and we kind of had a fire in our stomach after losing to Merion in overtime,” said Magic senior Caitlin Liberatore, the team co-captain along with Schuster.

The Mounties didn’t know much about Downingtown East aside from the contents of a scouting report from MSJ coach Lois Weber.

“We knew that they use the sidelines well,” Liberatore related, “and we knew that number 30 [Ashley Arbuckle] was their player to watch.”

Arbuckle was on hand to lead the visitors on Wednesday, but some other regular starters were not. The various flu bugs that have been making the rounds had hit the Mount earlier in the season, and now Downingtown had three players sidelined by illness.

Earning the game’s first penalty corner two minutes into the action, Mount St. Joes sent a pass right across the mouth of the goal from left to right, but nobody crashed the far post to seal the deal. Five minutes in, Arbuckle led a Cougars rush into the MSJ circle, but she was steered out wide to the right and nothing came of the assault.

Downingtown penetrated the Mount circle a few more times during the contest, but only got off two bona fide shots. One was off the mark, and the other was saved by MSJ’s senior goalkeeper, Celia Vinciguerra. At the other end, Allie Murray made five stops for the Cougars.

The game’s only goal came with 15:28 remaining in the first half on a solo effort by Schuster. The Boston College recruit dribbled into the top of the circle and pounded a shot at the cage. Murray came out and slid down to block the ball, but on the deflection it hopped up over her and rolled into the cage.

The Magic applied steady pressure late in the period, but despite attempts by freshman Ann Burgoyne and sophomore Brooke Sabia (both Norwood Fontbonne Academy alums) the score remained 1-0 for the rest of the first half, and throughout the second stanza, as well.

Much of the play stayed between the 25’s in the second half, without much excitement except for a lifted ball that cut the head of Mount junior Bridget Brady. Still, the Magic only led 1-0, and in the last four minutes the Cougars pushed up the field to earn three penalty corners, two were uneventful, and on the other a ball driven down towards the left post struck a Downingtown player instead of her stick, and the Mount brought the ball back out of the circle.

UPDATE – On Friday the Magic lost, 2-1 in a quarterfinal game at fourth-seeded Owen J. Roberts. Mount St. Joe took the lead when Natalie Tacka scored off an assist from fellow junior Jenna Seybert, but the Wildcats tied the match late in the first half and then fired the game-winner with four minutes remaining in the contest. The Mount now moves into a play-in round to try and become one of the six District 1 teams that advance to the state tournament.