Knights score field hockey four-peat
KITCHENER — The Bluevale Knights didn’t lead for long, but they were out in front when it mattered most.
Grade 9 forward Meagan Hobson scored the game-winning goal with nine minutes to play Thursday and the Knights captured their fourth straight Waterloo County (WCSSAA) field hockey championship with a 3-2 win over the Southwood Sabres.
The reigning Ontario champions never held the lead until Hobson beat Sabres goalkeeper Christina Perrie from close range in a back-and-forth tussle at Woodside Park.
Both teams advance to next week’s Central Western Ontario championship along with the Sir John A. Macdonald Highlanders, who defeated the Elmira Lancers 2-1 in a CWOSSA qualifying game. The District 8 champion Resurrection Phoenix will also compete, along with a pair of teams from the District 10 (Guelph) association.
“That was such a nerve-racking game,” said Knights forward Abby Beaton, who had two goals. “Southwood played unbelievable and that game really could have gone either way. … I’m so glad we won.”
Southwood took the early lead, less than two minutes in, when Brooke Ritchie directed the ball past Knights goalkeeper Kayla Desormeau. Ritchie appeared to be passing to teammate Abbi Blackburn, but the ball rolled over the goal-line before Blackburn could get her stick on it.
Bluevale scored twice on short corners — taken by Kaitlyn Israel and Julia Graffi — and both times it resulted in Beaton blasting the ball past Perrie after taking a feed from Sophie Schmidt. The Beaton-Schmidt combination could be worth watching again next week, as the talented attackers played together on an Ontario U18 squad this past summer.
Beaton’s first goal levelled the game at 1-1 after 25 minutes, but Southwood responded less than three minutes later when Taylor Trussler took a pass from Ritchie and blasted it home.
The Sabres led 2-1 at halftime, but the Knights drew even in the early going of the second half when Beaton scored her second.
Both teams had chances to take the lead before Hobson finally scored the game-winner.
“We struggled a little bit defensively today, but overall I think we played well,” said Trussler, the league’s runaway scoring leader.
“This will make us a little hungrier for the next one (CWOSSA). So I hope we can win next week when it matters most.”
Bluevale received an outstanding performance from Grade 11 sparkplug Sidney Evans, who took a hard blast off her stomach in the early-going, but never missed a beat.
The four-foot-11 forward seemed to be in constant motion and was unlucky to finish the game without a goal.
“She’s crazy good, she’s fast and she never stops,” Beaton said.
Evans said the ball off her stomach “hurt a little bit,” but it wasn’t enough to blur her focus on the task at hand.
“We worked hard for it today,” she said. “Southwood is a good team and they definitely made us work for it.”
Grace Miller scored both goals for SJAM in their win over Elmira, and Chantal McMurray replied for the Lancers.
The all-Ontario (OFSAA) tournament will be held Nov. 2-4 in Burlington with two CWOSSA representatives carrying the local hopes. Teams from this area have won the past 11 OFSAA championships, starting with St. John’s-Kilmarnock in 2006.