Kingston wins third straight MHAL title
Tigers triumph in double overtime to capture third straight MHAL championship
The 17th time was the charm.
After failing to cash in on 16 penalty corners Thursday, Kingston High finally connected as Tori Quick scored with 17 seconds left in double overtime to defeat Rondout Valley 1-0 and win a third consecutive Mid-Hudson Athletic League field hockey championship.
The teams engaged in a scoreless battle for nearly 80 minutes as the match extended into twilight. Rieley Fitzgerald’s backhander into the circle led to the (12-3) Tigers being awarded a corner with 49 seconds left.
Fitzgerald perfectly placed the insert pass for Quick’s game-winner from the top of the circle as time wound down.
“Last time we played them, we lost in this situation,” said Quick, whose team lost to Rondout 1-0 on an OT corner two weeks ago.
“Every single one we go, ‘Okay. We’re going to get this one’ and it just wasn’t the right one,” Fitzgerald said about the failed corners. “That last one, finally everything, all the pieces just fit together and we were able to get it on mark.
“I wasn’t worried about the time or anything. I was worried about executing that one corner.”
“It was a dead stop. We were really lucky that the insert came out as flat as it did ,” said Kingston first-year coach Erin Koonz. “Tori stopped it on the nose. She’s got a great shot.
“Our corners are so good on some days and off on other days,” she said. “They defended well.”
The Tigers have won MHAL titles under three different coaches in three years: Debbie Eaton in 2016, Samantha Ward in ‘17 and now Koonz, a Rondout graduate. Eaton retired and Ward had stepped down.
“The girls worked really hard and Rondout is a super team. I think this was the most evenly match game I’ve ever seen. I said that when we played the first time in the regular season,” Koonz added. “I’m proud of them and really happy for them.”
Because of outstanding defensive play, both teams had plenty of opportunities, but few actual shots on goal. Kingston outshot Rondout 9-1 with the teams combining for one shot in the first half.
The Tigers had a great chance 10 minutes into the second half when the ball ran along the front of the goal, but nobody could push it in. The (14-2) Ganders, who had nine corners overall, had an opportunity in the final minute of regulation when Courtney Coffey advanced into the circle, but she was run off.
The intensity increased in the two seven-on-seven 10-minute OT periods. Kingston derailed Sophia
Schoonmaker’s breakway bid early in the second OT. Rondout actually played a man up for two minutes after a Kingston green card with 7:30 left in the period. Midway through the power play, Fitzgerald picked off a pass and got upended by Rondout goalkeeper Azure Jones on a breakaway bid. A corner was awarded, but a defender blocked Fitzgerald’s backhander
Rondout got terrific defensive play from Lea Smith and Jones, who had to clear the ball twice as Kingston applied pressure in the waning minutes of overtime. Jones finished with five saves.
“Rondout’s goalie is very good,” Koonz said. “We had
a hard time getting around her. Her effort showed.”
As time was winding down, the prevalent thought was what would come next if no one scores: a penalty stroke shootout.
“I saw the clock. I always try to tell myself, you got this one. It’s gonna go in,” Quick said. “I did not want to go to strokes.”
“I did not want to go to a shootout at all. There was so much anxiety through all of this,” Koonz said. “I just wanted it to end on the field. There’s something about that. A shootout is so individualized and I don’t really like how that feels. In a game like that when it’s a goal, it’s a team effort. It feels so much nicer. I’m really glad that it finished that way.”
Kara Houston was in goal for Kingston to earn the shutout.