Cugini, Rustin blank Shanahan

Coming into Thursday’s regular season finale, West Chester Rustin and Bishop Shanahan couldn’t have been more even. Both sported 9-7-1 records, were guaranteed a slot in the District 1 Class AA field hockey tournament, and both would be hosting their first playoff game.

Though the game was nearly as close as you’d expect, Rustin held the edge in both stats and on the scoreboard, notching a pair of firsthalf goals and adding another in the second to come away with a 3-0 victory over Shanahan.

“I thought we played really good defense, particularly in the second half,” said Rustin coach Susie Macciocca. “Alexis Schambers and Shannon Drakely were phenomenal tonight. Their poise under pressure inside our defensive 25 was amazing.”

Rustin controlled much of the action in the early going, forcing four penalty corners over the first twelve minutes to just one for the Eagles. The Knights finally broke the scoreless deadlock by converting a corner at the 18:03 mark. Marie Gazillo put the ball in play on the insert, sending it in to Tina St. Clair at the top of the circle, who then fired a rocket into the back of the cage to make it 1-0.

Down a goal, the Eagles started to exert pressure, and forced four corners over the next 10 minutes, Despite getting off six of their eight shots in the half, the Eagles couldn’t put one past Rustin goalie Meg Hadfield and into the back of the cage. Hadfield, with seven first-half saves, and Caitlyn Barker, who came in to finish the game in the cage for Rustin combined for 13 saves on the night.

“Our team did a great job hustling back and supporting each other,” said Hadfield. “And we kept the ball out. This was a great win for us. We really wanted a nice win like this as we move on to playoffs.”

The Golden Knights struck once again with just over four minutes to go in the half. Carly Truitt grabbed a ball at the top of the circle, and snuck a pass in through a crowd to Blaise Cugini, who came through with the first of two goals on the night to make it 2-0 headed to the break.

“We all communicated very well on offense,” said Cugini. “We knew we had to nail our passes and capitalize on the opportunities we had.”

Cugini pushed the lead to 3-0 with another goal, with an assist to St. Clair, eight minutes into the second half, to round out the scoring.

The win improves the Golden Knights’ record to 10-7-1, good enough to move them up to the seventh-seed and a first-round bye in the district tournament. Rustin will open up on Wednesday by hosting Phoenixville.

“It was great to see us close out the regular season like this,” said Macciocca. “We started out the year so strong, then kind of faltered in the middle when it seemed like we hit all our toughest opponents right in a row. So it means a lot to play like this as we move on to the playoffs. We think our league prepares us well for the next step.”

Shanahan dropped to 9-81, and will host No. 20 Marple Newtown on Monday.

“We came into the season hoping we could host a district game,” said Shanahan coach Nancy Roselli. “I would have preferred hosting it Wednesday (with a firstround bye), but it’s a new season Monday. We like to look at our let downs like bricks, and you just can’t keep carrying them, or you’ll never get anywhere. You need to put them down and move on. We weren’t our best tonight, so we just have to play our game and we can win some games in the playoffs.”