The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Camden ends season against Burnt Hills
Camden needed all of 53 seconds to get on the board in Sunday’s field hockey regional.
Delaney Alberico slammed home a shot to the back of the cage to give the Blue Devils a 1-0 lead over Section II representative Burnt Hills, and with 19:07 left to play in the first half, it appeared the Blue Devils were off to a hot start.
Unfortunately for coach Shannon McPheron’s squad, Alberico’s goal was all the offense Camden would be able to muster as the Blue Devils surrendered three unanswered goals to the Spartans, falling to Burnt Hills by a tally of 3-1.
“The start of the game, they did everything I asked them to do. We got on the scoreboard first, with under a minute in the game,” Camden coach Shannon McPheron said.
“I thought they came out on fire, but then, they kind of fell apart at the seams. They started to do things we don’t typically do during the season. Definitely, I think the nerves came into play.”
Camden took advantage of a penalty corner thirty seconds into the contest. The Blue Devils did not score directly off the penalty, but Camden was able to retain possession deep in Spartan territory before Alberico made her mark.
The remaining 29 minutes of the half belonged to Burnt Hills as the Spartans dominated time of possession. And though Camden was awarded the first penalty corner of the contest, Burnt Hills enjoyed the lion’s share of set pieces with 11 penalty corners, eight in the first half alone.
“I think the biggest frustrating part of this whole game was that I did not agree with a lot of the calls. I felt like a lot of the calls were against us, but I am not going to blame officials because we did not play our best game today, unfortunately. From the last time we played Burnt Hills until ironically today, we re- ally had turned it around all season,” McPheron said.
Camden’s defense, led by goalie Mariah Mix, was able to stave off the Spartan attack for nearly 20 minutes after Alberico’s goal garnered a 1-0 lead. With ten minutes remaining in the first half, Burnt Hills’ Christina Pedone tomahawked an offering from Deirdre Rafferty past Mix for the equalizer. The score would remain at 1-1 entering halftime.
Coming out of the break, the Blue Devils nearly retook the lead when Mackenzie Mix raced past a Burnt Hills defender down the left sideline to put the Spartan defense on its heels. Burnt Hills’ goalie Rachel Kamppila made a kick-save to keep Mix out of the scoring column, but Camden earned one of its rare penalty corners moments later. Kamppila came up big again for the Spartans on the set piece, making a split-save on Camden shot to keep the score at 1-1.
Just like in the first half, Burnt Hills found the back of the cage with little more than ten minutes remaining in the period. Sadie Mitchell stayed true on the far post during a Burnt Hills penalty corner to score the go-ahead goal, giving the Section II representative a 2-1 lead.
Following a Camden timeout, the Blue Devils took the field with ten minutes left to score an equalizer and force overtime, but Camden, pushing forward for the tying goal, was caught by the Burnt Hills counterattack, and Pedone notched an insurance goal to grow the lead to 3-1 with less than five minutes left. Burnt Hills survived the remaining five minutes to hold on for the 3-1 win and will go on to face Section I’s Lakeland in the state Final Four.
“The second half, they definitely did a little bit better of a job, butwe just could not seemto find our flow. As far as our speed our passing, those two things are definitely our strength. We scored 90-plus goals this season, and we struggled with that today. I think the officiating was definitely something we were not used to. There were a lot of calls that I did not agree with, and it just really frazzled my girls and got into their heads,” McPheron said. “I have no regrets. I’m very proud of them. Today, they displayed great sportsmanship, and they had a lot of pride... We definitely will be back. We will use this as a learning moment.”
As for Blue Devil seniors Keely Butts, Mariah Mix, Marlee Christmas, and Kiersten Walker, McPheron had this message: “I wish them the best of luck. All four of them are great people, and I hope the biggest thing they take out of this season is to always believe in themselves.”