Hill turns tables with last-minute win over EA
CONSHOHOCKEN » The teams were the same as last year. Once again they were locked in a tie score late in the match. And just like last season’s Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association field hockey final, the outcome was decided in the final minute.
But this year brought one big difference. This time, The Hill School came out on top, by an identical 3-2 margin over Episcopal Academy Wednesday afternoon at the Proving Grounds.
Opal Sparling drilled home the game-winner off a pass from Jaedyn Scarlatos on a penalty corner play with 32 seconds to go. Riley Savage scored the other two goals for the Blues (21-1).
Bella Notaro and Charly Bruder scored for the Churchwomen (17-3-2), who had won the previous three titles.
Except for a breakaway goal by Bruder that tied the score with 7:44 remaining, the Blues dominated the second half and felt it was only a matter of time before they were able to break the deadlock.
“We were just really motivated,” Sparling said. “We knew it was coming and we showed that we could do it. It’s like redemption from last year.”
The Churchwomen opened the scoring with 3:26 to go in the first quarter as the Blues could not clear the ball away from the front of the cage and Notaro knocked it in.
Hill tied it in the second quarter — also with 3:26 to go — as Savage scored off a pass from Aubrey Turner.
“There were some pregame jitters,” Savage said. “I think we were getting into the groove. We got into the flow, just like any other game.”
That was especially true in the second half, as Riley scored off a rebound 3:17 into the third quarter and the Blues continued to control the play with 13 corners after intermission to none for Episcopal.
Bruder tied it when she picked up the ball in her own half of the field, shot past defenders into the open and inside the circle and blasted a low backhanded shot into the cage.
But the Blues took over
again until the end.
“We just had good transitions from the defense to the offense,” Sparling said. “We passed the ball well. We didn’t try to dribble it through everybody.”
Last year, the Churchwomen had scored in the final minute and the Blues had little time to retaliate.
Hill had defeated Episcopal, 5-2, September 16. Hill had outscored its opponents by a combined 12-0 score in the first two rounds of the
tournament, the Churchwomen won two straight by a goal each.
“I thought both teams played super phenomenal games,” Episcopal coach Paul Zelenak said. “We wanted to stretch it out after losing 5-2. We put our best foot forward. Our team really, really grew. Take 21 games and put ourselves in position to win a championship. I’m superproud of their attitude the whole game.”
The Blues also grew as
the season went on, and the reward was rectifying the heartbreak of last year’s final.
“It was a good feeling,” Hill’s Michigan-bound goalkeeper Hala Silverstein said. “It’s very funny that it was the same score. The tables were turned. It’s nice to end on a good note. We knew we had the skills. We knew we had the resiliency to put it in the cage. We just played our team game and it worked out.”