Road to a Class 2A championship got a lot more crowded

Penn- Trafford has had a relatively straightforward formula to winning four consecutive WPIAL Class 2A field hockey titles.

All the Warriors had to do to make the playoffs was to take on each of the other competitors in the classification once during the regular season and the team with the best record would get a bye into the championship match.

And, to be fair, Penn- Trafford has earned the top seed and the subsequent bye since the sport shifted to three classifications in 2016 and has a 4- 0 postseason record in that time. That will all change this year. Because of the PIAA biennial realignment, there will now be six teams in Class 2A this year with the top four qualifying for the playoffs. Because of that, there won’t be any first- round byes and automatic appearances into the tournament.

Joining Penn- Trafford, Woodland Hills, Oakland Catholic and

Latrobe will be Fox Chapel and Upper St. Clair. Fox Chapel won the most recent of its four WPIAL championships in 2016 and last made the playoffs in 2017, while Upper St. Clair has never won a WPIAL title and has not qualified for the postseason for at least 20 years.

“Upper St. Clair and Fox Chapel, we’ve had mixed results when we’ve played them,” Penn- Trafford coach Cindy Dutt said. “It’s going to be a challenge and it’s going to be much harder, but I think the girls are up for that challenge.”

Penn- Trafford was a relatively young team a year ago, but gained valuable experience as the season wore on. Because of that, the Warriors will field 11 seniors, including center back Maria DiNapoli, centermid Emma Little and defender Claire Tylka.

“They’re rested and ready to go because they didn’t play softball all summer,” Dutt said. “I have some really strong juniors that are returning, also, like the Delaneys, Delaney Lentz and Delaney Shusko, who have really gotten better and better.”

Getting a lineup ready is one thing but this is also a sport in the time of COVID- 19, which brings with it a lot of questions that cannot be answered heading into the season.

“With everything going on medically, every game could be the last game for my seniors,” Dutt said. “The way the protocols are set up, one positive test puts everyone out for two weeks. During the summer we had kids work out in groups of 10 and those were pods and now our team is the pod.”

Class 3A

Pine- Richland is once again the defending champion and has played in the championship game the past four seasons.

Of course, the one thing the Rams would love to do is break their lose-one-win- one cycle after dropping title matches in 2016 and 2018 and winning in 2017 and 2019.

And this might be the team to do it.

Pine- Richland already boasted a lineup that includes senior Boston University recruit Ella Rottinghaus at midfield before it added junior Rylie Wollerton, a transfer from Chesapeake, Va., who has already committed to Louisville. The Rams also used their offseason time wisely to prepare for the campaign.

“They had summer workouts we gave them for stick skills and goalie skills and conditioning,” Pine- Richland coach Donna Stephenson said. “We gave that to them early once everything first got shut down, so some of those kids started working in May on their skills.”

Having Division I leadership and experience will certainly help as Pine- Richland will have to play an abbreviated 14- game season, 12 of which will be in the section.

“It’s going to be tough, but I think the positive will be they’ll have time for rest and recovery,” Stephenson said. “This year we started school later. There aren’t as many games, so we’ll have a lot of rest and recovery time, and it’s going to be adjustment knowing that everything is on the line each and every game. It might amp it up for them.”

Class 1A

Shady Side Academy pulled off the rare double of beating Ellis School in the regular and postseason last year.

By sweeping the season series, the Indians won their second consecutive Class 1A title and are looking to win three in a row for the fifth time in school history.

To do that, Shady Side will have to rely on a triumvirate of returning forwards, WPIAL all- star juniors Cecelia Messner and Jenny Woodings and senior Annabel Kuhn.

Ellis School, though, has to be considered a contender with Tegan Poerio, a Boston University recruit and the school’s all- time leading scorer, back for her final season.