Southern Lehigh team takes league title
It should come as no surprise to Southern Lehigh field hockey fans that a Gluck sister had a big day in a championship game, and this was the case again as the Spartans faced Northwestern Lehigh in the Colonial League title game Saturday morning at Catasauqua.
This time it was Piper, and not her older sister Iris, who had several clutch goals for last year’s PIAA Class 2A semifinalist before graduating.
Piper Gluck, a sophomore firstyear starter, scored three goals, the last one in the waning seconds, in Southern Lehigh’s 3-0 win over the Tigers, for a second straight Colonial League championship.
Southern Lehigh (15-3-1) will be the top seed in the District 11 Class 2A tournament and is set to play either Bangor or Salisbury on Thursday, Oct. 27. Northwestern (15-5-1) is the likely No. 3 seed in Class A and is probably looking at a game versus Palisades in the first round.
The Spartans, who beat Northwestern 4-1 and tied the Tigers 1-1 in the regular season, dominated play throughout the first half, holding a 12-2 edge in corners, but did not score until Gluck’s goal with 2:32 left in the first half.
“Honestly, I just blinked and it kind of happened,” Gluck said. “Cassidy (Clausnitzer) passed me the ball and I tapped it in.”
“(Gluck) was in the right place at the right time and made things happen,” Southern Lehigh coach Adrienne Searfoss said.
Gluck added her eighth goal of the season to make it 2-0 in the third and her ninth in the last 10 seconds to account for the final score.
Searfoss had to negotiate a rebuilding project, remodeling the team that lost significant talent that graduated from last year’s one-loss, state semifinal team. She and the players did so almost seamlessly, earning the top seed in both the league and district tournaments. The District 11 Class 2A tournament will be different, with both Pocono Mountain East and Whitehall from the EPC 18 in the 2A bracket.
“It is very impressive for this group simply because of the amount of people that we lost from the starting lineup last year,” Searfoss said. “For this group to come back and figure out where they belong, figure out their identity, figure out that they can win and achieve. It’s a big moment for them.”
Midfielder Lana Hughes, a Fairfield University commit, echoed her coach’s comments.
“Coming into the season, we knew that the people coming in had to work really hard to fill the spots,” Hughes said. “We had perfect people to fill the roles. People stepped up. For me, in my senior year, it means so much. This is one of many goals we had for the season. All of our hard work has paid off.”
Northwestern, the 2020 Colonial League champ, which made progress this season as it tried to regain the title, kept the game close despite playing more on defense than on offense. The Tigers won the Colonial League West division and earned the No. 3 seed. They beat Bangor and Wilson on their way to the title game.
Northwestern coach Lissa Opolsky took some time after the game to refocus her team as it begins preparation for the District 11 Class 2S tournament.
“We have to learn from our feelings and our preparation and all the things that go into hockey,’ she said. “It’s not just the stuff on the field in the 60 minutes of the game. Things like taking care of our bodies and having good practices the day before and understanding what’s happening in a field hockey game. We feel like our field hockey IQ is high, but also our opponent’s IQ is high.
“For a lot of people on the field, this was their first taste of a championship game. Hopefully, there will be a lot more to come in the future.”