Emmaus advances to title game
BUCKINGHAM— Since the beginning of the 2015 field hockey season, Emmaus has lost only three games. Each of those three losses, coincidentally, happened to be in the state semifinals in the last three seasons.
Thanks to a fourth-quarter Kyleigh Faust goal on a penalty corner and timely, well-executed defense, the state semifinal losing streak did not reach four. The Green Hornets defeated Central Bucks East 1-0 in a PIAA Class 3A semifinal game Tuesday afternoon at CB East’s Patriot Stadium.
Emmaus (15-0) will play Central Dauphin in the PIAA Class 3A championship game at 3 p.m. Saturday at Whitehall. The Hornets are seeking their 13th state
championship, having gone 12-4 in state championship games, dating back to a loss in the first PIAA title game in 1974.
“You never know when you can get [to the state championship game],” Emmaus coach Sue Butz-Stavin said. “Some the seniors have been playing for the last three and four years. I’m sure they had this in mind looking down the road.”
The game did not start well for the District 11 champion Hornets on a partially sunny, yet cold and windy afternoon. CBEast (13-2), the District 1 champion, controlled most of the play in the first quarter, penetrating the Emmaus side of the field for more than 10 of the 15 minutes.
And just two minutes in, Emmaus got a scare when the Patriots forced a corner, forcing Georgetown-bound goalkeeper Bailey Tietz to make her first of five saves.
But Tietz and the Hornet defense were ready, thanks to some advanced knowledge. With Annika Herbine running the fly, Abby Burnett, Faust, Jenna Villeneuve and Madison Bruns staying back, Emmaus turned away some formidable pressure.
“We did some scouting,” Tietz said. “They had some videos on YouTube. We had scouts go to their last game. We knew some of their corner plays, like the fake at the top of the circle. Wewere aware of that one. … That was super-important to be prepared for it. We work so hard on corner defense this season, so it was cool to see that actually come into play.”
“We work hard at it on a daily basis,” Butz-Stavin said. “In the previous game, CB East took a wide variety of corners. Weknewthat wehad to be ready for any type of movement. We had to watch the ball, concentrate on the ball and not get distracted.”
The defensive effort would have gone for naught had Faust not scored. As the game went on, Emmaus gradually took over control of play. In the third quarter, the Patriots penetrated into Emmaus territory for only about a minute, yet Emmaus did not have a decent shot at scoring, despite dominating the play.
That changed less than 10 minutes into the fourth, when Faust found herself in the right place at the right time. Annika Herbine struck the ball hard at Patriots goalkeeper Emily Bullard, wholast week signed to play at Penn State. Alexis Kociban flicked the ball to Faust, who tapped it in.
CB East applied some pressure in the final minutes, but Emmaus turned it away one final time.
“It feels great because we’ve been working so hard just to get past the semifinals and to the state championship,” Faust said. “I’m happy that all of the hard work we put in finally paid off.”
Playing under pandemic conditions may have made this one even sweeter.
“It was scary, but we still played our hardest,” Faust said. “We never stopped training. Wealways played like it was our last game because we never knew what would happen because of COVID.”
Class 2A
In a PIAA Class 2A semifinal, Archbishop Carroll scored in the first and fourth quarters and went on to a 2-0 win over Southern Lehigh at Cardinal O’Hara High School in Springfield, Bucks County.
Carroll (12-0) will play in the PIAA Class 2A championship game at 12:30 p.m. Saturday against either Palmyra or Selinsgrove. The season is over for Southern Lehigh (14-2).
“We definitely did have some shots on goal,” Southern Lehigh coach Devon Hagy said. “There were some points when we had three-four corners in a row. It just didn’t go through. Their team made sure they were first to the ball.”
Although it did not end the way that she wanted it to, Hagy did enjoy the COVID-abbreviated season.
“When we started this season in July, we didn’t even think we were going to play,” she said. “How are we going to remember a season that almost didn’t happen, and we go all the way to [state] semifinals? These girls have so much of a bright future ahead of them. And I’m not even talking for field hockey. They’re quite a group of young ladies with a lot of character.”
Class 3A
Emmaus 0001— 1
Central Bucks East 0000— 0
Emmaus goal: Kyleigh Faust. Assist: Annika Herbine. Shots: 6. Penalty corners: 5. Saves: Bailey Tietz 6. Central Bucks East shots: 6. Penalty corners: 4. Saves: Emily Bullard 5.