Souderton earned the seventh and final state berth with a win over Garnet Valley. CB West fell to Methacton in the fifth place game.
District 1 3A seventh place game
#6 SOUDERTON 3, #8 GARNET VALLEY 2 (OT)
The goal was textbook.
Sixty-plus minutes of field hockey came down to one play – a 1v1 between Ava Jones and a Garnet Valley goalie who’d already taken a goal away from the Indians with a diving save at the left post earlier in the game. The sophomore dodged the goalie and calmly lifted the ball into the cage, setting off a jubilant celebration.
“I know their goalie comes out very far, so I knew I just needed to pull around her and lift it in because she’s not going to get back in time because of how far she comes out,” Jones said. “Coach Sue always tells me to pull right. I just pulled right and lifted it, and it went in. It felt amazing.”
“Once Ava dodged the goalie, she actually set herself – she didn’t just fling it,” Souderton coach Sue Casciato said. “You could see her set herself like – I’m not missing the goal cage.”
With the win, the Indians punched their ticket to the PIAA 3A Tournament – the seventh and final team into the tournament.
“Oh my gosh, it feels so good especially because the last two or three games we’ve lost, and the spirits were just really down for the team,” said senior Ashley Magnus. “Knowing we were able to pull this one out, I think it’s going to be a huge confidence booster.
“To have them go up 2-1, meaning we would have to come from behind to tie it up, I think that shows our work ethic. We’ve been in a slump, but we still love each other as a team and only want good things. We wanted this win, and we got it.”
There would have been no overtime heroics for Jones if the Indians had not rallied to knot the score in the fourth quarter when – with 10:13 remaining – Lauren Frye (Julia Blair assist) blasted a corner shot from the top of the circle that found the back of the cage.
“We’ve been struggling on our corners a lot,” Frye said. “We were really good at them in the beginning of the season, and now that’s one of our main problems, so scoring off a corner was very uplifting because we haven’t done it in a while. It shows us if we really put our minds to it, we can score on a corner.”
“I wasn’t sure because it went off the goalie’s toe up into the corner,” Casciato said of Frye’s equalizer. “In the game the other day against (Central Bucks) West, we hit the wheels (of the cage), we hit the top bar, we went over the goal cage, so when I saw it fly up, I thought, ‘Did it actually go in the goal cage’ because we were all around the goal the other day, and we could not connect.”
Frye’s goal brought an end to a streak of futility on corners for the Indians.
“As of yesterday, we totally changed all our corners,” Casciato said. “We’re not even going from the same side. We’ve been 0-for-34 in our last three losses on corners.
“Every game that we lost we had more opportunities than our opponent, and we got zero goals. In three losses – two to CB West and one to Downingtown West, we were 0-for-34 in those games. We should have been right in those games.”
Entering Friday’s must-win contest, the Indians – after going 18-1 – had lost three of four games, and a loss would have meant the end of the season.
“Not really being an underdog, but losing three games out of four, it brings you down,” Frye said. “I think this shows that we are better than people think we are.”
Early on in Friday’s game, the Indians took a 1-0 lead with 2:09 remaining in the opening period when Jones scored on a breakaway. Garnet Valley scored the equalizer midway through the second quarter to send the two teams into halftime deadlocked.
“The first goal today – even though they tied, but it’s been so long that we scored, and I was like, ‘All right, hopefully, that gives us a little bit of confidence,’” Casciato said.
It was still a 1-1 game heading into the final quarter, and less than a minute into the final frame, Garnet Valley scored to go on top 2-1.
“Scoring first definitely helped, but when they came back and scored, it was like, ‘Oh gosh,’ and then they got that second goal, and it was ‘Oh gosh’ again,” Frye said. “It was like – ‘Okay, we have to fight back. We don’t want to lose.’”
And fight back they did with Frye scoring the tying goal on a perfectly executed corner. Jones was injured during the ensuing celebration and was forced to leave the game with a gash above her eye.
“I felt fine – this is my third time getting hit in the eye, so I’m used to it,” Jones said. “I am so eager to get out there. I love playing, I love when it’s tied – it’s just so exciting. You just need to keep composure and just have fun.”
It didn’t take long for Jones to make her presence felt, and it was the sophomore’s goal that kept the Indians’ season alive.
“It means so much, especially for the seniors,” Jones said. “We always want to play one more game, one more game. We’re going to have a chance, we’re going to have a fighting chance.”
The Indians had a score to settle with Garnet Valley. Last year, the Jaguars – seeded seventh – upset the second-seeded Indians 3-1 in a quarterfinal contest. Three years ago, Garnet Valley edged Souderton 1-0 in overtime a playback game.
“I said, ‘Girls, no matter what happens today, this is the last time you’re going to set foot on this field,’” Casciato said. “Last year, we so outplayed them and lost 3-1. We owed them big time.”
The Jaguars scored a pair of goals, but for the most part, the Indians’ defense neutralized their offensive efforts.
“We just have to play smart when they get in the circle like that because they had a few girls coming from the sidelines,” Magnus said. “They could easily dribble around us, so we just had to give them that stick and a step away and keep our sticks down. We stopped them a lot of times, and I think just staying composed and playing smart is what won it.”
Souderton (18-4, 15-1 SOL) will face the District 1 champion in Tuesday’s opening round of the PIAA 3A Tournament.
Garnet Valley 0-1-1-0-0 2
Souderton 1-0-0-1-1 3
District 1 3A fifth place game
#5 METHACTON 5, #7 CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 0
The Warriors scored with .02 seconds remaining in the opening quarter when Avery Schwarz scored with a Carmela Maro assist during a scrum in front of the net. That goal stood the rest of the way.
“This evening was a fantastic field hockey match against Methacton,” West coach David DeAngelis said. “You saw both programs play with speed and skill.
“Although we were not able to obtain the result we were looking for – we were very pleased with our effort. Both teams had similar opportunities at the cage. This was a great learning opportunity as we now prepare for our PIAA match.”
The Bucks held an 8-6 advantage in shots. Both teams had five penalty corners.
Central Bucks West (18-3-1, 14-1-1 SOL) will enter the state tournament Tuesday as the district’s sixth place team against an opponent to be determined.
Central Bucks West 0-0-0-0 0
Methacton 1-0-0-0 1
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Headline Score correction
Headline should read Methacton 1 Cb West 0