It’s been a season of surprises for the Central Bucks South field hockey team - not the least of which is its ascent to a spot in the Final Four of the PIAA Class AAA Tournament after a 1-2 start.
“Probably even three weeks ago I wouldn’t have believed we would be in the Final Four,” senior co-captain Sarah Hasson said.
Add to the Titans’ list of surprises their opponent in Tuesday night’s state semifinal. Everyone everywhere assumed it would be District 3 champion Lower Dauphin, winner of the 2006 state crown, but a funny thing happened on the way to the state semis – Lower Dauphin was upset by Hershey 2-1 in overtime in Saturday’s quarterfinals.
The Trojans, the fourth seed out of always-tough District 3, needed a penalty stroke by Leslie Smith to eke out a win over the three-time district champions, who held a 14-2 advantage in penalty corners but could not make them count. For Smith, it was her team-high 13th goal.
But the Titans aren’t all that concerned about the opponent they’ll face in Tuesday’s game. They’re just delighted to be there after a start that was anything but promising.
Consider only their first day of hockey camp at Old Dominion University last summer.
“Oh my gosh – we were coming in last in everything, and everyone was like, ‘What happened to South? Where did they go?’” senior Gretchen Kempf said. “It was so embarrassing.”
Hasson recalled that things began to improve as the week progressed at ODU.
“The first day we were really pumped about our season – ‘This is going to be great,’ and all of a sudden we started losing,” she said. “The second day we picked up our focus, and we ended up coming in second overall in the end.
“It was a huge improvement.”
That trend continued when the season got underway.
“In the beginning of the year, we were scrappy, but we weren’t working as a team,” Hasson said. “We picked it up and used our determination and focus.”
The Titans – winners of 18 of their last 20 games after that 1-2 start – point to their 4-2 win over Hatboro-Horsham as a turning point in their season. The win came after losses to Council Rock North (2-1) and Pennridge (3-2) sandwiched around a win over Quakertown.
“In the beginning of the year, after we lost our first scrimmage, it was like ‘Oh well, I guess we’re going to be bad,’” Kempf said. “Everyone was playing with their heads down. We never thought we’d be here.
“But after that win over Hatboro-Horsham, we realized we actually have talent on our team. If we worked together, we could make pretty plays and get the ball into the net.”
If the turning point was South’s win over Hatboro, the season’s defining moment was the Titans’ 3-0 win over a Central Bucks West squad that was 5-1 at the time.
“When we beat West the first time, that was really instrumental because they have some quality players, and they’re a quality team,” South coach Meg Hutchinson said. “We really had to step up and play the strategy that was going to work for us.
“They realized – a light bulb went on – ‘This is what works, and we win when we do this.’ They know the style of play, they know what they need to do, and they just know themselves.”
Hasson also acknowledged the significance of the win over West.
“That was so key,” she said. “They’re our rivals, and we showed we could break them down. After we destroyed them on the field, their season went down and ours went right up.”
South’s resurgence has been particularly gratifying to the seniors.
“We knew it was our senior year, and we didn’t want it to start out with two wins and lose the rest of the games,” senior co-captain Julia Goldsworthy said. “So we figured we would have to refocus - win the easy games and train hard and practice hard so we could win the big games.
“The West game and the Hatboro-Horsham games were definitely the turning point in the season – we were beating the best teams, and we could hang with them.”
The Titans’ success, according to the senior captain, can be attributed to hard work and teamwork.
“Every practice every single person gives 110 percent,” Goldsworthy said. “It’s a total team effort here. We play team defense and team offense, and all of us working together has made us successful this far.”
The Titans will face Hershey in a semifinal contest on Tuesday at Governor Mifflin High School in Shillington at 5:30 p.m. In the other semifinal at 3:30, Penn Manor will take on Central Dauphin. Penn Manor, the third seed from District 3, upset defending state champion Emmaus 3-2 in overtime in a quarterfinal game on Saturday.
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