Scholastic Notes

Midwest region

MISSOURI

COR JESU CHARGES TO VICTORY BEHIND GONNERMAN

In an unpredictable, competitive field hockey season amongst the Mid West Athletic Association (MWAA) teams in the greater St. Louis area, St. Louis Cor Jesu (Mo.) could take comfort in one thing.

Somewhere, somehow, Kate Gonnerman would score the key goal. The junior picked a rebound out of a pile of players like a child extricating Pick-Up-Sticks and rifled home the game-winner just before the interval as the Chargers beat St. Louis John Burroughs (Mo.) 3-1.

The goal gave the top-seeded Chargers a 2-0 lead that would not be seriously challenged.

It was a mad scramble in front of the net and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time," Gonnerman tells The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"That's what she has been doing all year for us, she always seems to score the big goals," junior Erin Engle added.

Cor Jesu, which finished the season 19-1-1, was one of the few St. Louis-area teams not to have been overwhelmed at the season-opening Gateway Invitational, as the Chargers beat 2004 TopOfTheCircle.com No. 4 Lake Forest (Ill.), drew preseason Top 10 St. Louis Lafayette (Mo.), but lost to 2005 Apple Tournament winner Louisville Sacred Heart (Mo.).

But after the Gateway, Cor Jesu ran the table.

"It's just a wonderful feeling to win again," head coach Mame LaVigne tells The Post-Dispatch. "I'm overwhelmed by the effort that the girls give every game."

The championship was the Chargers' third in four years.

MOTHER, DAUGHTER CELEBRATE MILESTONES IN SAME GAME

Must be the genes.

Meg O'Connell, the fine senior for St. Louis Lafayette (Mo.) broke the National Federation mark for assists in a scholastic field hockey career, besting the previous Federation record of 84, set by Team USA's Kristen McCann of Emmaus (Pa.).

She broke the record in an 8-1 win over St. Louis Oakville, and it was a win that gave her mother, Lafayette head coach Kelly Yates, her 300th overall coaching win in a career that has spanned collegiate and scholastic hockey. Yates has more than 150 wins at Lafayette the past eight seasons.

And it turns out that Yates has given Meg and her sister Kate O'Connell more than a few pointers in how to make her teammates better. Yates, as a player for Southwest Missouri State in the days of AIAW field hockey, was a pretty good feeder for Chris Dufner, whose 199 career goals stands alone in the annals of American college field hockey.

"The great thing is how both Meg and Kate both see the field," Yates said from the sidelines after the match as her junior varsity was on the pitch. "Even when we were ahead, Meg wanted to set up one of her senior teammates for a goal, someone who hadn't played a lot. And she did."

ILLINOIS

ILLINOIS FINAL JUST THE START OF AN INTERESTING WEEK FOR DANCEWICZ

Jenna Dancewicz knows hockey -- both on a 200- by 85-foot rink, or on a 100- by 60-yard pitch.

And you could the Lake Forest (Ill.) sniper for wanting to get the Illinois state field hockey final over and done with as quickly as possible, as she had a pair of goals in a 3-0 win over Oak Park River Forest (Ill.).

Not that she doesn't like field hockey; the passion shows through in how she plays. It's just that she had to board a plane to Boston for the Assabet Valley Invitational to play with a U-16 select team of Illinois players.

But on the field, she got started with tearing up everything in sight that Saturday afternoon in late October. In pre-game warmups, no less.

"Jenna hit a ball that hit the goalie's mask," Lake Forest head coach Tammy McHaney tells The Lake Forester. "Her ears were ringing for 10 minutes. I've never seen a shot like that."

Apparently, neither had Oak Park-River Forest. The Scouts had little answer for Dancewicz's vision and passing, as well as her finishing. She had a second-half goal to go along with Jenner Johnson's opener.

"Lake Forest was better than us," OPRF head coach Barb Liles tells The Oak Park Oak Leaves. "They were phenomenal in every aspect of the game: speed, passing, stick skills. They completely took us out of our game. We made a lot of mistakes, probably forced errors. Lake Forest has a lot of skilled players."

They certainly showed that in the offensive end, as well as the defensive third, not allowing Oak Park top scorer Tori Karsten much room to operate.

Ultimately, the defending champions pulled through with those three second-half goals.

"Oak Park had nothing to lose, and we had everything to lose," Dancewicz said. "I felt like we had the better team, and it showed."

OAK PARK-RIVER FOREST ALMOST WINS OWN TOURNAMENT

Three weeks after the Gateway Invitational in St. Louis, many of the teams in that Labor Day extravaganza got together for a second weekend of tournament action.

And with enough artificial grass at Oak Park-River Forest (Ill.) for multi-pool play, 16 teams from six states came to play.

The entire weekend, teams from Kentucky were the story. Louisville Sacred Heart (Ky.) was in the host Vikings' pool, and had played splended hockey in the Gateway and in the Apple tournament that traditionally starts off the American domestic season.

But Sacred Heart lost 1-0 to OPRF thanks to a Allison Vogel goal in a game both teams needed to win in order to take the Pool A. St. Louis Villa Duchesne (Mo.) and St. Louis St. Joseph's (Mo.) took the bottom two slots in the pool.

Kentucky teams also captured two other pools. Louisville Kentucky Country Day (Ky.) won Pool B, the Group of Death, which included Winnetka New Trier (Ill.), St. Louis Lafayette (Mo.), and Ann Arbor Pioneer (Mich.). Louisville Assumption (Ky.) won Pool D, leading an Antioch (Ill.) split squad, The University School of Milwaukee (Wisc.), and North Allegheny (Pa.).

Oak Park rival Lake Forest (Ill.) won Pool C, topping out over St. Louis Mary Institute-Country Day School (Mo.), Deerfield (Ill.), and Hartland Arrowhead (Wisc.).

In the playoff for the championship, Oak Park-River Forest got by Kentucky Country Day 2-1 on a pair of Tori Karsten goals. But in the final against Assumption, Karsten, the team's leading goal-scorer, was knocked out of the game after a collision only about a dozen minutes after giving the Huskies a 1-0 lead.

"It did hurt us," head coach Barb Liles tells The Oak Park Oak Leaves. "Tori is a shooter and a finisher. I still thought if we kept the pressure on we would score again. We had some opportunities, but not a lot."<.P>

Assumption would take possession of the ball for most of the rest of the game, and scored goals in the 52nd and 57th minutes to take a 2-1 win.

"I think they wore our defense down being in the attacking third so much," Barb Liles told The Oak Leaves. "It's hard to hold a team down when that happens. They had some awesome shots."

MICHIGAN

PIONEER RE-ASCEND THE MOUNTAIN

Ann Arbor Pioneer (Mich.) has been the dominant field hockey power over the past 30 years in the state of Michigan. It has been the bar-setter and a motivational ploy.

And last year, Grosse Pointe (Mich.) South used Pioneer as a mid-season teaching point on the way to its first state title in its inaugural season, winning head coach Monica Dennis the United States Coach of the Year honors for 2004.

But Pioneer was not about to let itself be referred to as a "once-dominant program." No way.

The Pioneers' 3-0 win over Grosse Pointe South in the 2005 state final was as dominant and complete as it was satisfying.

"When we won two years ago it was the best night of my life,'' goalkeeper Dory Mercer tells The Ann-Arbor News. "This completely trumps that.''

Mercer made seven stops, including an early series as GPS tried to seize the early initiative.

Rachel Mundus led the Pioneer attack with a pair of goals, while Elizabeth Goodman-Bacon had a goal and an assist.

"I just feel like this team has had a tremendous work ethic for this game and for each other," Pioneer coach Jane Nixon tells The Detroit News. "It was really a special day for Pioneer field hockey and for all of our 2005 players."

ONLY MOTHER NATURE CAN STOP KIMMERLING ONSLAUGHT

In the latest city derby betwen Ann Arbor Pioneer (Mich.) and Ann Arbor Huron (Mich.), Kelly Kimmerling showed the kind of instinct NASCAR drivers and crew chiefs have when it comes to the weather.

Git 'er done.

Kimmerling's first-half hat trick held up for Pioneer in a 3-0 win in a game shortened to 37 minutes because of a heavy rainstorm that ended the day's activities.

"(Kimmerling) came out strong, in the right place at the right times,'' Pioneer coach Jane Nixon tells The Ann-Arbor News. "It's nice to have different players scoring at different times.''

Kimmerling scored in the second, 10th, and at the interval to give the Pioneers their eventual margin of victory.

OHIO

WATTERSON, BAIRD BACK ON TOP

Ten years ago, Janet Baird was an assistant coach at Columbus Bishop Watterson (Ohio), and was front and center for one of the Eagles' great sporting moments in any athletic endeavor.

You see, in the mid-1990s, field hockey was a nascent and struggling sport on the Watterson campus, and Baird was one of several folks who had to go begging for players to come out for the sport.

By 1995, Watterson, then coached by Katie Brosmer, took a well-earned state championship with a 2-1 win over Kettering Fairmont (Ohio).

Fast forward a decade, and Baird found herself as head coach of Watterson -- again, meeting up with Fairmont for the state championship.

And again, winning.

Ally Sullivan and Kristen Fogle converted penalty corners in the 10th and 12th minutes to give Watterson an iron grip on the game.

"We couldn't score on corners before the tournament started, so we've been drilling them and working on finishing those kind of chances in practice every day the past few weeks," Baird tells Columbus This Week. "It feels great to see all of their hard work pay off in the games that matter the most. The girls picked a wonderful time to break out of their slump and start finishing their chances."

Watterson, which finished the season with a 17-3-1 record, won its second state title whilst preventing Fairmont from winning its fifth as a unified school district; Fairmont West won two titles in the 1970s.

MOUNT'S ONE GOAL: GET BACK TO FINALS

One of the feel-good stories from the 2004 season surrounded the miracle run of Cincinnati Mount Notre Dame (Ohio) to the state championship game.

Although the result was a loss to Gahanna Columbus Academy (Ohio) in the final, there was satisfaction in the fact that Mount was only the second Cincinnati-area team to make it to the state championship final in 26 seasons.

That satisfaction has now turned to hunger.

"That was the furthest we've ever advanced," Mount coach Don Johnson tells The Indian Hill Journal. "We have won the Southwest Ohio Field Hockey League title for the past four years, but we've never gotten that far. We'd like to go back."

What could help the Cougars is the fact that the school's junior varsity team was not only undefeated, but unscored upon in 2004. Some very poised and talented seniors will slip into the starting lineup from that squad.

For last year's notes, click here.