Scholastic Notes

Tri-State region

NEW JERSEY

NEW JERSEY FINALS MORE COMPETITIVE THAN EXPECTED

The 2005 state championship finals in New Jersey were the last before the planned 2006 Tournament of Champions, which will be a first-in-the-nation single-elimination playoff when the four group champions meet.

What bodes well for the T of C is the fact that the 2005 finals were much more competitive than they seemed to be on paper. Take, for instance, the Group II state final, a firecracker of a match between Glassboro (N.J.) and North Caldwell West Essex (N.J.). Glassboro had not won a state championship in 30 years. West Essex, however, had won 10 titles and were nearly invincible on the Lions Stadium AstroTurf.

And while the Knights took a 2-1 win, it was not the easy match that some fans may have expected in one of the country's toughest state tournaments. West Essex, coming off a midseason stretch where they lost to Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) and Montclair (N.J.), had to make some adjustments for the state tournament.

"They weren't about to let the Montclair loss (in the finals of the Essex County tournament) to define their season," said Knights' coach Jill Cosse. "They had to make a decision: were they going to let that game define their year, or were they going to get back on track?"

West Essex, whose last three state final matches were decided either in overtime or in the final minutes of regulation, did not wait to place its stamp on the match, taking a 2-0 lead in the first 20 minutes.

A big part of the early Knights' advantage was the play of Kim Pantages. The senior, who finished the season with 49 goals, has signed on with Northwestern to play with their NCAA championship lacrosse team. rather than play field hockey.

"As a coach of both," Cosse said, "it hurts me having to see them make one choice or another. But she would have been great playing either sport. And I'll get to watch her on TV more often."

She did not record a goal on the day: the label of heroine went to sophomore Sam Serpe. But in the midfield, Pangates' pace, change of rhythm, and skill was too much for the Bulldogs on the day.

"I guess they were even more nervous than even they realized," said Glassboro head coach Gloria Byard. "We made some adjustments, but they have to show up. You have to show up, no matter what; you can't let a team with outstanding skills do what they want to do."

Byard's road to the title match was as rich as the team's. She was selected to the U.S. women's national team in from 1975 to 1978, but missed Team USA's run to the 1979 World Cup silver medal, exiting the national scene as a player.

She served as assistant coach at A.P. Schalick until 1989, then assisted at Glassboro until 2001, when she inherited a team in need of some inspiration and fire. Byard certainly has given that in her four years at the helm.

"So much of keeping current is going to conventions and workshops," Byard said. "And I got three more coming this offseason."

The never-say-die Bulldogs pulled one back late when senior attacking midfielder Emily Donaldson seized a small opening and blasted an early ball into the cage. It was a magnificent piece of hockey reminiscent of an international player.

"All my coaches told me I needed to take the early ball," Donaldson said. "I've tried to learn all year from them."

"I'm not taking credit for that," said Byard, who played right wing for Team USA in the 70s. "That was from her going to Futures and from all the hard work she did."

Part of that work, interestingly enough, was done at the field hockey camp run by Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) head coach Danyle Heilig. Usually, Heilig leads her team onto the field for state tournament games, but as her team filed onto the Lions Stadium turf, she took time to give congratulations and encouragement to Donaldson and teammate Leslie Kelly, the fine Glassboro senior goalkeeper, before the Vikings set about the task of winning its seventh straight Group IV state championship.

The opponent on the day was Bridgewater-Raritan (N.J.), which had earned its way into the match by winning the combined North I-North II championship in Group IV, giving the Panthers their first sectional title since the unification of the district's East and West campuses in the early 90s.

Eastern, however, showed much more than athleticism and relentlessness in a clinical 4-0 win. The Vikings showed a lot of pride and appreciation in the way they won their seventh straight state championship.

All you had to see was the way the team reacted to goalkeeper Lyndsie Johnson's save of Krista Feiselmann's last-minute penalty stroke. A conceded goal would not have been the worst thing to happen to Viking Nation, since the score was 4-0 at that point.

But when Johnson's blocker met the ball for the stop, the entire team surrounded her for about four or five seconds of celebration usually reserved for the end of the match.

"I had to have the shutout," Johnson said. "This being my final year, I can't go out with one goal (against). I had to have it my way, and I wouldn't ask for it any other way."

It was a triumphant moment for Johnson who, as goalkeeper, had a lot more than thick plastic padding on her shoulders in 2004 and 2005. For those two years, as the Vikings played its usual cadre of Olympic Conference opponents, plus the likes of West Essex and Glassboro in its non-league schedule, she was a focal point of the opposition.

"We've been lucky and blessed to have great goalkeepers," Heilig says. "Whether it's been Caitlin Gregory, Kate Ryno, Colleen Bolger, or Lyndsie, they've all done a tremendous job."

Throw in a pair of games with an excellent Emmaus (Pa.) program, with the pressure of keeping a Federation-record unbeaten streak alive, and you can understand why there have been times when Johnson has lost sleep the last couple of years.

"I think everyone thought this was the year when Eastern would go down," Heilig said. "And even though we lost, it was to a tremendous team in (Emmaus,) Pa. We dealt with a lot of adversity, and we were in situations where we were losing at halftime, and we still pushed through and persevered. It takes a special group to do that."

In Group III, Ocean City (N.J.) had a similar start to that of West Essex, potting two goals in quick succession to give the Red Raiders a 2-0 lead. That quick lead, and the history that the school has had at The College of New Jersey, had the green-clad supporters of opposing Basking Ridge Ridge (N.J.) worried. Ocean City has never lost a field hockey game at Lions Stadium.

"What we have had this year was the depth of talent all over the field," said OC head coach Trish LeFever. "It's a steady group that can strike at any place."

But Ridge knocked in a late penalty stroke to make the last quarter-hour very tense for Ocean City and its fans.

One big reason for Ridge's success the last two seasons has been head coach Mollie Reichard. The team won 18 games in 2004, following on 19 in 2005, earning its first state title game berth.

A former Division I player at Southwest Missouri State, she is from Hamburg, Pa., meaning that her high-school schedule included Berks County powerhouses such as Oley (Pa.) Valley and Palmyra (Pa.).

"This is the first time that field hockey has been really hyped up in our area," Reichard said. "Last year when I first came in, my coaching style was a lot different from what they were used to. The things that I started to instill in the kids, my skills, and my intensity levels were much higher than what they expected of themselves. It took them a while to get adjusted, but the kids are picking up on it, and that's what they have to do."

Reichard has, through her connections back in Berks County, remained active in offseason coaching. New Jersey does not allow its coaches to coach their players out of season, but Reichard coaches Pennsylvania players at the Futures level and at the USFHA level with Xcalibur, a club which includes Team USA phenom Katie O'Donnell.

"I try to get my kids some experience, just getting the kids exposure to what's out there," Reichard said. "And that's one reason why New Jersey is starting to fall behind Pennsylvania -- you can't coach your players in the offseason, while the moment your season's over back home, boom! you're with them indoors."

The Group I title match looked to be the most competitive of the four scheduled games, and it turned out to be so. Martinsville Pingry School (N.J.) had defeated Plumsted New Egypt (N.J.) in the last two Group I state finals, and the Warriors were looking to reverse the hex in 2005.

And the two teams played a true classic. Sara Messenger's penalty corner deflection in the 42nd minute gave New Egypt its inaugural state championship.

For head coach Patti Nicholson, it was the culmination of a vision that started eight years earlier when she was not only the head coach at New Egypt Middle School, but had a daughter, Katie, who was a major part of the 1997 Group II co-championship that Allentown (N.J.) shared with West Essex. It was a classic 2-all treble-overtime draw that was the TopOfTheCircle.com Game of the Decade.

When the Upper Freehold Regional School District split in 2000, plans for the new field hockey team were set in motion. Parents were assigned in-season and off-season responsibilities. Regimens for indoor and club play were planned. A purpose-built hockey-only grass pitch was planned for the campus.

And in just five years, New Egypt has a title in hand. Katie is now Patti Nicholson's assistant coach.

"My girls set a goal last year when they walked off this turf," Nicholson says of a 2-0 loss in the 2004 title match. "I could see it in their eyes: they weren't coming out of there without a win."

Whilst the game was a culmination for Nicholson, it was an end for Shannon Houston, the fine senior attacker. Like Pantages, field hockey isn't even her best sport. She is instead going to the University of California at Berkeley for softball -- also not a bad option for her, since the Bears are a perennial threat to make the College World Series.

"I've played softball since I was 10, and I love it," Houston said. "And yes, it is my sport, even though we've just won a state championship in field hockey."

MUCH TINKERING DONE WITH STATE BRACKETS

In 2005, the NJSIAA, through its bylaws, combined the two small fields for Group IV North 1 and Group IV North 2 into one single bracket of 11 teams.

It's not the first time the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association has altered a state tournament, but one year before the state becomes the first in the country to have an Tournament of Champions, every move the NJSIAA makes gives an indication into how well the 2006 tournament will run.

"In the state tournament constitution, any section with eight or fewer entrants may be combined with the other counterpart section," Linda Alimi, member of the NJSIAA field hockey committee and legendary North Caldwell West Essex coach, tells The Newark Star-Ledger. "It does make the path a little tougher, but the reward is great."

The Ledger reports that the NJSIAA is considering a field hockey-only group shift similar to what is seen in the Maryland girls' lacrosse tournament, where there are three titles to be won: 4A-3A, 3A-2A, and 2A-1A.

This shift, along with a geographical redrawing done in 1998 to add more teams to the northern half of the state, may yet create the utopian vision of equal sectional brackets.

"We have spent a lot of time on this because we understand this has been a perennial problem," Alimi tells The Ledger. "Not everyone will be happy, but we're looking for common ground."

YEP, GLASSBORO IS NOW A CONTENDER

Thirty years ago, Gloria Byard won herself a slot on the U.S. national field hockey team, allowing her to travel around the world.

But her heart has always belonged to Glassboro, NJ. A graduate of the high school and the local state school (now known as Rowan University), she came back to coach the high-school team in 2002 after the Bulldogs posted a 5-13-1 season.

An attitude adjustment, led by an astounding freshman class, ensued. The team proved itself more than a worthy opponent for the likes of Voorhees Eastern (N.J.), losing by a 1-0 scoreline. And four years later, Glassboro is primed for a state championship.

Glassboro earned a quality 2-1 win over Pennsauken Bishop Eustace Prep (N.J.), followed by a 1-0 win over Collingswood (N.J.) in the sectional final, then edged Allentown (N.J.) 3-2 in a physical state semifinal match.

"We've grown together, but this is their last chance," Byard tells The Camden Courier-Post. "They need to enjoy the moment now and leave it all on the field."

COUNTY TOURNAMENTS GONE WILD!

The last two weekends of October in New Jersey has traditionally been the season for FA Cup-style knockout competitions to get teams ready for state tournament play.

But all the five single-county, two conference, and two multi-county tournaments did this year was scramble newspaper polls.

Take, for example, the Essex County Tournament final between Montclair (N.J.) and North Caldwell West Essex (N.J.). The Mounties, as per usual, were heavy underdogs coming into the tournament -- mostly becaust it was the 2003 and 2004 teams which were the strong contenders to beat the Knights.

But Ali Andre's overtime goal gave Montclair a 2-1 win and sent the team, supporters, and coach into a state of delirium. It was the first Essex County Tournament for Montclair since 1989.

"Did we really just beat West Essex in overtime?" head coach Mary Pat Mercuro asked, rhetorically, a Morristown Times reporter. "I mean, you dream about accomplishing something like this but when it actually happens, 's hard to comprehend that it's real."

In the middle of the state, the Mercer County Tournament final was a match of two undefeated teams. Princeton Stuart Country Day School (N.J.) had not won a MCT title since 1995, and had lost two straight finals to Allentown (N.J.), which, in a geographical twist of fate, is actually located in Middlesex County.

But Kelly Bruvik took advantage of Allentown's defensive flanks and scored on two long breakaways to beat the Redbirds 2-0.

"That's the first time we scored on Allentown in two years," Stuart coach Missy Bruvik tells The Princeton Packet. "It was 1-0 and 2-0, so this is the first time we've been able to score on them. We've been confident throughout the season that we can put the ball in and it paid off."

Allentown had come into the week undefeated and primed for a run at the state Group II title. But Stuart goalkeeper Christa Goeke stood in the way."I was a little worried about their offense," Goeke told The Packet. "I read the papers. I was so determined to make sure they weren't going to score. I was not going to let them win."

The final of the Morris County Tournament saw a team with just as much determination with the trophy afterwards. Mountain Lakes (N.J.) had never won an MCT, but with a 3-1 win over Morristown (N.J.), defended its 16-1 record.

"It feels good to finally win it," head coach Alison Preston tells The Newark Star-Ledger "The girls played a great game."

The Lakers got the goals they needed around the half-hour mark. Cori-Ann Cannarella's corner blast in the 28th minute, followed by a Tracy Deitrick rebound goal in the 32nd.

Morristown ratcheted up the pressure, earning 22 penalty corners in the second half. But the Lakes defense was strong, led by corner flyer Sally Ryan.

"Sally had a phenomenal game," said Preston to the Ledger. "She was excited for the challenge and she did a fabulous job."

More history was made in the Hunterdon-Warren Tournament final. Hackettstown (N.J.), a team which had been left on the scrap heap for 17 years, won a second HWT final in two seasons, beating Flemington Hunterdon Central 1-0.

The difference was Heather Kozimor's goal in the fifth minute, which stood under Central's relentless pressure.

"Maybe I should retire," Tigers coach Gina DiMaio quipped to The Easton Express-Times. "It's just an honor to get (to the final), then to win it twice. The girls deserve all the credit."

The Shore Conference Tournament ended in dramatics, but mostly to those who might not understand the rules.

With the game drawn 1-1 in extra time, Shore Regional's Jessica Murphy made like an Australian midfielder and flipped a lofted pass into an open space, upon which Allyson Vogel swooped and moved to goal.

But her run was interrupted by the last Ocean Township defender which, correctly, yielded a penalty stroke.

"When I saw the pass coming at me, I felt I had a chance to do something," Vogel tells The Newark Star-Ledger. "I saw an open lane and one of their defenders coming up on an angle. I was hoping to get a good shot off, but I got tripped."

Mackenzie Leary potted the resulting stroke to give Shore a 2-1 win, its seventh straight conference championship, Nancy Williams' 667th career victory -- and, most importantly, the Blue Devils' 15th straight victory after an earth-shattering 5-0 loss to Rumson-Fair Haven in the season opener.

The Somerset County Tournament also ended in overtime Leslie Springmeyer's goal in the 66th minute gave Martinsville Pingry School a 1-0 win at Bridgewater-Raritan (N.J.). It was the 11th title the Big Blue had won or shared the Somerset crown.

"Once we got to overtime, we picked up the pace a little bit," said senior Fran Callaghan to The Star-Ledger. "We were tired, but we did not want to leave this field without a win."

Another private school which is equally adept in county tournament play is Summit Oak Knoll (N.J.), which has appeared in the Union County Tournament final in seven straight seasons.

Oak Knoll left its offensive attack against Clark Johnson Regional (N.J.) until the final quarter hour. Lauren Varnas stuck in a stroke in the 47th minute, while Allie Hubschmann knocked in a corner in the 57th. It was her 32nd goal of the season, which is believed to be the most by a sophomore in the country in 2005.

"I really wasn't nervous, I was confident," Varnas tells The Newark Star-Ledger. "This feels amazing and it's great to be a part of this team."

In the Greater Middlesex Tournament, East Brunswick (N.J.) got a pair of goals from Katie Colchie in a 2-1 win over Parlin Sayreville War Memorial (N.J.). It was the Bears' first championship since 2001 and an important victory for a field hockey program which has seen its girls' soccer program become the talk of the town thanks to one Heather O'Reilly.

Playing at Monroe's patch of artificial turf, East Brunswick used a wonderful through pass from Christine Buszczak to send Colchie for the game-winning goal in the 40th minute of play.

"I got a great pass from Christine and just took it down the field," Colchie tells The Ledger. "I saw the goalie come out and I just shot and got it behind her. We wanted this championship so badly. We knew Sayreville would be a huge game. They had beaten us twice already and that made us even more eager to come out and play harder."

But of all the wild tournament finals held in County Tournament Season, perhaps nothing was more dramatic than Passaic Valley's 1-0 stroke win over Wayne Hills after a 2-2 overtime draw.

Kelly Mataya's goal in the third round of strokes was the only goal of the 10 attempted. Foreshadowing this, however, was a play in the 78th minute when Passaic Valley back Jillian Agnello deflected a ball headed towards goal.

"When I saw that ball headed toward the goal, I dove as hard as I could in an attempt to stop it," Agnello tells The Star-Ledger. "The official said I threw my stick at the ball, but if I didn't do something, we would have lost."

Ashley Bifalco saved the stroke, setting the tone for the round of flicks that would come in two more minutes.

HUNTERDON-WARREN TOURNAMENT OFF TO UPSETTING START

In the infinite kaleidoscope of variables that define a field hockey program, perhaps one of the most unusual can define West Amwell South Hunterdon (N.J.).

The Eagles have won more big games in the rain than perhaps any other in the past couple of decades. In 1995, they beat Martinsville Pingry School (N.J.) in a driving rainstorm during a Group I Central state tournament match. And in 2005, they did it again, defeating top-seeded Washington Warren Hills (N.J.) in the Hunterdon-Warren Tournament.

"It was pouring rain, and I was afraid it wouldn't get in," South Hunterdon head coach Thyra Zengel tells The Lambertville Beacon.

But the Steel and Blue are made of sterner stuff. The school, overlooking the Delaware River valley, is one in which work ethic is placed above all else. Zengel's father coached the school football team, which had sometimes as few as 30 players on the entire roster.

And the team does not get caught up in distractions: look in the gymnasium and amongst the occasional championship banners are the sportsmanship banners the school has won for being disqualification-free throughout the entire sports program.

South remained focused, even through the rain, and scored four goals in the second half to win 4-1. Devon Shire had two of the Eagle goals.

"The girls were very happy and deservedly so," Zengel tells The Beacon. "It was unexpected. But I think the girls played the way they are capable. They didn't realize it until they did it."

EASTERN-WESSEX GAME A TALE OF MOMENTUM

It was an awfully long bus ride home for North Caldwell West Essex (N.J.) after losing 6-0 in 2004 at Voorhees Eastern (N.J.).

And in the 360 or so days following, every returning West Essex player wanted to do better. And to their credit, they did.

In one of the wildest games that Eastern has had to play in defending its Federation-record unbeaten streak, the Vikings survived shifting momentum as well as West Essex's new campus turf facility to take a 2-1 win.

The Knights, playing easily its biggest home match to that point of the season, did not disappoint their supporters. The Knights put immediate pressure on the six-time defending Group IV state champions, forcing a penalty stroke in the ninth minute. But goalkeeper Lyndsie Johnson threw a big stop sign onto Kim Pantages' flick.

That was Momentum Swing No. 1, but it didn't last for long. Ten minutes after the stroke attempt, Pantages found Giovanna Monaco on a well-executed short corner to give the hosts the lead. Momentum shift No. 2.

The half ended with West Essex up 1-0, and Danyle Heilig opened up her book of great field hockey motivational speeches yet again.

Whatever was said worked -- momentum shift No. 3. Jen Bolger, off a Meghan Bain feed, found the cage to tie the match. Minutes later, West Essex found itself playing down one player due to a yellow-card suspension -- momentum shift No. 4.

Bain found the back of the cage less than a minute after the Knights went down to 10 players, giving her side the lead.

"The opening 10 minutes of the second was our downfall." West Essex head coach Jill Cosse tells The Newark Star-Ledger. "Our first half was fantastic and we played with 100 percent intensity."

But as the clock wound past three-quarter time, Bain, having been issued green and yellow cards earlier in the match, was shown red. It would have to be a 10-woman team to hold off West Essex in the final minutes. Momentum shift No. 5.

"I don't know how they do it -- they're incredible kids," Heilig told The Camden Courier-Post. "What these 14-, 15-, 16- and 17-year-old kids do day after day, year after year, game after game amazes me."

The match was Eastern's third road game of four in a demanding eight-day stretch leading up to a similar eight-day, four-game away stretch between Oct. 19th and 26th, in the midst of which is found an all-expenses paid trip to suburban Allentown to meet Emmaus (Pa.).

VITTESE SHOWS VITESSE IN BESTING CHEROKEE

In the summer of 2003, Michelle Vittese enjoyed her debut on a national stage as her USA South National Futures team took the silver medal in the inaugural U-14 championship tournament.

Heck, compared to that, anything is a piece of cake, including playing against The Team That Tied Eastern.

Vittese scored a pair of scintillating goals (a hat trick could have been had if a stroke wasn't left wanting) to lead Cherry Hill Camden Catholic (N.J.) to a 3-0 victory over Marlton Cherokee (N.J.), which had come into the week's action as the nation's No. 7 team in the TopOfTheCircle.com Top 10.

"I think they depend on her," Camden Catholic coach Monica DiBease tells The Camden Courier-Post. "When she's working the ball, someone can get ahead of her and wait for the ball to be sent up because they know she'll get it to them."

Cherokee, to its credit, did not quit. The Chiefs earned 17 corners to the Irish's four, but could not solve Michele DePasquale and her corner defense unit.

"Our flyers and trailers did great," DePasquale told The Courier-Post. "Our defense stepped up -- they're young, but they played awesome today."

OLD-TIME HOCKEY BETWEEN COLLINGSWOOD AND HADDONFIELD

It's almost appropriate that the field hockey season in southern New Jersey starts and ends with matches between old friends and rivals.

Whilst the season will end with a match between the state's (and possibly, the nation's) two oldest rivals in Moorestown (N.J.) and Haddonfield (N.J.), the first week of the 2005 season started with a game equally rich in tradition. That's because Haddonfield (N.J.) and Collingswood (N.J.) are located a scant three miles apart on the south banks of the Cooper River.

In 2005, Haddonfield caught Collingswood in a state of transition. The Colls program, for the first time in 22 seasons, is breaking in a new coach. Although Valerie Dayton has held the title of interim head coach at Collingwood whilst Sandy Ritter was on medical leave, a road opener with Haddonfield Memorial -- reputed to be the nation's oldest program -- is a heck of a way to start your career.

Haddonfield made the game a festive occasion, with a large crowd, balloons, and an atmosphere fit for a World Cup match. The host Bulldogs responded for their supporters, scoring a first-half Meredith Sabatini goal against the run of play to take the lead at the interval.

But a timely Nicole Valianti strike in the 39th allowed this Colonial Conference rivals to end in a 1-1 draw.

Haddonfield, despite conceding points in the league table at home, was more than happy with the result; the Bulldogs haven't managed as much as a draw in the last two years.

"It's confidence," Haddonfield coach Alicia Scully relates in The Camden Courier-Post. "They're usually not confident against this kind of team, but today they realized they could play with them, that they're comparable to them. And I believe we really are."

Sounds like more fuel to the fire when these rivals meet later in the year.

IN SEARCH OF POSITIVE HISTORY

When Hillsborough (N.J.) traveled to Lawrence (N.J.) for a 3-0 victory in the second week of the 2005 season, the game meant a lot more than just a chance to flex muscle against a non-conference opponent.

For the players and coaches, it was a chance to measure themselves to their expectations -- both short-term and long-term.

Hillsborough head coach Peach Draper had, the previous day, dropped a game to Group IV nemesis Flemington Hunterdon Central (N.J.) in what should have been a revenge game for last year's state playoff loss.

"We played them and lost 1-0 to them again," Draper said. "We just have to get past the mental part of them. We have the physical skill; we just need the mental part."

Hillsborough has had a rich history in field hockey, culminating in a 1983 state championship in Group III, one which was shared with Montville.

"About the mid-80s, they dropped off the face of the earth," said Draper. "From 2000 to 2005, we've improved our record every single year and made it to the state tournament."

Draper came in shortly before the turn of the century, but since a recent installation of artificial grass, the team has been outstanding.

"We just work hard in practice, and try to transition practices to the games," she says. "The turf really helps us in passing the ball, and with our speed."

For Lawrence (N.J.), the 2005 season is one which is trying to gain a sense of perspective and stability in getting its third new coach in less than a half-decade.

Now, the Cardinals have had tremendous success within the Colonial Valley Conference, winning numerous divisional championships and boasting a winning percentage that should be the envy of the state.

But the Cardinals have won exactly one non-league championship in its history -- the Mercer County Tournament championship of 1986. And in the state tournament, Lawrence has put its fans through Boston Red Sox-esque episodes. The Cardinals' best chance to win a state championship might have been 1998, when they played for a sectional title at home. But Washington Warren Hills won the title in penalty strokes.

Candace Mains has a great chance to reverse that history. The first-year head coach is a product of the positive esprit de corps of her high-school team, Bordentown (N.J.).

And, when she went to West Chester University for her degree, she kept her skills up by playing in the school's intramural field hockey system.

Today, she's not just your ordinary twentysomething trying to gain the confidence of a group of teenagers. There's something more to her than that. There's a sense of peace and calm around her, even as the swirling whisk of players, sticks, and umpires blend in front of her.

"Their spirits are up, and they have a very positive outlook for the season," Mains says. "I'd love for us to win our conference, and I'm optimistic about that."

When Mains was playing for Bordentown in the 1990s, rosters for varsity, junior varsity, and freshman teams for both girls' soccer and field hockey filled every year. Not so north of Crosswicks Creek.

"Numbers are down across the board," she says. "We didn't have enough players for a freshman team, so we had to cut the team. Not having that, we're having a lot of players on JV that are still trying to develop their skills from middle school. It's a big step."

Mains, who teaches at Lawrence, finds herself in a unique position to teach lessons learned from her mentors, including former Bordentown coach Mariann Smith.

"She always taught us to play with heart and with a love for the game, and to never give up and play as a team," Mains says. "Obviously, she did something right, because I'm still here coaching, and I still love the game."

A HOCKEY SUMMER YIELDS GREAT FRUITS

Jaclyn Gaudioso-Radvany has spent almost every waking moment the summer before her freshman year at Princeton Stuart Country Day School (N.J.) living and breathing the game of field hockey.

She has played at the National Futures Tournament, in club tournaments, at the Junior Olympics, and has even taken on the role of umpire.

"I love watching the game," Gaudioso-Radvany tells The Trenton Times. "It's a great game to watch. No matter what I made I was just excited to be playing. I've worked really hard this summer."

Making perhaps the single biggest splash in Mercer County since former Lawrence standout Iza Kotowski in 1995, Gaudioso-Radvany rang up four goals to lead the Tartans to a 7-1 win over West Amwell South Hunterdon (N.J.).

"Oh my God, isn't she unbelievable?" head coach Missy Bruvik told The Times. "What a talent. You can feel her passion for the game when she is on that field. To her credit, she has done everything to be the player she is. She just loves the game. She is a pleasure to watch."

It was Stuart's second win of the season, following up on a 6-1 win over Sayreville (N.J.) War Memorial in the season opener.

ALLEN HAS HUN SCHOOL AIMING HIGH

Quick. Name a high school that has sent as many as four athletes to the United States U-16 national-team program since it started play in 1994.

OK, there are plenty of candidates such as Emmaus (Pa.), Voorhees Eastern (N.J.), and Gahanna Columbus Academy (Ohio). But would you believe one of the schools in this august gathering is The Hun School of Princeton (N.J.)?

Yep. And the school that has gave us the likes of Leah Bills, Cori Hendon, Maureen Scannapieco, and Meris Burton could be heading towards a golden age of field hockey at the school, located a couple of miles south of the Princeton University campus.

All you have to do is to come down the hill from the school's field house. A new patch of artificial grass is laid down in front of the football grandstands. Meanwhile the two acres near the creek are only used for practice. A good thing: the Hun hockey fields, located near a brook at the south end of campus, were amongst the poorest-draining in all of the land.

But there is now stability on the team's competition surface as well as in the coaching box. Antoinette Allen, the former interim head coach at Columbia University, takes over the job with an impressive international resume. She spent time in Paraguay after getting her degree from Columbia, then coaching at New York Brearley (N.Y.) and New York Fieldston (N.Y.).

"It's completely different from working with the underdog perspective to (working with) a program that's traditionally successful," Allen said. "At first it was difficult. It got harder as we got higher expectations at Columbia. Working with Hun, they already have high expectations. I think maybe the older players have a better sense of what makes a winning team."

The Raiders have had success in recent seasons, winning the New Jersey Independent Schools Athletic Association championship in 2000 and 2001.

PENNSYLVANIA

IN PENNSYLVANIA, GOOD OFFENSE BEATS GOOD DEFENSE

The 2005 Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association finals showed the value of a good attack -- both on the part of individuals, and team-wide.

In the AAA final, Emmaus (Pa.), the No. 1 team in the TopOfTheCircle.com Top 10 for the entire 2005 season, was the greatest offensive machine in National Federation history. But the Hornets had come to the state finals in 2002 having scored more goals than any high-school team had ever scored in one season, only to come up empty in at the final step.

There was also the challenge of having to play Allentown William Allen (Pa.) -- a team which they had beaten three times this season -- at the Canaries' home ground, J. Birney Crum Stadium.

But Emmaus made The Home of the Canaries its own, scoring two late goals to give the Hornets a 2-0 win, the PIAA Class AAA championship, and the TopOfTheCountry trophy for being the finest team in all the land.

"In terms of the modern game, played on turf, and with our talent and depth, I'd say this was our best team ever," said Emmaus head coach Susan Butz-Stavin, who now has eight state championships and 614 wins all time. "I'd give it to this group on athleticism."

Allen had tried different tactics in previous matches, to try to limit the Hornets' speed and skills, including one match in which it tried to shorten and slow down the game in order to limit Emmaus' offensive touches.

And even though Allen head coach Karen Nilson said her team played Emmaus "head-to-head" in the final, the Canaries played six or seven players behind the ball in what looked like a bunker defense straight out of 1980s-era international soccer.

But let it also be said that William Allen played excellent corner defense thanks to flyer Jamie Perkins. The senior speedster utterly frustrated the Emmaus corner attack team, and changed the game with some precise, powerful ball-striking on the counterattack.

"This game, I knew I had to step it up, trying to stop whatever I could," Perkins said. "Our game plan was to hold nothing back. To hold the No. 1 team in the country to two goals, I can't ask for more."

Much of the talk about Allen's team surrounded the speed, strength, and attacking prowess of senior Lamar Long, who is believed to be first male player ever to be on a state championship finalist in National Federation history. As one of the team's post players on corner defense, he cleared several loose balls in the circle that, on another day, would have been pounced on by the swarming green-shirted Hornet attackers.

He also brought loud cheers from the Allen fans when he sprinted upfield with the ball. But equally loud Emmaus cheers erupted when either sophomore Rachel Jennings or senior Tara King would swoop in and take the ball away with a sudden effort.

"We wanted to leave this field without any regrets," Jennings said. "If you have to get down on your butts and have to dive on the ground for the ball or push someone over for the ball, we'll do it."

"If you can trap him, you can go in and double-team him," Butz-Stavin said. "He does hang onto the ball too long, trying to use his speed and athleticism. I thought that would be the one thing they would try to change."

The scoreless game got more tense after three-quarter time, when Allen made its deepest offensive foray. Long had a great chance to put his side up a goal heading into the final 10 minutes when he, a rebound, and Emmaus goalkeeper Abbey Huck converged near the right post. Amongst a whisk of Allen sticks, Huck managed to clear the ball.

Two minutes later, Emmaus earned a short corner. The play was sent in for King, but the team lined up wrong.

"We weren't supposed to have a double-battery stick stop, we were just supposed to have just one stick stop from the (left) side," King said. "We were trying to avoid Perkins in the middle because she comes up big on straight shots. I just happened to get the ball off."

Allen, which had changed its corner defense coverage at halftime, chose this very corner to not send a flyer or flyer-trailer combination, appearing to anticipate a series of passes rather than a straight shot.

King, the James Madison-bound senior who has a penchant for big plays in big games, plastered the ball against the wooden backboard to give the Hornets and their fans a 1-0 lead.

Minutes later, Christina Bortz and Jess Werley would connect for the final time as high-schoolers to give Emmaus late insurance.

"We've worked so hard for this, and we deserve it," King said. "But (Allen) is a great team, and they definitely deserve to be here."

In the AA final, Palmyra (Pa.) was led by the brilliant Kelly Fitzpatrick, who had come into the final with Oley (Pa.) Valley leading the country with 65 goals.

Although the Lynx were able to keep Palmyra off the board for a while, it wasn't to be. The Cougars claimed a 4-0 win; it was the school's first state field hockey title.

"This group of seniors went through some disappointments as freshmen, watching kids that weren't quite able to get the job done, and it's served them very, very well," said Palmyra head coach Wendy Reichenbach. "The key for our success was bonding together as a team, supporting each other. When somebody wasn't quite up, nobody dumped on them. They empowered each other; the chemistry issue was huge."

The Cougars almost had a dream start in the final, earning a short corner in less than one minute. But that corner, as well as the next nine, went wanting mostly because of an outstanding Oley Valley penalty corner defense unit.

"It was the excitement, I think," Reichenbach said. "We were there, and we dominated from the start."

Oley's quartet of Morgan Gerhart, Lauren Chubb, Kim Angstart, and Kristen Wanner did a splendid of scrambling to get a stick, a body, anything on the ball to assist goalkeeper Bethann Foreman.

The Lynx defensive effort was rewarded when, against the run of play, they earned a corner in the 22nd minute. But Oley's finest chance of the first term was saved by goalkeeper Caroline Lehman.

But Palmyra didn't come into the week ranked No. 3 in the TopOfTheCircle.com Top 10 for nothing. Sarah Bicksler was the beneficiary of a neat five-way passing combination on the Cougars' 10th corner of the match to give her side a 1-0 lead.

"We had used that corner this year," Reichenbach said. "We were just trying to see what their defense was giving us, and they were marking us really tight in the circle. We just had to see who was open.

Briana Davies scored a wonderful field goal one minute into the second half to double the advantage, then ran a wonderful jailbreak with Fitzpatrick four minutes later, resulting in Fitzpatrick's 66th goal of the season. Bicksler would hit on a penalty stroke in the 41st minute. It was that kind of day.

"That lets them relax just a little bit -- although in any championship game, you don't want to relax," Reichenbach said. "But after that, there wasn't the sense of urgency like at the beginning, where they were their own worst enemy at times."

Fitzpatrick ended her high-school career with 155 goals, fifth all-time. And, tellingly, she will be attending the University of Michigan, whose assistant coach Tracey Fuchs is the second-leading all-time Federation scorer.

INTERNECINE RIVALRIES SET FOR PIAA FINALS

When teams from more than one PIAA district are seeded into a the main field in the state tournament, it is more often than not those districts with multiple seeds see their top two seeds get placed in opposite halves of the bracket, with little or no hope that the teams, having played a district championship two weeks previous, would meet each other again.

But Allentown William Allen (Pa.) and Emmaus (Pa.) both won their way to the Class AAA title match out of District 11, and Oley (Pa.) Valley and Palmyra (Pa.) each came out of District 3 to make the AA championship.

The four semifinal matches were epic in scope and storyline. William Allen outlasted Ambler Wissahickon (Pa.) 2-1 in overtime on a goal scored by Rebecca Freed. But what will likely be talked about for a long time is the role that one player had on the Chicks' team in 2005.

That player is 5-foot-10 senior Lamar Long, who is believed to be the first male to lead a PIAA team in goal-scoring on its way to the final. His laser pass to Jenn Schultz led to Freed's game-winner against a Wissahickon team which enjoyed a late-season resurgence when U.S. national-teamer Katie O'Donnell returned from a three-nations tournament in Argentina.

Emmaus, for its part, could have stumbled against Lititz Warwick (Pa.), a team which has had better-than-average success against the mighty Hornets in recent years. But Emmaus, the top-ranked team in the TopOfTheCircle.com Top 10 all season, took a 3-0 win.

It wasn't as easy as win the scoreline showed; a bout of food poisoning affected some Emmaus team members, and aside from Christina Bortz's fourth-minute strike and two late markers, the teams played fairly evenly.

On the AA side, District 3 runner-up Oley (Pa.) Valley used a second-half rally to get by Malvern Villa Maria (Pa.). Villa had taken a lead in the seventh minute on what would be its only shot of the game, but the Lynx kept fighting until their 14th corner, during which Teryn Brill sank a rebound. Minutes later, Lauren Solly and Kristen Wanner also got penalty corner goals.

But the match of all matches had to be the semifinal between Kingston Wyoming Seminary (Pa.), the No. 2 team in the TopOfTheCircle.com Top 10, and No. 3 Palmyra (Pa.).

The teams played gorgeous back-and-forth hockey that was repelled by their opposing defensive backfields.

Seminary, a young team with just a handful of seniors, will forever rue the day that it lost track of the nation's leading goal-scorer in the 12th minute of play. A single failed clear wound up on the stick of Kelly Fitzpatrick, who scored her 65th goal of the season.

The total leads the country in the 2005 season. The total is the best any player from the state of Pennsylvania has ever scored in one season, and is the third-best single-season total of all time behind Olympians Tracey Fuchs and Michelle Vizzuso. Her 154 career goals is also a state record, and is the fifth-best career total in Federation history.

PALMYRA USES ITS "WEED WHACKERS" TO GREAT ADVANTAGE

Name a good scholastic field hockey team, and you can name a developmental tool that is ultimately responsible for the team's success.

For some, it's recreational leagues. For others, it is the work done in summer camps. Or, it could be a highly competitive junior-high system.

But for the Palmyra (Pa.) field hockey team, the development system starts with The Weed Whackers.

"We put sticks in their hands in kindergarten or first grade," says Cougars coach Wendy Reichenbach. "That's the beauty of our program. They love to play, and they've been playing for a long time."

Coming out of that system is a special group of seniors which have pushed Palmyra to a level of excellence in the fall of 2005 that they may never have attained before. The school had never won a state field hockey crown.

Palmyra came into the week of the District 3-Class AA tournament ranked No. 6 in the TopOfTheCircle.com Top 10, and looking for its third straight title. Much of the team's excellence comes from a speedy and skilled group of former Weed Whackers who, playing together for up to a dozen years together, have developed an unspoken language.

Seniors Bri Davies and Kelly Fitzpatrick connected for both goals in a 2-0 win over Oley (Pa.) Valley in the 3-AA final. The goals were Fitzpatrick's 58th and 59th of the season, which lead the nation."It's awesome communication between Bri and I," says Fitzpatrick. "I've never been one to say, 'My goal is to get so many goals,' When goals come, they come, but that's not my top priority in playing."

Davies has almost 30 assists on the season, mainly due to not only Fitzpatrick's penchant for finishing, but some enterprising play amongst the fleet Cougar fronters.

Take, for instance, the insurance goal Palmyra scored in the final five minutes of the 3-AA match. Oley, pushing forward for an equalizer, left their rear flanks exposed. Davies seized the space and took full advantage, dribbling to the second-goal area just to the right of the goal cage. Both Davies' centering pass and Fitzpatrick's resulting goal were lightning-quick and efficient.

"We've been playing with each other for a long time, and I know she's always going to be at the top of the circle," Davies said. "And she's always there, and I know she's not going to fail."

"We know everyone's speed and everyone's skill," says the Michigan-bound Fitzpatrick. "I don't even have to say anything more than 'Bri! Bri!' and the ball's coming."

Oley Valley came into the game perhaps feeling underappreciated; after all, the Lynx came into the game with 23 wins and didn't get them with smoke and mirrors.

"My players hung in there, and I'm very proud of what we accomplished," says Oley Valley head coach Donna Long. "And we'll see what we can do in States."

There is undeniable talent on the team which earned the second seed from District 3 into a state tournament sector which is, oddly, easier to navigate than Palmyra's half.

"It's been like that for years," Long says. "We'll start with District 4's No. 2 seed, and they start with District 11's No. 2 seed, but if things work out, in the semifinals, our No. 1 plays District 2's No. 1, and our No. 2 plays District 2's No. 2. That is, if things work out."

LEHMAN OUSTS CRESTWOOD

When an area as small as greater Scranton and Wilkes-Barre have great rivals playing in the same district tournament with only two state tournament berths available, someone gets sent home way too early.

And in 2005, that team was Mountain Top Crestwood (Pa.). The winners of two straight Class AA titles and the No. 2 team in the TopOfTheCircle Top 10 for 2004, the Comets met their end in the 25th minute when Lehman Lake-Lehman (Pa.) freshman attacker Kelsey Amy knocked in a cross.

"What a game," Lake-Lehman coach Jean Lipski tells The Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader. "They did really, really well. I asked them not to slack off in the second half, and not to take the edge off. They were playing with their backs to the wall, and they played with such fortitude and such poise."

The Comets tried everything in their attacking arsenal. Crestwood managed 18 corners, but forced only 11 saves.

"This is the game of field hockey," said Crestwood coach Elvetta Gemski. "We had many, many opportunities to score. It's certainly hard to lose at this point."

PATRIOTS PLOW THROUGH "BRACKET OF DEATH"

Nobody said the road to the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class AAA tournament would be an easy one for any District I team, much less 2002 state champion Buckingham Central Bucks East (Pa.).

All the Patriots had to do to win one of six automatic berths in the state tournament was to go through teams with junior national-teamers on them.

East got through the first half of its challenge in dramatic fashion, earning a penalty stroke off a second untimed corner at the end of regulation to beat Fairview Village Methacton (Pa.) 2-1.

The whole scenario was set when Steph Pater managed to keep possession of the ball in the circle just when one of the four Methacton defenders appeared set to clear the ball out of the circle and force overtime. Pater won the ball and earned a corner.

"They were driven," Patriots head coach Marie Meehan told The Doylestown Intelligencer. "They were, as they say, 'in the zone.' They had one goal in mind - to win the game."

On that decisive corner, an Indian back stopped a sure goal with her body. That led to Carolyn Franco's stroke, taken against U-21 national-team goalkeeper Brianna O'Donnell.

The reward: an all-expenses paid trip to Ambler Wissahickon (Pa.) and senior women's national team member Katie O'Donnell -- Brianna O'Donnell's cousin.

There, Katie O'Donnell had a goal and an assist in a virtuoso performance as Wissahickon topped East 3-0.

"The last couple of weeks, we've been playing awesome," O'Donnell tells The Intelligentser. "It's really nice to see us progress this way."

So much so that once the Trojans took a 3-0 lead by the quarter-hour, any resistance that East might have had designs on never materialized.

"It's hard to play on turf against a team that plays on turf every day," East senior midfielder Kelly O'Brien said. "You can tell we were picking it up by the end, but the 15-minute lapse at the beginning of the game hurt.

GIAMMARCO SETS WHAT COULD BE A MARK FOR THE AGES

On adjoining fields behind Bethlehem (Pa.) Catholic are the practice field for a highly-touted football team and the home ground for a field hockey team which had won one match during 2005.

But on Oct. 19, the field hockey team had the attention of the football players.

As player after player from Brodheadsville Pleasant Valley (Pa.) broke in and shot on goal, the football players started whispering to each other: "Hey, did she get the record yet?" "Did she do it?"

In amongst the campus community, there was no need to qualify the pronouns, because everybody knew what was happening.

For junior Krisha Giammarco put her body on the line for 20 games in 2005, stopping the most shots ever to be known to be made in one season in the history of the National Federation -- 513.

For all the attention and history, the moment almost didn't happen. Giammarco played much of the second half with a mild concussion after one of the Pleasant Valley players knocked her down on a breakaway.

But Giammarco has faced a lot of obstacles this season. The team yielded more than 600 shots on goal -- not counting the ones that went wide of the goal cage.

This includes five penalty stroke saves which were inexplicably left off the scoresheets and does not include about a dozen defensive saves made by fullbacks on the rare occasion a ball did get by Giammarco.

"What this season did was make our defenders trust each other," she says. "We got a lot better this season."

SURVILLA MAKES HER MARK

The 2005 season was supposed to be the one in which Amie Survilla, she of the mighty shot, crafty skills, and a devil-may-care style of play, would lead Mountain Top Crestwood (Pa.) to a third straight PIAA state title, whilst extending the school's winning streak into uncharted territory.

And there was something else: she needed 54 goals to tie the national record for career goals scored by a high-school field hockey player. Consider the fact that she had 63 goals in 2004, and it was not unreasonable to believe that she would be making a frontal assault on this mark.

But not all has been well in Comet Nation. The team has been struggling on the field and off. Crestwood had a staggering pair of early-season losses against Collegeville Upper Perkiomen (Pa.) and Hummelstown Lower Dauphin (Pa.).

Too, in late September, teachers in the Crestwood school district went on strike. Head coach Elvetta Gemski, however, remained with the team even though she is part of the teachers' union.

Survilla, drawing multiple markers every game, has not maintained the strike rate she had in 2004. She entered the last week of the regular season on 24 goals.

But there were other standards that she could set, even if she was destined to fall short of the 20-year-old national record set by Sharon Landau.

There was the hallowed Pennsylvania goal-scoring mark of 145, set by Crestwood graduate Carissa Messimer.

And in the second half of a late-season game against Wyoming Valley West (Pa.), Survilla completed a hat trick to surpass the mark.

If there was any disappointment in her voice, she must have hidden it well.

�I feel a lot like a 20-pound brick was taken right off me," she tells The Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader. "I find myself marked more than last year, so it�s been a frustrating season."

Now fifth on the all-time goal-scoring list, she has to increase her season scoring output by 50 percent in order to get to Carla Tagliente (159) and Kim Miller (160), and she needs to double the output to get to Tracey Fuchs (171) and Landau (174). All four have played on women's national teams representing the United States in international competitions ranging from the Olympics to the Maccabiah Games.

Rarefied air, indeed.

WIN NO. 600 IS A SPECIAL TIME IN A SPECIAL SEASON

The 2005 season became a truly special one for Emmaus (Pa.) on several levels. Before the season even began, success came to 10 players within its program as they took home gold medals for their teams at the three age levels at the National Futures Tournament.

And with nine starters and a great senior class coming back, they held the top spot in the TopOfTheCircle.com Preseason Top 10.

But what was a also special was an 8-1 win over Allentown Freedom (Pa.) on Oct. 5, one in which head coach Susan Butz-Stavin became the second head coach in recorded Federation history to attain 600 field hockey wins.

Oddly enough, not much was made of the milestone after the match: there were other facts to contemplate.

Freedom's lone goal was the only one that the Northampton Division of the Lehigh Valley Conference has scored on the Hornets in 2005. And also consider that Freedom was seven goals adrift of Emmaus as the second-place team within the division with 12 wins to its credit coming in. That's the kind of absolutely frightening hockey Emmaus is playing in 2005.

''They're a great stick-to-stick passing team: they just don't miss," Freedom head coach Charis Innarella. "[Their home] turf only accentuates their speed and skill level.''

PERKIOMEN VALLEY USES ITS HEAD, HEART

Up on the northern slope of the Perkiomen Creek, Collegeville Perkiomen Valley (Pa.) has been laboring in the shadows of rival Pennsburg Upper Perkiomen (Pa.).

Until, that is, the Vikings came into a week when they had to face -- in order -- Pottstown Owen J. Roberts (Pa.), Fairview Village Methacton (Pa.), Upper Perkiomen, and Lansdale Christopher Dock (Pa.).

How tough are they? Roberts is a Pioneer Athletic Conference (PAC) rival, Upper Perk took defending state champion Emmaus to the last 10 minutes before losing by a goal, Christoper Dock is the defending District 1-Class AA titlist, and Methacton came into the week of Oct. 3 as the No. 6 team in the TopOfTheCircle.com Top 10.

Intimated? No way. The Vikings, after losing the lead in the 41st minute, got a Lisa Schaaf goal off a 1-Up corner in the 59th minute to give Perkiomen Valley a 2-1 win.

Methacton had taken a lead when a Tori Lindsay shot deflected off Perkiomen Valley goalkeeper Megan Whitman's leg guards. But Vikings coach Karen Molliver had a different perspective.

I thought it hit the Methacton player in the head after it had hit our goalie," Moliver tells The Philadelphia Inquirer. "I thought the officials were going to discuss it, but they didn't."

Left unquestioned, however, was whether the Methacton player got an advantage from the ball hitting her.

WYOMING SEMINARY HANDLING UP ITS RIVALRY GAMES

Kingston Wyoming Seminary (Pa.) head coach Karen Klassner usually knows what to say during a late timeout during a tied match, even against a conference rival like Lehman Lake-Lehman (Pa.) Especially if you're one of only a handful of coaches ever to earn 400 wins.

The words? "Do it now."

Freshman Kelsey Kolojejchick, the second-leading goal scorer on the No. 3 team in the TopOfTheCircle.com Top 10, took the advice to heart, scoring 28 seconds after the timeout, then adding a goal in the final minute of play to give Sem a 2-0 win over Lake-Lehman in a key Wyoming Valley Conference rivalry match.

Less than a week later, Wyoming Seminary got a second big win in a 1-0 victory over defending state Class AA champion Mountain Top Crestwood (Pa.).

�Every game is a big game," Klassner tells The Wilkes-Barre Times Leader. "Anyone can beat anyone if you have a bad day, so you just hope that doesn�t happen.�

After an overtime loss to Mountain Top Crestwood (Pa.) in the 2004 Class AA state final, Wyoming Seminary was looking to the Big Red Machine as the next hurdle.

And it took a 14th-minute tap-in from Tara Puffenberger and a stout defensive effort for the Blue Knights to put away many of the demons of last year's losses to Crestwood. Indeed, while Crestwood was racking up an undefeated record in 2004, Sem had three of its five losses to Crestwood.

This year, the roles are reversed, thanks mainly to a freshman class which is, to a woman, fearless and determined beyong their years.

�The younger kids, I�m not sure they�re aware of anything but going out there and playing,� Klassner tells The Times-Leader. �They don�t care who the opponent is. Here we are all nervous, and they�re warming up, cool as cucumbers.�

NOT THE O'DONNELL DERBY

While the United States Under-21 national team was making history in Chile, a number of field hockey teams found themselves having to soldier on without key players.

Two of them, Ambler Wissahickon (Pa.) and Fairview Village Methacton (Pa.), have members of the same family on their squads. Wissahickon is missing the attacking presence of Katie O'Donnell, while Methacton has been feeling the loss of her cousin, Brianne O'Donnell.

But when the two teams met in September in a Suburban One League, American Division match, Methacton found itself better able to cope in a 2-1 win. Wissahickon, without O'Donnell's skill, strength, and speed, managed only one shot on the Methacton cage, but managed to score on it.

"We wanted to get it to our right side but they were doing a really good job of shutting down the passing lanes," Wissahickon head coach Lucy Gil tells The Norristown Times-Herald. "Then, we did get it down there, we didn't have anybody pop it in. Our forward line right now is very young with two freshmen and a sophomore."

Methacton won the game with two Dana Cosenza goals in the 25th and 35th minutes.

"I think we were definitely up and down today," Methacton head coach Sue Kondus tells The Times-Herald. "We had some lapses. I think we're improving with every game but we still have a long way to go. I'm proud that they kept fighting and didn't let down when they had a 2-0 lead. And, they kept playing hard after Wissahickon scored."

The dynamics will undoubtedly change once the O'Donnells get back to their respective teams. And there is a reverse match set for October 17th.

EMMAUS SURVIVES UPPER PERKIOMEN'S CHALLENGE

Tara King almost gave Emmaus (Pa.) a late first-half lead against Pennsburg Upper Perkiomen (Pa.) in an early-season showdown played at Ursinus College. But head coach Susan Butz-Stavin wasn't very happy about it.

King, one of eight seniors on the No. 1 team in the TopOfTheCircle.com national Top 10, was supposed to take a direct shot off the Hornets' fourth corner of the game, but King deferred to one of her younger teammates and freelanced for a tip in front of the goalkeeper.

"(Butz-Stavin) told me I should have communicated with the younger girl better, and I was too close to the girl stopping the ball," King says. "I should have communicated better. It was a mistake, and I learned from it."

Too right. When the same corner was called in the game's 52nd minute, King did not waste her second chance. Her laser from the left elbow of the circle gave Emmaus a 2-1 win over the Indians.

"I didn't do too much right today," said King, who, despite her self-deprecation, still has a penchant for coming up big in pressure contests. "I thought I had to do something right (in order to win). I thought I could take advantage of my hard shot."

The match was a victory of sorts for a very young Upper Perkiomen team that has exactly one senior on it. The Indians had a dream start when, after Michelle Wilmar rescued a clear off Upper Perk's first corner of the match, Loran Hatch put in a rebound in the fifth minute.

"We, I think, were only the second team to score against them this year," said Upper Perkiomen head coach Kelly Brenninger. "To score that one was awesome."

"Sometimes, when a team scores, it gives the kids enough motivation to come back strong, dig deep, and right harder," Butz-Stavin says.

And it led to Emmaus' tying goal in the 15th minute of play. Hatch, who was Upper Perkiomen's flyer, stopped the initial Hornet set play, but the ball was rescued and sent to the penalty spot, where Sarah Jones was able to slip the ball over the line after a goalmouth scramble.

The goal was scored at a key point of the match, where Emmaus' depth was being used to its advantage. The game was played at Ursinus College's new hockey-specific turf field, on a hot day with the turf having been watered before pre-game warmups. The ambient humidity put a premium on keeping key players rested.

"I normally work in four players, but today I was able to work in only three," Brenninger said. "And they have a lot of the depth on the bench. She was able to put in fresh legs all the time."

About the time of the goal, Upper Perkiomen started wilting under Emmaus' high-pressure line, committing an unusually high number of turnovers inside its defensive third. But the Perk defense, led by Hatch and goalkeeper Chelsea Smith, was able to withstand Emmaus' attacking pressure.

"We didn't come with the same intensity and our passing wasn't there," Butz-Stavin said. "We had a couple of great crosses, but we didn't go in for the finish today."

"Our passing combinations weren't as crisp today, and we turned the ball over a lot today," Brenninger said. "But that's a youthful mistake."

The result confirms Upper Perkiomen's arrival as a team to watch for the next few seasons as the team matures and gains in confidence. The few forays that the Indians managed in the second half almost led to goals, thanks to their skill.

"They did exactly what I wanted them to do (following a second-half timeout after King's goal)," Brenninger said. "They got the ball into the circle and almost put the ball in."

But for Emmaus, it was the last chance against a non-league opponent before its showdown with Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) in a rematch of the 2004 thriller.

CHOCOLATIERS CORNER LOWER DAUPHIN

So, who's the best field hockey team in the Reading/Harrisburg/Lancaster triangle?

Seems there's a new candidate every week pitching a shutout against the previous team laying claim to the top central Pennsylvania squad.

But when Hershey (Pa.) hung a 3-0 shutout on Warwick Classic champion Hummelstown Lower Dauphin (Pa.), it was certainly a surprise.

The Trojans had the last word in 2004 in taking a District 3 quarterfinal match, winning 3-0 on good penalty corner execution.

That would continue in 2005, as corners in the 12th, 18th, and 43rd clipped the Falcons.

"We had been a little inconsistent [on corners]," Hershey coach Tami Scola tells The Harrisburg Patriot-News. "It takes some time to develop that with the stoppers and the hitters. Today they came up big."

BRENNINGER'S COUNSEL LEADS TO UPSET OF CRESTWOOD

Pennsburg Upper Perkiomen (Pa.) head coach Kelly Brenninger used an "Iron XI" against defending Class AA champion Mountain Top Crestwood (Pa.).

That is, except for a very short period of time when she took aside Aubrey Wolf.

"You need to come around in front of the girls," Brenninger told her forward. "Their defenders are too good to let the ball go through them."

In the game's 50th minute, on a free hit into the circle, Wolf made the correct cut in front of the Crestwood defensive formation, and her deflection into the cage gave the Indians a massive 1-0 win.

How massive is it? Until Brenninger started coaching field hockey in 1988, the last championship of any kind that Upper Perkiomen had won was a league title in 1954.

There have been league and district honors for the Indians since, but they have never gotten beyond the quarterfinal stage of the state tournament.

That could change in 2005. Upper Perkiomen is one of three schools (Lititz Warwick and Allentown Parkland are the others) to appear on the schedules of both Crestwood and AAA champion Emmaus (Pa.).

"Going into the yearly seeding meeting (for the District 1-Class AAA tournament), they really look at the strength of schedule," Brenninger said.

And with teams like Holland Council Rock South, Downington West, Quakertown, and Lansdale Christopher Dock on the docket, the Indians may have the most murderous schedule in the country. Which, of course, could help down the line as Upper Perkiomen challenges for state title honors.

"I tell you what, this one was a great confidence-booster for the girls," Brenninger said. "We're very young, but they do play well as a team together."

SUBURBAN ONE REALIGNMENT CREATES THREE-WAY DERBIES

In the ever-evolving saga of the membership of the Suburban One League, changes in 2005 have yielded perhaps the best three-way rivalries in the United States.

Let's review the story. The league, encompassing teams from the Delaware River through to about 30 miles west in Montgomery County, has been historically strong since the PIAA started a state field hockey tournament in the 1970s. Suburban One grew to a four-division league. But when Holland Council Rock South (Pa.) and Warrington Central Bucks South (Pa.) opened their doors, the resulting 25-teams league was too unwieldy to play its classic "crossover" schedule.

This has made Suburban One create three divisions, wherein teams play each other twice, and there is no required interdivisional play.

However, thanks to the lucky accident of enrollment sizes, the single best three-way rivalry in the country returns: Newtown Council Rock North (Pa.), Langhorne Neshaminy (Pa.), and Levittown Pennsbury (Pa.) are all in the National Division.

What is even better is that the new Suburban One Continental division will unite 2003 PIAA champion Buckingham Central Bucks East (Pa.) and Doylestown Central Bucks West (Pa.) alongside Central Bucks South in its second season.

Talk about your must-see hockey: these 12 rivalry games will make an extraordinarily spicy feast of a schedule.

NEW YORK

NEW YORK SEES OLD FRIENDS AND NEW

It's been six years since Long Island had a field hockey team win a New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) championship.

And not so coincidentally, the team that won Class A in 2005 was Garden City (N.Y.), winning its first state title since its run of 32 straight shutouts was snapped in 1999.

But while Garden City's last three championships had been in Class B, this was the first championship title with the state's largest schools.

It wasn't easy, though: Garden City bested an undefeated Queensbury (N.Y.) team in the semifinals, only to meet defending champion Mameroneck (N.Y.) in the finals.

The claret-and-white found the cage three times in seven frantic minutes in a 3-0 win. Katie Rose had a goal and an assist in a 90-second span to start the Trojans off to victory.

"It's indescribable; it's an amazing feeling," GC's Katie Rose tells Long Island Newsday. "We just wanted to get past the Long Island championships; a state title was never really in our mind. But now that we came here and did it, it's amazing. Undefeated is nice; it was the perfect ending."

It wasn't quite the same perfection that the team touched in 1998 and 1999, but head coach Diane Chapman, the United States Coach of the Year for the 1998 season, will take it.

"They finally started to do what they have done all season," Chapman tells Newsday. "Twenty-one-and-zero and state champions? You couldn't ask for better."

Mameroneck, which played in perhaps the state's most competitive area, thought it had enough preparation to compete. The school is located in the lower Hudson Valley alongside the likes of Shrub Oak Lakeland (N.Y.), and Rye (N.Y.), not to mention crosstown rival Mameroneck Rye Neck (N.Y.).

"It's hard when you look at the score; it's disappointing," Savage tells Newsday. "Garden City has an excellent program. They do a great job on penalty corners, they created their own scoring opportunities and they finally put it in."

In Class C, East Rochester seems to like making the short jaunt to Syracuse for the title match: the Bombers edged Harpursville (N.Y.) 1-0 for the team's second straight title and 43rd straight game without a loss.

The lone goal of the match was scored in the 14th minute when Krista Archambeau took a Maria Correa feed and finished.

"I heard Christa asking for it, I passed it left and she knocked it right in," Correa tells The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. "My only reaction was to scream and give her a big hug."

"We were so confident going into this and we just knew we were going to do it," Archambeau tells The Chronicle. "We've worked so hard to get back here and weren't going to let anybody take it from us."

In Class B, Putnam Valley (N.Y.) had just about as much confidence, it could win, even going against a very good Maine-Endwell (N.Y.) team, and even though the school is only five years old.

"I still don't believe it," goalkeeper Kim Kastuk tells The Westchester Journal-News after a 1-0 overtime win over the Spartans. "This is a huge accomplishment. It's been great, especially because no one expected it."

Kastuk, a junior, might have expected the win when her Tigers beat a skilled and well-coached Rye (N.Y.) team on the way to the state championship.

Maine-Endwell, however, was on another level entirely. It took all of Kastuk's might and will to keep the Spartans off the board through regulation and 13 minutes of extra time.

Perhaps the sequence which defined the match was a Maine-Endwell surge at the end of the first half during which Kastuk held off five straight penalty corners. Then, at the close of the first half, the Spartans earned a single untimed penalty corner, but the Tigers were equal. Kastuk, one of the state's fine goalkeepers, continued making save after acrobatic save, even coming out to the edge of the D to make a clear in overtime.

All of that defense led to the game-winner in the second overtime period. Beverly Beladino pounced on a loose rebound off a Christine Kemp shot and slid the ball over the line. It was Putnam Valley's third shot of the entire game.

"I think it's great," Putnam Valley coach Tracy Parchen tells The Journal-News. "I hope it sets a good precedent for the community and for the future of field hockey at Putnam Valley. I think it brings everybody together and it's a nice thing to experience."

COLE STILL MASTER WHEN IT COUNTS

Nancy Cole does it again.

Even after her East Setauket Ward Melville (N.Y.) team lost two bitter 1-0 regular-season games to her former team Centereach (N.Y.), and even after dropping to the fourth seed in the Suffolk Class A sectional tournament, the Patriots thought they had the stuff to knock off the unbeaten Cougars.

Amanda Hall's penalty corner in the 32nd minute allowed Ward Melville to steal away from Centereach a 1-0 win.

Ward Melville has won the last two Long Island championships, but has never won a state tournament.

MORRISVILLE SCORES ON DISTRACTED HERKIMER

In overtime, where seven players a side need to cover a full 100-yard pitch, any little hitch can lose a ballgame.

Some coaches won't substitute because the 15 seconds or so that the team has only five players paying full attention to the play could be the 15 seconds where the game is lost.

But when Herkimer (N.Y.) played Morrisville (N.Y.) in a Center State Conference match, Herkimer thought it had the game-winning goal in the 65th minute on a 3-on-0 breakaway. But the Magicians were ruled to have kicked it into the cage.

Then, the team committed a cardinal sin: it allowed itself to be distracted, complaining to the umpire about the call without realizing that the game was still being played.

The 3-on-0 heading one way turned into a 6-on-3 in the other direction. Seconds later, Morrisville scored, winning the game.

�All of our girls were down at the other end in the circle talking to the official," Herkimer head coach Janet Getman tells The Herkimer Telegram. "The official didn't even follow the play. Play should have at least been stopped. It's just a bad way for a game to finish.�

UNION SPRINGS WINS BIZARRE MATCH

In near 90-degree weather in an early-season game against Auburn (N.Y.), a Union Springs team with just 12 players on its roster had two players carted off the field with dehydration.

And Union Springs still won the game 1-0.

The craziness started shortly after Stefanie Bacon scored what would be the game's lone goal. Union Springs' Abby Cook took a free hit deep in her territory which which caught Auburn's Kelly Blumrick on the brow.

An ambulance was called for Blumrick, but during the 25-minute wait for medical attention, Meg Sacco of Union Springs started showing signs of heat prostration. So did Union Springs goalkeeper Jessica Kneaskern.

Jenn O'Hara, a field player, hopped into the pads for the final quarter-hour, making one save to preserve the win for a 10-woman team. It was O'Hara's first goalkeeping action since middle school.

"There were 15 minutes left in that game - we had to finish," Cook tells The Auburn Citizen. "There was no way we would've stopped that game and forfeited it."

"They always work hard and they showed it in the game today," Union Springs head coach Gerry Nedza tells The Citizen. "They just didn't want to give up."

SECOND-HALF WIND KNOCKS DOWN WHITNEY POINT

Whitney Point (N.Y.) came to the vast turf expanse of William Smith College, intent on shortening the game against Williamsville (N.Y.) North.

But eventually, a 38-shot barrage felled the Golden Eagles in a 5-1 game which saw all of the goals being scored in the second term. Sophomore Chantae Miller scored two goals for North.

"They're an outstanding team, they have great speed and great stick-work," Whitney Point coach Linda Burghardt tells The Binghamton Press. "It was a very clean game."

FALL SOCCER CAUSES SHORTAGES

In a number of communities, especially clustered in Westchester County, the adjustment of girls' soccer from a spring sport to a fall sport, choices have had to be made.

And athletic directors such as Tom Giorgio of Pine Plains (N.Y.) have had to make adjustments to having another girls' sport in the fall to fund. Like similar adjustments in Maryland and New Jersey in recent years, soccer has taken an unexpected back seat to field hockey. Pine Plains, for example, does not have enough players choosing soccer to fill out the full varsity rosters.

"The varsity program hasn't been eliminated," Giorgio tells The Register-Herald of Stanford. "Next year we are hopeful that we will have enough girls to play varsity. In a couple of years we expect soccer and field hockey to be pretty even."

For last year's notes, click here.