Yesterday’s Game of the Day
Granby Memorial (Conn.) 2, Canton (Conn.) 1

Today’s Game of the Day
Wilmington Tower Hill (Del.) at Camden Caesar Rodney (Del.)
The only two teams to have won Delaware’s state championship since 2000, the Riders have struggled the last couple of seasons with graduation losses and the retirement of head coach Debbie Windett. Tower Hill, however, remains the state’s juggernaut, with an undefeated record.

Please note that these rankings are as of the end of last week’s action and do not reflect last night’s results — important as they may be.

Our RightToRightIsRight.com No. 11 Team of the Week is Atlantic City (N.J.), a team which has fought long odds over the last 30 years or so since casino gambling transformed the region and the town; about 13 years ago, the school moved out of the resort district and onto Great Island, on a road connecting the school with the Sandcastle ballpark and the regional airport.

The Viking field hockey teams have not been very good over the years, although the school did produce one of the leading goal-scorers in the history of NCAA Division III field hockey, Tiffany Trockenbrod. But last week, all of the hard work, effort, and frustration led to an unprecedented moment in the program’s history: a win in the NJSIAA South Jersey Group IV Tournament.

1. Hummelstown Lower Dauphin (Pa.) — 23-0

Meets Hershey this afternoon in District 3-AAA Tournament

2. Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) — 17-1

Scheduled to play Atlantic City yesterday afternoon in Group IV South opener

3. Dallas (Pa.) — 15-1

Beat Wyoming Seminary (Pa.) late last week, only to draw a fired-up Lehman Lake-Lehman (Pa.) team in the District 2-AA semifinals.

4. Kingston Wyoming Seminary (Pa.) — 14-2

Had to have beaten Crestwood last night in District 2-AA semifinals in order for season to continue

5. Mountain Top Crestwood (Pa.) — 14-2

Had to have beaten Wyoming Seminary last night in District 2-AA semifinals in order for season to continue

6. Emmaus (Pa.) — 20-1

Holds top seed in District 11-AAA tournament

7. Louisville Sacred Heart (Ky.) — 26-0

Season complete: Won state championship with a 4-1 win over Louisville Kentucky Country Day (Ky.)

8. Williamsville (N.Y.) North — 17-0

Crushed first-round opponent 11-0

9. Carlsbad La Costa Canyon (Calif.) — 16-1

Lost a week’s worth of games due to Southern California wildfires and won’t return to action until at least today

10. Lakeville Hotchkiss School (Conn.) — 10-0

Roadtrips to Farmington Miss Porter’s School (Conn.) and Simsbury Westminster (Conn.) before hosting West Hartford Kingswood-Oxford (Conn.)

11. Atlantic City (N.J.) —7-8-2

Beat Williamstown (N.J.) 2-1 last Friday for first-ever playoff win, only to draw Eastern in yesterday’s second round

Who’s out? None.

And bear in mind: Wilmington Tower Hill (Del.) 12-0, Sanford (Maine) 17-0, Annapolis Broadneck (Md.) 14-1, Edgewater South River (Md.) 14-1, Canton (Mass.) 15-0-2, Walpole (Mass.) 19-0-1, St. Louis Cor Jesu (Mo.) 17-1, North Caldwell West Essex (N.J.) 14-0-1, Madison (N.J.) Borough 16-0, Kingston (N.Y.) 17-0-1, Rye (N.Y.) 16-2, Garden City (N.Y.) 16-0, Columbus Bishop Watterson (Ohio) 13-5, Flourtown Mount St. Joseph Academy (Pa.) 19-1, Selinsgrove (Pa.) 21-0, Center Valley Southern Lehigh (Pa.) 22-0-1, Lehighton (Pa.) 18-2, Stowe (Vt.) 17-0, Virginia Beach Frank W. Cox (Va.) Virginia Beach Princess Anne (Va.) 17-2, McLean Langley (Va.) 17-1, Alexandria St. Stephen’s/St. Agnes (Va.) 16-0-1

Yesterday’s Game of the Day
Simsbury (Conn.) 2, Farmington (Conn.) 0

Today’s Game of the Day
Tabernacle Seneca (N.J.) at Medford Lenape (N.J.)
When this game appeared on the schedule, this intra-district game had all the makings of a late-season derby match, given the locales of the two schools. But as has been documented previously, Lenape has not had its finest season. Still, this is a rivalry match even though Lenape is the oldest of the four “Indian” schools and Seneca the newest.

This week’s Statwatch sees the country’s first 50-goal scorer this season as well as the continued climb of the all-time goal-scoring leader list. What is found below is a compilation of statistics from not only newspaper texts and some reader submissions, but from statistics compiled by, amongst others, HighSchoolSports.Net, The North County Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Long Island Newsday, The Wilmington News-Journal, The Phoenixville News, The Asbury Park Press, The Harrisburg Patriot-News, The Buffalo News, The Wilkes-Barre Citizens Voice, The Allentown Morning Call, The Baltimore Sun, The Newark Star-Ledger, The Westchester Journal-News, The Rocky Mountain News, and BeyondTheDerby.com.

Team goals scored
143 Louisville Sacred Heart (Ky.)
137 Emmaus (Pa.)
126 Kingston Wyoming Seminary (Pa.)
118 Louisville Kentucky Country Day School (Ky.)
114 Voorhees Eastern (N.J.)
111 Selinsgrove (Pa.)
111 Flourtown Mount St. Joseph Academy (Pa.)
106 Louisville Assumption (Ky.)
103 Center Valley Southern Lehigh (Pa.)
103 Severna Park (Md.)
99 Garden City (N.Y.)
99 Hammonton St. Joseph’s (N.J.)
98 Christian Academy of Louisville (Ky.)
98 Louisville Ballard (Ky.)
97 St. Louis Lafayette (Mo.)
94 Louisville Mercy (Ky.)
91 Ladue Horton Watkins (Mo.)
90 Annapolis Broadneck (Md.)
88 Edgewater South River (Md.)

Individidual goals scored
50 Lauren Gonsalves, Harwich (Mass.)
40 Jessica Fritz, Bayville Central Regional (N.J.)
39 Morgan Fleetwood, Selinsgrove (Pa.)
34 Amanda Riley, Swiftwater Pocono Mountain East (Pa.)
34 Elizabeth Dwyer, Ladue Horton Watkins (Mo.)
34 Christine Hibler, St. Louis Lafayette (Mo.)
34 Taylor Rhea, Virginia Beach Frank W. Cox (Va.)
33 Kat Sharkey, Kingston Wyoming Seminary (Pa.)
33 Brooke Borneman, Center Valley Southern Lehigh (Pa.)
32 Lauren Alwine, Hummelstown Lower Dauphin (Pa.)
31 Katie Reinprecht, Mount St. Joseph Academy (Pa.)
31 Christena Burell, Louisville Kentucky Country Day School (Ky.)
30 Paige Selenski, Dallas (Pa.)
29 Lucas Long, Allentown William Allen (Pa.)
29 Chantae Miller, Williamsville (N.Y.) North
29 Caitlin Green, Factoryville Lackawanna Trail (Pa.)
28 Alley Evans, Emmaus (Pa.)
28 Miranda Peto, Phoenixville (Pa.)
27 Taylor Hodge, Louisville Collegiate (Ky.)
27 Kristen Foore, Palmyra (Pa.)
27 Melissa Register, Culpeper (Va.)
26 Lauren Schmeing, Louisville Assumption (Ky.)
26 Megan DiMarco, Hammonton St. Joseph’s (N.J.)

Individidual goals scored, career
143 Lauren Gonsalves, Harwich (Mass.)
136 Chantae Miller, Williamsville (N.Y.) North
96 Morgan Fleetwood, Selinsgrove (Pa.)

Individidual assists, career
121 Chantae Miller, Williamsville (N.Y.) North

Goalkeeper shutouts, career
54 Kieran Sweeney, Flourtown Mount St. Joseph Academy
51 Devon Seifert, Ocean City (N.J.)

Winning streak, team
58 Garden City (N.Y.)
56 Stowe (Vt.)
54 Louisville Sacred Heart (Ky.)
51 Hummelstown Lower Dauphin (Pa.)

Unbeaten streak, team
58 Garden City (N.Y.)
56 Stowe (Vt.)
54 Louisville Sacred Heart (Ky.)
51 Hummelstown Lower Dauphin (Pa.)

If you see something amiss, make sure to jet me an email and we’ll try and do better next time.

In other statistically significant events occurring this past week, the scoring streak of Hammonton St. Joseph’s (N.J.) freshman Megan DeMarco continued as she scored in her 16th straight match. Only nine times in the recorded history of the National Federation has this happened before.

Next week could be a couple of other events for the record books. Skowhegan (Maine) is going for its seventh straight state championship tomorrow against undefeated Sanford (Maine), and Nancy Williams, Hall of Fame coach of West Long Branch Shore Regional (N.J.) will be going for her 700th win.

Yesterday’s Game of the Day
Lakeville Hotchkiss School (Conn.) 3, Phillips Exeter Academy (N.H.) 0

Today’s Game of the Day
Farmington (Conn.) at Simsbury (Conn.)
Two of the best from Class L and Class M meet in what could very well be a showcase of state title contenders.

I was in attendance when one of the most controversial plays in the history of high school field hockey took place.

The site was Ursinus College’s football field for the 1994 PIAA Class AAA final between Emmaus (Pa.) and Newtown Council Rock (Pa.). Council Rock held a 1-0 lead heading into the final seconds of the match when Emmaus earned a corner with about 11 seconds left to play.

Emmaus hustled to get the ball down on the end line and set up its corner attack, knowing it had to get the ball over the goal line legally in order to tie the match.

Council Rock’s defensive quintet was in no hurry to send its four defenders and goalkeeper into their positions.

With the clock still running, Kristen McCann put the ball into the goal cage against an Indian team which may or may not have been fully ready to defend the goal. There were 0.7 seconds remaining on the clock.

Since then, the rules have changed. In 1999, a rule came into being saying that a half cannot end on an untaken penalty corner, and that any number of subsequent penalty corners awarded after the expiration of the clock are to be taken as untimed.

Last year, the rule was amended to say that this applied in the second half only if the outcome of the game is in the balance (i.e., if the team awarded the corner is behind by a goal or tied). This has not yet (as far as I can tell) led to a team winning or losing a place in a league standing because of goal differential because a team did not have a chance to put in that last untimed corner.

The application of these rules, however, still has the occasional difficulty. You have had umpires prematurely whistle the half when the corner striker fumbles the ball inside the circle and it travels outside (the corner should still continue), or when the defending team gains possession of the ball (it still has to clear the circle to end the half).

In New Hampshire this week, the umpiring crew for a Class L tournament game between Winnacunnet (N.H.) and Concord (N.H.) allowed the last half-minute of the match to expire before allowing Winnacunnet to attempt to tie the game off a late corner.

Winnacunnet head coach Linda Osborne was annoyed enough to file a protest. “The worst thing that could happen is that we come back and play a 34-second corner,” she told The Concord Monitor.

But I’m with the umpiring crew on this one. Lining up a late corner is fraught with peril. An umpire has a clock operator on the field, counting down in his or her ear. The players are tensing up for that last burst of energy. The flyer needs one more sprint. The posters need to be extra alert. The goalie hunkers down for one more save opportunity.

The attackers (perhaps all 10 outfield players) ring the circle, all hoping to plant a 55- to 70-mph shot into the back of the goal cage.

Making the players wait until the clock hits zero actually makes sense here. The international standard for the inception of a penalty corner after its awarding is about 18 seconds (after which the umpire will usually admonish one team or the other to get in position).

But what you don’t want to happen is for a penalty corner to continue through the countdown of the clock operator, then the defense to stop playing as if though the game was over.

Besides, an untimed corner at the end of a game is some pretty high drama, isn’t it?

Yesterday’s Game of the Day
St. Louis Villa Duchesne (Mo.) 1, St. Louis John Burroughs (Mo.) 0

Today’s Game of the Day
Lakeville Hotchkiss School (Conn.) vs. Phillips Exeter Academy (N.H.) at Trinity College, 2:15 p.m. EDT
No. 10 Hotchkiss has dominated New England Preparatory School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) competition the last five seasons, and with good reason: the Bearcats are quick, fearless, and decisive. But this should be a fine test.

Three weeks ago, Lee Tolliver, the dean of American field hockey writers, penned the following in The Virginian-Pilot’s sports section:

The U.S. women’s field hockey team is heading west.

That’s nothing new: about this time of year, the residency team usually leaves Landstown Road this time of year for the Moorpark and/or Chula Vista sites in California, since the winter weather is better.

But then, the hammer blow.

Whether it comes back to the National Training Center in Virginia Beach, its home since the $3.5 million facility opened in 2001, has yet to be determined.

While team officials have touted the Virginia Beach training center as one of the top turf fields in the world, they said it does not provide the support facilities necessary to prepare a team for world class competition.

“The women need a high-performance environment like what is available in California,” USA Field Hockey executive director Sheila Walker said. “They need the doctors, the weight-training, the high-tech training things. And it’s better if all that kind of stuff is located within a close proximity. Otherwise, it takes all day to get the job done.”

There has been wild speculation in many parts of cyberspace about whether the squabbling over an on-site physio center will lead to the shutdown or relocation of the 2008 National Futures Tournament, or even the sale of the entire Sportsplex.

Let’s deal with a little rumorbusting here.

1. An agreement is in place to have the Virginia High School League finals at the National Training Center through 2009, so it’s unlikely that there is going to be a complete abandonment of the site any time soon. In fact, there is reputed to be a plan in place to relocate most scholastic varsity games in the Virginia Beach Public Schools from campus sites to the NTC starting as soon as 2008 if no agreement is reached.
2. Despite nearby encroachment, it’s difficult to conceive of the site being sold to developers because of the current saturation of construction and the nationwide housing and mortgage bust.
3. Virginia Beach cannot afford to have another tenant leave the Sportsplex; currently, there is no team playing in the soccer-specific stadium next to the NTC.
4. Few places in the United States have two side-by-side water-based turfs built to FIH specification for the purpose of holding international or national championships.
5. Fewer still have the necessary hotel infrastructure to host somewhere around 1,000 players and their families — not to mention a convention-sized space for the ahlete banquet/auction.
6. Ultimately, if you’ve got any sense as a municipality, you don’t build a $3.5 million facility and allow your only tenant to abandon it.

Walker, in the Virginian-Pilot, sets a deadline of Aug. 8, 2008 to determine whether Team USA will ever come back to train in Virginia Beach.

It says here that moving out doesn’t make much sense.

Yesterday’s Game of the Day
Cherry Hill (N.J.) East 2, Cherry Hill (N.J.) West 2

Today’s Game of the Day
St. Louis John Burroughs (Mo.) at St. Louis Villa Duchesne (Mo.)
Normally, this match is a top-flight preparation for the postseason. However, Burroughs has hit a rough patch and comes into the game with a 9-10 record. Villa, tied for second with St. Louis St. Joseph’s (Mo.) in the MWAA standings, needs this win badly.

One of the hazards of this job is parity. What happens if the best regularly beat the best every week?

I guess that’s the nature of competition; as Ryan Lawrence of the Camden Courier-Post wrote last week, “The rankings should be really fun this week when you consider the following:

“Moorestown beat Cherokee
Cherokee beat Ocean City
Ocean City beat Egg Harbor Township
Egg Harbor Township beat Moorestown”

And imagine trying to do the rankings in the greater Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area this week, considering that:

Dallas beat Crestwood
Crestwood beat Wyoming Seminary
Wyoming Seminary beat Dallas

Now, it’s rumored that there’s going to be a nationwide scholastic field hockey computer poll next year, with formulas taking into account blowouts, predicted results, and the like. But I can’t see, in a sport in which goals are rare and where you have circular results like those above, how an algorithm can come up with any kind of national Top 10 without taking intangibles like defense, returning seniors and All-Americans, and the occasional invocation of an “any given day” mulligan.

And no computer can program its Top 10 with an eye towards the playoffs and their possibilities. As I said last week, don’t forget what’s going to happen down the road. If Emmaus and Lower Dauphin keep winning throughout the rest of the season and through District play, they would meet in the PIAA Class AAA semifinals, since the District 3 and 11 champions have been seeded in the same half of the bracket.

In addition, Dallas, Wyoming Seminary, and Crestwood are all in PIAA District 2-AA. Only two AA teams make the state tournament, so one or more of these three teams’ seasons will end by early November.

The RightToRightIsRight.com No. 11 Team of the Week is Hartland Arrowhead (Wisc.), the nation’s first state champion. The team won the Wisconsin Field Hockey Association state final with a 4-3 triumph over the University School of Milwaukee (Wisc.).

1. Hummelstown Lower Dauphin (Pa.) — 21-0

District 3-AAA tournament begins today with Manheim (Pa.) Central

2. Kingston Wyoming Seminary (Pa.) — 14-1

Won last week’s match vs. Dallas only to have to face Mountaineers one more time this Wednesday for seeding purposes in District 2-AA

3. Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) — 16-1

Vikings now top seed in Group IV Central

4. Mountain Top Crestwood (Pa.) — 13-2

Is Big Red Machine poised for a big-time tournament run?

5. Emmaus (Pa.) — 20-1

Played a fine match vs. Eastern only to slip in the final 10 minutes of play

6. Dallas (Pa.) — 14-1

Mountaineers’ Thursday match vs. No. 2 Wyoming Seminary looms large for District 2-AA tournament positioning

7. Louisville Sacred Heart (Ky.) — 24-0

Barely got by Louisville Assumption (Ky.) in state quarterfinal OT match

8. Williamsville (N.Y.) North — 16-0

Five-goal outburst by Chantae Miller late last week vs. Clarence; sectional tournament play is imminent

9. Carlsbad La Costa Canyon (Calif.) — 16-1

Got by a plucky San Diego Westview (Calif.) outfit 2-1 late last week

10. Lakeville Hotchkiss School (Conn.) — 9-0

Bearcats have not conceded a goal this season

11. Hartland Arrowhead (Wisc.) — 12-2

Nicole Kent’s 55th-minute tally earned the victory

Who’s out? None.

And bear in mind: Wilmington Tower Hill (Del.) 10-0, Sanford (Maine) 16-0, Annapolis Broadneck (Md.) 13-1, Edgewater South River (Md.) 14-0, Canton (Mass.) 12-0-1, Walpole (Mass.) 14-0-1, St. Louis Cor Jesu (Mo.) 14-1, North Caldwell West Essex (N.J.) 14-0-1, Madison (N.J.) Borough 16-0, East Setauket Ward Melville (N.Y.) 15-0, Pine Plains (N.Y.) 15-0, Garden City (N.Y.) 13-0, Gahanna Columbus Academy (Ohio) 15-0-2, Flourtown Mount St. Joseph Academy (Pa.) 18-1, Selinsgrove (Pa.) 20-0, Center Valley Southern Lehigh (Pa.) 21-0-1, Lehighton (Pa.) 18-2, Stowe (Vt.) 15-0, Virginia Beach Princess Anne (Va.) 14-1, McLean Langley (Va.) 16-0, Alexandria St. Stephen’s/St. Agnes (Va.) 14-0-1