The U.S. women’s field hockey team was given the job of hosting one of three last-chance qualifiers for the 2010 FIH World Cup in Rosario, Argentina.

As such, the United States should enjoy the advantage of not only playing in country, but at the U.S. Olympic Training Center at Chula Vista, Calif., which the team has called home for the last two years.

Thing is, the other five teams in the Americans’ pool are tougher than the other two leaders of the other pools — Australia and Japan — face in their tournaments. The Hockeyroos, playing in Santiago, Chile, will have the hosts, Ireland, Chile, Malaysia, Scotland, and Trinidad & Tobago in their group. Japan, playing in Kazan Russia, faces the hosts, Azerbaijan, Italy, Belarus, and Wales.

The American pool is much tougher. Korea, Belgium, France, Canada, and Mexico are the other five teams the team faces in the round-robin portion of the qualifier. If things go according to recent form, the likely final on April 3 will see the Americans facing Korea, a team against which the USA has not had the most positive results the last 20 years.

I’ll be very interested to see what the senior women’s national team pool looks like for this qualifier, given the raft of talented players graduating this year from college, and the buildup of the developmental program for London 2012.

The USA Field Hockey National Festival has been held at numerous sites over the years, from Baltimore to Philadelphia to Glassboro, N.J. As the number of club teams nationwide has ramped up to the point where a lottery has had to be instituted to handle the demand, the needs of the Festival have changed.

The tournament has taken over large swaths of grass from Cocoa Beach, Fla. to Indio, Calif. the last two decades, all to showcase the talents of several thousand players from all over the United States and even the occasional foreign country.

The 2010 tournament, however returns to a place where field hockey has been a way of life for many, many years.

But it’s not where you think.

You see, hundreds and perhaps thousands of years before Constance Applebee landed on these shores, stick-and-ball games were been part of Native American culture. One of these games, tóka, has been part of the Tohono O’odham culture for centuries.

Take a look at this YouTube video, and note the size of the rooting sections.

The current Tohono O’odham Nation is a region that spans a sizable chunk of Pima County in southern Arizona and part of the northern Mexican state of Sonora. The northern edge of the Nation is about 100 miles from the Reach 11 Sports Complex in Phoenix, Ariz., which will host Festival next year.

USA Field Hockey has never been averse to putting its full effort into events in non-traditional field hockey areas such as Florida, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Prince George’s County, Md., and I think the world’s largest amateur sporting event is likely to generate tremendous interest in a part of the country that has grown from a little city of about 100,000 (remember the opening shot of the movie Psycho?) to a teeming metropolis that has grown so much that the local ecosystem has changed.

The Festival is an opportunity for the club system in Arizona, which includes the Phoenix Scorpions, Arizona State, and the University of Arizona, to ramp up recruitment and to get others interested in the game of field hockey.

But I think it may be a chance for the American field hockey community to get to know the game’s roots a bit better. Perhaps, inviting a girls’ tóka team to Festival, or sending a delegation from amongst Festival participants on a pilgrimage to the Tohono O’odham Nation.

I think it would go a long way to giving the current generation a perspective on the origins of this game.

This week is the last of our weekly Statwatches until the more well-researched Final Statwatch scheduled for Dec. 22nd. It was an interesting year, statistically, given the amazing performances from both goal-scorers and goalkeepers.

This year saw three field hockey players breaking the 50-goal mark for the first time in 24 years. It also saw two players for the same team strike for 30 goals and hand out 30 assists apiece, a feat which is without precedent (that this site knows of). It also saw the first serious threat to the national record for goals scored in a career in more than a decade, and it also saw the second team ever to score more than 200 goals in a season.

This week’s compilation includes information from, amongst others, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Camden Courier-Post, The Louisville Courier-Journal, The North County Times, LancasterOnline, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Camden Courier-Post, The Hampton-Roads Daily Press, The Easton Express-Times, The Harrisburg Patriot-News, The Newark Star-Ledger, The Trenton Times, The Virginian-Pilot, The Citizen’s Voice, The Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, The Bridgewater Courier-News, and the Denver Post:

TEAM GOALS SCORED, SEASON
206 Voorhees Eastern (N.J.)
162 Yorktown Tabb (Va.)
157 Emmaus (Pa.)
156 Virginia Beach Frank W. Cox (Va.)
148 Ocean City (N.J.)
141 West Long Branch Shore Regional (N.J.)
131 Selinsgrove (Pa.)
128 Shrub Oak Lakeland (N.Y.)
127 Pocomoke (Md.)
126 Millersville Penn Manor (Pa.)
118 Malvern Villa Maria (Pa.)
118 Bridgewater-Raritan (N.J.)
108 Suffolk Lakeland (N.Y.)

INDIVIDUAL GOALS SCORED, SEASON
69 Kelsey Mitchell, Voorhees Eastern (N.J.)
54 Jill Witmer, Millersville Penn Manor (Pa.)
51 Colleen Slaughter, Ocean City (N.J.)
49 Carlee Dragon, Bridgewater-Raritan (N.J.)
48 Taylor Rhea, Virginia Beach Frank W. Cox (Va.)
44 Brenna Rescigno, West Long Branch Shore Regional (N.J.)
46 Alley Evans, Emmaus (Pa.)
44 Lexi Smith, Florence (N.J.) Memorial
38 Taryn Schawillie, East Rochester (N.Y.)
38 Emma Bozek, Shrub Oak Lakeland (N.Y.)
37 Colleen Patterson, Yorktown Tabb (Va.)
37 Nell O’Connor, Harwich (Mass.)
36 Cara Witte, Virginia Beach Frank W. Cox (Va.)
36 Jamie Robinson, West Deptford (N.J.)
36 Kendell Combs, Suffolk Lakeland (Va.)
35 Brooke Gogel, Bronxville (N.Y.)
34 Emily Hager, Malvern Great Valley (Pa.)
34 Hope Burke, Selinsgrove (Pa.)

INDIVIDUAL ASSISTS, SEASON
34 Kelsey Smither, Suffolk Lakeland (Va.)
34 Aileen Johnson, West Long Branch Shore Regional (N.J.)
30 Brenna Rescigno, West Long Branch Shore Regional (N.J.)
28 Alyssa McFerren, Voorhees Eastern (N.J.)
26 Kelsey Rosenmeier, Virginia Beach Frank W. Cox (Va.)
25 Hope Burke, Selinsgrove (Pa.)
25 Chelsea Davies, Madison (N.J.) Borough
25 Brooke Griffin, Edgewater South River (Md.)
24 Carlee Dragon, Bridgewater-Raritan (N.J.)
24 Kate Barber, St. Louis Lafayette (Mo.)
24 Megan Bozek, Shrub Oak Lakeland (N.Y.)
23 Taylor Rhea, Virginia Beach Frank W. Cox (Va.)
21 Erika Euker, Yorktown Tabb (Va.)
21 Sarah Muchowski, Florence (N.J.) Memorial
21 Carlee Dragon, Bridgewater-Raritan (N.J)
20 Rachel Misko, Madison (N.J.) Borough
20 Christine Hibler, St. Louis Lafayette (Mo.)
20 Jill Remenapp, Sykesville Century (Md.)

INDIVIDUAL GOALS SCORED, CAREER
171 Kelsey Mitchell, Voorhees Eastern (N.J.)
124 Taylor Rhea, Virginia Beach Frank W. Cox (Va.)
118 Taryn Schawillie, East Rochester (N.Y.)
112 Jill Witmer, Millersville Penn Manor (Pa.)
103 Alley Evans, Emmaus (Pa.)
100 Carlee Dragon, Bridgewater-Raritan (N.J.)
95 Colleen Slaughter, Ocean City (N.J.)
85 Brooke Gogel, Bronxville (N.Y.)
81 Torie Stearns, Rye (N.Y.)
76 Colleen Patterson, Yorktown Tabb (Va.)
75 Megan DeMarco, Hammonton St. Joseph (N.J.)
72 Cara Witte, Virginia Beach Frank W. Cox (Va.)
68 Marta Malmberg, Marathon (N.Y.)
65 Tollie Bell, Norfolk Maury (Va.)
65 Kristin Heaney, Allendale Northern Highlands (N.J.)

INDIVIDUAL ASSISTS, CAREER
90 Marta Malmberg, Marathon (N.Y.)
80 Kelsey Smither, Suffolk Lakeland (Va.)
73 Erika Euker, Yorktown Tabb (Va.)
72 Jill Witmer, Millersville Penn Manor (Pa.)
71 Brooke Griffin, Edgewater South River (Md.)

WINNING STREAK, TEAM
48 Yorktown Tabb (Va.)
44 Darien (Conn.)

UNBEATEN STREAK, TEAM
54 Darien (Conn.)
48 Yorktown Tabb (Va.)

GOALKEEPER SHUTOUTS, CAREER
60 Danielle Brookover, Yorktown Tabb (Va.)
57 Erica Perrine, Bridgewater-Raritan (N.J.)
53 Natalie Hunter, Ocean City (N.J.)
50 Aimee Rich, Darien (Conn.)
38 Alana Barry, Voorhees Eastern (N.J.)
37 Kylie Licata, Mountain Top Crestwood (Pa.)

GOALKEEPER SHUTOUTS, SEASON
22 Danielle Brookover, Yorktown Tabb (Va.)
20 Erica Perrine, Bridgewater-Raritan (N.J.)
19 Kate Mitchell, Emmaus (Pa.)
18 Alana Barry, Voorhees Eastern (N.J.)
18 Liz Beckner, Virginia Beach Frank W. Cox (Va.)
18 Aimee Rich, Darien (Conn.)

As always, send us an email if we’ve missed something and we’ll endeavor to do better for Dec. 22nd.

Of all of the members of the American field hockey community giving thanks today, there is one special family in Michigan that has many reasons to give thanks.

Read Pete Cunningham’s extraordinary story from AnnArbor.com.

The end of the domestic season also brings to the end our weekly quick-and-dirty national Top 10. Next month is our more-well-researched national Top 50, which means that these teams are not guaranteed to be in the same order.

Our RightToRightIsRight.com No. 11 Team of the Week is the Virginia Club Hockey. The Cavaliers won the National Field Hockey League championship two weekends ago in a wet and windy Virginia Beach.

1. Virginia Beach Frank W. Cox (Va.) — 25-0

Season complete: Falcons finish their postseason with 5-0 defeat of Stafford Mountain View (Va.); dominating team defeated nine postseason opponents by a combined score of 69-2

2. Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) — 26-2

Season complete: Vikings beat West Long Branch Shore Regional (N.J.) 8-2; postseason saw the team defeat eight opponents by a combined score of 66-4

3. Lehighton (Pa.) — 26-0

Season complete: Indians get by Selinsgrove (Pa.) 1-0 in overtime for school’s first state championship in any sport since the first school opened in town in 1742; season ended with six consecutive clean sheets

4. Darien (Conn.) — 22-0

Season complete: Defeated New Canaan (Conn.) 3-0 to win Class M state title; outscored opposition 102-5 and had 18 shutouts

5. Greene (N.Y.) — 21-0

Season complete: Defeated a focused and determined Mamaroneck (N.Y.) team 1-0 in Class A final after defeating Williamsville (N.Y.) North in semifinals by the same score

6. Hummelstown Lower Dauphin (Pa.) — 20-6

Season complete: Relied on tradition, a lot of skill, and Taylor Alwine’s booming drives to win program’s fourth state championship and Linda Kreiser’s 600th career coaching victory

7. Acton-Boxborough (Mass.) 24-0

Season complete: Beat Longmeadow 3-0 in Division I final; team had 21 shutouts on the season

8. Escondido San Pasqual (Calif.) — 20-2

Season complete: Beat a game and determined Fallbrook (Calif.) Union 1-0 in San Diego Division I final

9. Selinsgrove (Pa.) — 23-2

Season complete: Seals were an overtime goal away from the program’s first state championship

10. West Long Branch Shore Regional (N.J.) — 21-1

Season complete: Despite an 8-2 loss at the hands of Eastern, this team will be a powerhouse in Group I and throughout the state for years to come

11. Virginia Club Hockey — 11-1-1

Defeated the University of Maryland-College Park Hockey Club to win its second NFHL title in three years

Who’s out: Malvern Villa Maria (Pa.) 3-0 loss to Lehighton (Pa.); Mount Joy Donegal (Pa.) 2-1 OT loss to Selinsgrove (Pa.), Hershey (Pa.) 1-0 loss to Hummelstown Lower Dauphin (Pa.)

And bear in mind: Fallbrook (Calif.) Union 19-7, Costa Mesa Newport Harbor (Calif.) 15-2-1, San Diego Serra (Calif.) 21-5, San Diego Scripps Ranch (Calif.) 24-5, Los Gatos (Calif.) 21-0-1, Englewood Kent Denver (Colo.) 13-2-2, Lakeville Hotchkiss School (Conn.) 13-2-1, Yorktown Georgetown Sussex Tech (Del.) 18-1, Winnetka New Trier (Ill.) 24-3-1, Louisville Assumption (Ky.) 18-7, Gardiner (Maine) 18-0, Scarborough (Maine) 18-0, Pocomoke (Md.) 19-2, Severna Park (Md.) 17-2, Watertown (Mass.) 20-0-2, Ann Arbor Pioneer (Mich.) 17-1-1, St. Louis Mary Institute-Country Day School (Mo.) 19-6, St. Louis St. Joseph’s Academy (Mo.) 19-4, Ocean City (N.J.) 20-2, Madison (N.J.) Borough 22-2-1, Sewell Washington Township (N.J.) 17-3, Marathon (N.Y.) 18-2, Shrub Oak Lakeland (N.Y.) 20-0-1, Charlotte (N.C.) Country Day School 14-2, Allentown Parkland (Pa.) 20-3, Emmaus (Pa.) 23-1-1, Millersville Penn Manor (Pa.) 25-1-1, Tabb (Va.) 24-0, Suffolk Lakeland (Va.) 21-2

TOMS RIVER, N.J. – In the final few minutes of yesterday’s NJSIAA Tournament of Champions, a mother of two parked in the fire lane next to the game site and walked through the unguarded front gate, the ticket-takers having long since gone home.

Striding purposefully down the asphalt ramp leading to the stadium floor was a short woman with auburn-tinged hair, just in time to witness the instant Eastern center forward Kelsey Mitchell rapped the ball off the backboard to tie the state record for goals scored in a season.

It was Sharon Berney.

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Your Founder had interviewed the leading goal-scorer in National Federation history three years ago for a podcast called “The Chase.” It had detailed a number of tremendous recent goal-scorers like Kelly Fitzpatrick, Amie Survilla, and Chantae Miller, who had taken advantage of numerous player development opportunities afforded them by USA Field Hockey and their scholastic coaches. One byproduct of their excellence was that they were making repeated assaults on the two-decade-old record for goals scored in a scholastic field hockey career.

That record is still held by Sharon Berney, who, as Sharon Landau, scored 174 times for Gail Stevenson’s amazing teams at Mamaroneck Rye Neck (N.Y.) between 1982 and 1985. She tied for the national lead in goals scored her senior year with 53.

One aspect of the story that I played up in the podcast was the fact that Sharon Berney hadn’t attended a scholastic field hockey game since she left the field for the last time as a Mamaroneck player.

That had to change.

A message last Wednesday over the internet started the conversation. Mitchell had scored four goals against Ocean City (N.J.) to bring her career goals total to 169 over an illustrious four years at Voorhees Eastern (N.J.).

I felt Berney had to see this, because of what she meant to the game as the nation’s career leader in goals scored.

Surprise visits to sports teams are touchstone moments. When I read the book “Counting Coup” by Larry Colton, one surprising and moving chapter detailed the day Colton brought John Havlicek and Bobby Knight to a girls’ high school basketball team’s practice on the Crow reservation in Montana.

The documentary “Jim Brown, All-American” by Spike Lee starts with Brown’s visit, along with boxing great Joe Frazier and baseball legend Henry Aaron, to visit a Baltimore Ravens practice the week before the 2001 Super Bowl.

And one stunt by USC football coach Pete Carroll saw him bring in soul singer Bill Withers, whose song “Lean On Me” had become the team’s unofficial anthem.

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Though she was late getting there because of the location (she drove out from her Philadelphia home to get to the Shore), Sharon Berney drank in of the atmosphere and sized it up quickly.

“With all of the changes in equipment, and the turf, and what the players are wearing, I don’t know how we did it back then,” she told me, pointing out the composite sticks, the artificial grass, and the sleek uniforms with no plaid.

As the players were coming off the pitch, I introduced Sharon to Danyle Heilig, Kelsey Mitchell, and to her parents.

“I’d like to see what kind of person is out there, looking to break my record,” Berney told me three years ago.

While she didn’t witness Mitchell break the record, she did seem to form an immediate bond with the Iowa-bound forward, one stretching across 24 years. The two of them, as you can see in the photo below, are about the same size.

Both could run for days, score lots of goals in many different ways, and had tremendous coaching along the way.

The parallels are striking. But despite the changes over a quarter of a century, a connection between yesterday and today has been made.

It’s not the passing of a torch, however; that will have to wait for another day. But with fantastic scoring talent in the U.S. system, it may not be long before the mark of 174 goals is equalled.

TOMS RIVER, N.J. — Over the last 11 seasons, the field hockey team from Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) have been called everything from an express train, to queens, to a tornado, to champions.

In the 2009 NJSIAA Tournament of Champions final at Toms River East this afternoon, the Vikings were downright scary.

Eastern, possessor of the last 11 state Group IV champions, continued its postseason dominance with an 8-2 victory over West Long Branch Shore Regional (N.J.). In the team’s eight postseason games this season, the Vikings outscored their opponents 66-4.

“I’ve been asked whether this is my best team ever,” said Eastern head coach Danyle Heilig, “and I’m not so sure about that. But I can tell you that this was the best postseason team I’ve ever had. This team turned it on like I’ve never had a team do in the past.”

Needless to say, the Vikings, the No. 2 team in the TopOfTheCircle.com Top 10, set a number of records on their way to becoming the only team ever to defend the Tournament of Champions title.

Eastern set a team record for goals in a season with 206. It’s the second-biggest team output in Federation history, and only the second time (Emmaus, Pa. in 2005) a field hockey team scored more than 200 goals in a season.

“The team has played well, and we have scored goals, and individuals have performed outstanding against some of the best teams in our state and out of state,” Heilig said. “I couldn’t be prouder of that. They’ve been a very determined group, and have soaked in everything the coaches have provided for them, and they’ve used it.”

One of those individuals was forward Kelsey Mitchell, who had a pair of goals to bring her career total to 171, which ties Tracey Fuchs for second all-time in Federation history.

“Honestly, my goal was just to win,” said the Iowa-bound Mitchell. “I’m so happy with my senior, the underclassmen, they all pulled through. This has been unbelievable.”

But for all of the attention focused on Mitchell and the seniors on this team, it was Mariel Papa who had the hat trick on the day for Eastern. She was efficient in front of the cage, snaring rebounds off Melanie Dawson shots or finding open areas at the doorstep.

“I have no words for this; it’s ridiculous,” Papa said. “It was such an honor playing with Kelsey; she is unbelievable.”

“Shannon Johnson was getting pelted and she did a great job,” said legendary Shore Regional coach Nancy Williams, who has more wins in the history of the National Federation than any other field hockey coach. “It was the second shots that were killing us.”

Indeed, Johnson, the Shore freshman goalkeeper who is a second-generation player at Shore, made 19 saves on the day, some of them outstanding. The relentless Eastern attack, however, kept coming in waves.

For a while, Shore Regional was very much in the match, taking possession for stretches of the first term and making Eastern chase the game. This had occurred moments after a defensive lapse allowed Mitchell to swoop onto a loose ball and golf it under the crossbar in one motion.

Shore tightened its defense and upped its level of play, forcing Eastern have to play corner defense for about a six-minute stretch of the first half. But the Blue Devils came away empty, and as the clock was ticking down under five minutes in the first half, one of the key times to score in a field hockey game for psychological advantage, Eastern knew it needed a goal.

“The pressure was back on us,” Papa said, “and we had to push harder.”

Jaclyn Beasley’s penalty corner from a Mitchell pass provided that psychological boost. The lead was two instead of one at the interval, and Shore had to force the issue.

For all of Williams’ coaching prowess and the excellence of Shore’s team, the Blue Devils did not have an answer for what was to come in the second half. Eastern fired in three penalty corners in about 13 minutes, and the rout was on.

Mitchell had a number of chances on her stick during the barrage, and, with a little luck, could have had upwards of five or six goals on the day. The Shore defense was keying on her to the degree that Papa, Beasley, and Alyssa McFerren had time and room to finish seemingly at will.

Eastern’s pressure even extended into the final three minutes of play.

“At the end, we wanted to get Kelsey a goal,” Heilig said. “We’re just pleased with our effort this season, with our seven seniors and with the underclassmen who stepped up.”

Mitchell’s field goal in the 21st had the only one she put in on the day, leaving her one to tie the state record for goals in a season.

But in the last minute of play, Mitchell rapped in a second to give her a share of the state record and pulled her into a tie for the second-highest total ever for a scholastic field hockey player.

Oddly enough, the goal was scored right at the moment an important field hockey figure entered the grounds at Toms River East to witness the last goal in Mitchell’s career.

More on that tomorrow.

Shore Regional 1-1–2
Eastern 3-5-8
E: Mariel Papa (Melanie Dawson), PC, 12th minute
E: Kelsey Mitchell, FG, 21st
SR: Hannah Barreca, PC, 22nd
E: Jackie Beasley (Kelsey Mitchell), PC, 28th
E: Papa (Dawson), PC, 35th
E: Beasley (Dawson), PC, 37th
E: Papa (Mitchell), PC, 48th
E: Alyssa McFerren (Papa), FG, 52nd
E: Mitchell (Dawson), PC, 60th
SR: Allegra Mango, FG, 60th
Shots- SR: 6; E: 29. Saves- SR: Shannon Johnson 19, defensive 2; E: Alana Barry 4.

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60:00 At full time, the final is Eastern 8, Shore 2

59:45 SHORE REGIONAL GOAL The Blue Devils pull one back, showing that they won’t give up

58:30 EASTERN GOAL Kelsey Mitchell shoots it in and ties Michelle Vizzuso’s record for goals in New Jersey history (69) and Tracey Fuchs for second all time (171)

57:00 Eastern corner to Mitchell is a shovel shot that is cleared off the line

55:00 Shore corner is a flick that misses the cage

52:00 EASTERN GOAL Alyssa McFerren with an excuse-me shot that bounces in

47:35 EASTERN GOAL It’s a hat trick for Papa as she backhands in a rebound of a Mitchell shot

45:00 Eastern corner is a shovel shot by Mitchell that is saved off the line

42:00 Shore unable to build up attacks like it did the first half

39:00 Eastern 1-Up corner leads to a rebound shot wide

36:54 EASTERN GOAL Kelsey Mitchell flips in a rebound of a Melanie Dawson shot

34:19 EASTERN GOAL Mariel Papa tips in Dawson’s shot and the crowd erupts

30:00 The second half is under way

Halfime! That Eastern goal could prove critical psychologically as the lead is two headed to the interval

27:57 EASTERN GOAL Jackie Beasley sweeps in a Kelsey Mitchell feed

23:45 Two Eastern corners see Kelsey Mitchell denied twice

22:00 SHORE REGIONAL GOAL Hannah Barreca sweeps in an open ball from an option right corner

20:15 EASTERN GOAL Kelsey Mitchell jumps all over a miscommunication between Shore’s defense and flicks the ball into the netting

19:30 Shore corner is an option left, two saves by Barry

16:15 Shore corner is an option left save by Barry

15:30 Shore corner blast saved by Alana Barry

11:11 Timeout, Shore

11:11 EASTERN GOAL Mariel Papa tips in Melanie Dawson’s shot

9:00 Jackie Beasley almost tips in an Eastern free hit

7:00 Eastern corner play broken up by Shannon Johnson

0:00 The game is on!

Today is the final game of the 100th season of scholastic field hockey in the United States. The championship of the fourth New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association Tournament of Champions will be determined at Toms River (N.J.) East.

As matchups go, this is a sumptuous game. First of all, consider the two programs. Both are state champions; Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) is the champion of Group IV, West Long Branch Shore Regional (N.J.) is the champion of Group I.

Also consider the two coaches. Nancy Williams of Shore is a pioneer of the sport, and has more coaching wins of any scholastic field hockey coach. Danyle Heilig, who has only coached for 12 seasons, is a direct beneficiary of what Williams did for the sport in New Jersey and for the enforcement of Title IX nationwide.

Both schools have players who are second-generation players in key roles. Alyssa McFerren, whose mother played for Eastern, has almost 30 assists this season for the Vikings. Aileen Johnson, whose aunts Kathleen and Meghan Kelly played at Shore, is the starting center halfback for the Blue Devils.

Statistically, Shore and Eastern have been putting up mind-boggling numbers. For Shore, both Aileen Johnson and Brenna Rescigno have at least 30 goals and assists this season, a feat which is believed to be unmatched for two players on any one team in National Federation history.

For Eastern, the Vikings are two goals away from becoming the second field hockey team in Federation history to get 200 goals in a season. Eastern’s Kelsey Mitchell has 67 goals, and is just three from becoming the second field hockey player to get to 70 for a career. Indeed, she’s just five away from tying Sharon Landau’s National Federation record, which has stood since 1985.

Both teams also have tremendous goalkeeping. Alana Barry is on pace to crush Haley Exner’s Federation record for shutouts in a career, as she has 37 heading into the final game of her sophomore season. Shore freshman Shannon Johnson, another niece of Kathleen and Meghan Kelly, has 14 clean sheets. These two standouts are examples of the revival of New Jersey as a hotbed of quality goalkeepers.

WHITEHALL, Pa. –After receiving the PIAA Class AAA championship trophy after a 1-0 win over Hershey (Pa.), Linda Kreiser, the legendary head coach of Hummelstown Lower Dauphin (Pa.), spent the better part of a half an hour posing for photographs.

Parents, friends, alumnae, faculty, friends, children of friends — everybody seemed to want to get a picture of themselves with the trophy and the Falcons’ beloved head coach.

And she patiently held the trophy while every photo was snapped.

Such is life at the top of the Class AAA heap. And becoming the fifth member of scholastic field hockey’s 600-win club.

“This win means that I have been blessed with thousands of good athletes, great teams, and the Lower Dauphin tradition,” Kreiser said. “I went to Lower Dauphin, and learned it from Bea Holman, and I’m proud that I can continue that for her and for the school. I’ll never forget this day.”

The lone goal of the match came off a Christy Starsinic deflection of a Taylor Alwine corner blast in the seventh minute of play.

“It was a beautiful ball in, and all I needed to do was touch it in,” Scarsinic said. “I knew we could win today, and it would have to take everyone’s effort.”

The game, however was not secure without some heroic goalkeeping by sophomore Sammy Zeiders. Zeiders, who became the Falcons’ goalkeeper less than a month ago, rewarded her coaching staff’s faith in her by making a pair of key saves in the final 30 seconds of play and on an untimed corner at the end of regulation. On that final corner, she made the save with an enormous clearance out of the circle, ending the game.

“At that point, all I wanted to do was to stop the ball,” she said. “I wanted to clear it as hard as I could but make sure it was on the ground. Luckily, it was a nice hard clear outside of the circle.”

But the corner previous to that one, with the clock in the red, is the one that Hershey partisans are likely to be talking about for a while. Zeiders made the initial shot, and the Trojan offense rescued the ball and shot it towards an open area of goal. The ball was cleared off the line by Lower Dauphin poster back Suzy Martin, and the Hershey players and bench appealed for either a goal or a penalty stroke.

“We had wanted to hold the ball the last few minutes and keep possession; we knew that if they fouled us 20 times, and if we still held the ball, we could run out the game. But they stole the ball and got a couple of late corners,” Kreiser said. “You’re just hoping your defense holds up.”

That defense had alternated between the one that shut down the nation’s second-leading scorer in Jill Witmer a week ago, and one that lost a 3-0 decision to West Lawn Wilson (Pa.), a team that did not make the state tournament.

“They needed to learn that they had to play consistently through each game that they played,” Kreiser said. “And they had to learn how to adjust. But the beauty of this team is that they did learn, and they really wanted to do well. And during this run at the state tournament, we beat some pretty good teams. And our six losses were to quality teams; we learned from them and got better.”

Lower Dauphin 1-0–1
Hershey 0-0–0
LD: Christy Starsinic (Taylor Alwine), PC, 7th
Shots- LD: 2; H: 5. Saves- LD: Sammy Zeiders 4, defensive 1; H: 1.

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60:00 Full time! Lower Dauphin wins 1-0; Linda Kreiser gets career win No. 600 and her 4th PIAA championship

60:00+ Corner cleared by Zeiders out of the circle

59:45 Corner stopped by Zeiders; rebound cleared off the line! Second corner

59:00 Hershey free hit in a dangerous position leads to a corner

54:59 Timeout, Hershey

54:00 Lower Dauphin’s possession game serving them well

50:00 Hershey corner shot from a 1-Up bounces off a Hershey foot

44:00 Hershey doing a better job of building attacks in the midfield with short passes on the turf

40:00 Hershey gets in the circle but the ball is stolen away

34:53 Timeout, Lower Dauphin

31:00 Hershey pops through into the circle but LD goalie Zeiders makes the stop

30:00 The teams are back on the field for the second half

Halftime Falcons have the lead at the interval

25:00 Play continues in the midfield

17:33 Hershey corner leads to a dangerous shot

10:30 Lower Dauphin corner shot flies wide

6:43 Timeout, Hershey

6:43 LOWER DAUPHIN GOAL Christy Starcinik tips home Taylor Alwine’s blast

5:00 Lower Dauphin with the game’s first two penalty corners

Pregame The teams are warming up and will be introduced soon