HIGH SCHOOL FIELD HOCKEY
AUGUST 18, 2007
Sacred Heart four-peats in Apple Tournament final
By
NATHAN CHAMBERS
BeyondTheDerby.com
Sacred Heart coach Liz Lewis knows that not all of her peers like to admit that the school’s Apple Tournament is more than a glorified series of scrimmages.
“But no matter what anyone says, everyone wants to win the Apple,” she said. “It’s a great tournament.”
At the very least, all must agree that it’s been a great tournament for Sacred Heart in recent years.
The reigning state champion Valkyries started their fourth season under Lewis just like their first three, winning the 35th annual event with a 1-0 victory over Ballard in the final at Horton Field on Saturday.
While winning their 32nd straight game since a loss in the 2005 state semifinals, the Valkyries became the first team to win four titles in a row since KCD accomplished the feat between 1988 and 1991; it's their record 12th title overall.
“It’s amazing,” Sacred Heart senior Jennifer Bohnert said. “This is our tournament, and it feels good to win it again for the school.”
The Valkyries had played archrival Assumption in each of the previous three Apple Tournament finals; they won in a flick-off in both 2004 and 2005 and won 2-1 on a second-half goal last year.
If there was any doubt that Ballard could push them, too, it was misplaced.
The Bruins - the third public school team to reach the final and the first since they lost to Sacred Heart in 1997 - held the Valkyries scoreless for almost 45 minutes until senior Taylor Collins made the best of a busted penalty corner and scored with 15:37 left.
“The ball didn’t exactly go where it was supposed to go on that corner,” Collins said. “Someone shot it, and it bounced off the goalie’s pads. It hit my stick, and I just flicked it in the left corner.”
That goal came at the end of a two-minute stretch in which the Valkyries were awarded five corners.
“When a team gets corner after corner after corner like that, eventually one is going to get in (the cage),” Ballard coach Kelly Logsdon said.
Despite the goal, Logsdon was pleased that the Bruins, who fell behind in each of their previous two games, were able to shut out the Valkyries for so long.
“From the time the first whistle blew, we were on our game,” she said.
Lewis didn’t see the same from her players. During halftime, she knelt stoically in front of them and spoke so softly that those out of ear shot only feet away could not have guessed that she was, in fact, irate.
“We were at a point where there really wasn’t much to say, other than to communicate that they were better than that and they needed to display some pride,” Lewis said. “You have to give Ballard a lot of credit. They came out with their ‘A’ game, I thought. They were very intense, very emotional, and they looked very, very strong. Our kids hung in there. They fought. But they need to show a little more of that intensity and emotion.”
Nonetheless, the Valkyries had a 10-2 advantage in shots on goal and a 19-5 advantage in corners.
Junior Lara Williams was busy - and solid - in Ballard’s cage, making nine saves. Her counterpart, Sacred Heart senior Meredith Golden, posted her third shutout in four tournament games.
Ballard’s last chance to score came in the final minute, when the Bruins were awarded what was just their second corner since halftime. But senior star Amanda Seeley couldn’t handle the initial pass, and the ball rolled harmlessly out of Sacred Heart’s zone.
“I think we’re definitely in contention to get them the next time we play them,” said Logsdon, who was on the Sacred Heart team that defeated Ballard in the 1997 tournament. “They’re beatable. Anyone is beatable.”
Except, perhaps, in the Apple Tournament.
