High School Field Hockey
STATE TOURNAMENT
Oct. 24, 2006
Sacred Heart rolls toward rematch in final
By NATHAN CHAMBERS
BeyondTheDerby.com
Appearances can be deceiving, as even the recent and quite relevant history of Kentucky high school field hockey can attest. But that certainly looks like a juggernaut barreling toward the state championship game.
Sacred Heart Academy scored three goals in the second half to finish off a 5-0 win over Manual in the state semifinals at the University of Louisville’s Trager Stadium on Tuesday night, extending its cumulative postseason margin of victory to 32 goals.
To put it another way, Sacred Heart has scored 32 goals and has allowed none - zip, zero, zilch - in its last four games.
So on march the reigning Apple Tournament champion and undefeated Valkyries, back to the state final for the second time in three years and into a rematch with Kentucky Country Day.
That’s right, Kentucky Country Day.
Hence the aforementioned reference to recent history.
Just two years ago, the Valkyries started the season with an Apple Tournament title and almost finished it with an unbeaten record, winning every game until KCD denied them the ultimate prize in the final. And that’s not all. The Valkyries won the Apple Tournament title and went unbeaten against in-state teams again last season until eventual champion Assumption stopped them in the semifinals.
But at least two people, Sacred Heart seniors Brittany Miller and Anna Middleton, insist it will be different on Thursday night at Trager Stadium.
“We’ve watched our friends from other schools win,” Miller said. “We’ve had to hear, ‘The 2004 champion is KCD,’ and we’ve had to hear, ‘The 2005 champion is Assumption.’ I really feel like this is our turn.”
“I’ve been waiting for this for two years,” Middleton said. “It’s not slipping away this time.”
The Valkyries won’t be satisfied with anything less.
“I’ve been here before,” said Liz Lewis, Sacred Heart’s third-year coach. “The whole goal is to win the last game. We’ve had an awesome season. The kids have worked hard, and the staff has worked hard. But now we need to finish.”
Finishing has not been a problem for the Valkyries recently. They scored three goals in the last 15:25 on Tuesday, robbing Manual of any realistic hopes it had to pull off an upset. Kristen Henn, Hannah English and Middleton each scored during that stretch. English, Lauren Edelen and Caroline Klein had the assists.
Jessica Lindner scored both first-half goals. She put Sacred Heart on the board with an unassisted goal almost 17 minutes into the game. Then, with 2:49 left, she took a crossing pass from Edelen and slapped a shot past Manual goalkeeper Evan Fowler.
“I think we had a few periods when we got disorganized,” Manual coach April White said. “We didn’t communicate, and we left them wide open for shots.”
Sacred Heart finished with a 14-1 shot advantage over the Crimsons, whose only shot came shortly after the Valkyries took a 3-0 lead on Henn’s goal with 15:25 left. Miller, Sacred Heart’s goalkeeper, kicked it away.
“We started off a little slowly,” Lewis said. “Manual had a good game plan, cutting off our passing lanes. So it took a little time to get into a groove. But once we did, we obviously took off.”