Pittston Area’s Morgan Hilbert defends against Wallenpaupack’s Kayla Schmalzle.
Mia Mariggi dribbles for Pittston Area against Wallenpaupack.
Pittston Area huddles during Monday’s Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 field hockey championship game.
Pittston Area field hockey players mixed pride with confusion as a season that combined major accomplishments with bitter disappointment neared a conclusion.
The Lady Patriots posted shutouts four days apart that, at the time, they thought might have secured one championship and clearly had created another championship game appearance. Neither turned out to be the case.
After two straight winless conference seasons, Pittston Area finished tied for first in its division and produced a district playoff victory for the first time in the program’s 19-year history.
Pittston Area closed out its regular season with a 3-0 victory over Hanover Area to match Wallenpaupack for the best record in Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2. With wins in both head-to-head meetings against the Lady Buckhorns, the Lady Patriots were hopeful the decision title was decided.
Instead, a Monday playoff game was set and Wallenpaupack emerged as champion in a shootout.
At the time Pittston Area shut out Dallas, 1-0, Wednesday for the historic playoff victory, both teams thought their quarterfinal game was sending a team directly to the district final because top-seed and defending champion Wyoming Valley West had withdrawn and was forfeiting in the semifinals. Wyoming Valley West’s School Board reversed course Thursday and the Lady Spartans “unforfeited,” asking for their spot in the district bracket back and setting up a semifinal that, as of presstime, was scheduled to be played Saturday.
Pittston Area 1, Dallas 0
YATESVILLE – Kaitlyn Bucci and Arianna Pisano combined to lead the way as Pittston Area made the most of its home field Wednesday while posting the program’s first playoff win and breaking a 41-game losing streak against WVC Division 1 opponents.
Bucci scored the game’s only goal on a third-quarter penalty corner and Pisano allowed the Lady Patriots to overcome Dallas advantages in shots and penalty corners by making 12 saves in her shutout.
Beating an opponent from Division 1, which produced two of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association’s three state champions a year ago when Pittston Area was still a division member, added to the significance of the District 2 Class 2A quarterfinal victory.
“That was kind of what we were driving home,” Patriots coach Kate Connors said. “Obviously, Pittston Area field hockey has come a long way from the last year or two.
“A lot of people are focusing on the move to Division 2, … but we came up huge in a Division 1 game, a playoff game, and were able to beat Dallas. It showed that we have improved, we’re doing well and we’re able to compete with anybody.”
Pittston Area improved to 9-8, including 6-4 in one-goal games in its latest dramatic finish.
Neither team scored until a little more than six minutes into the second half.
Jianna Eike made the penalty corner insert to Bucci, just outside the right post at the top of the circle. Bucci made a clean stop, pushed the ball forward into the circle and got off a quick shot that whistled through to the back of the cage untouched.
Pisano made sure that was all Pittston Area needed to advance to face defending state champion Wyoming Valley West.
“She had an awesome game,” Connors said. “She was a rock down there.”
Typical of Pittston Area’s biggest games this season, the outcome was not decided when the clock stopped. Dallas still had to complete the last of its 13 penalty corners and the Mountaineers moved the ball around the circle effectively before taking a shot that defender Amber Jenkins stopped right in front of Pisano.
Jenkins turned and cleared the ball out through the left side of the circle, ending the penalty corner, the game and Pittston Area’s playoff drought.
Pittston Area finished the game with nine shots and five penalty corners.
Wallenpaupack 3, Pittston Area 2
TUNKHANNOCK – Pittston Area rallied to win on a penalty corner with no time expired and on a goal in the final minute in the two meetings during the regular season.
This time around, there were no late goals to break the tie.
The Lady Patriots and Lady Buckhorns went through the final 22:08 of regulation and all 20 minutes of the 7v7 overtime period stuck in a 2-2 tie.
That left the division championship to be decided in a shootout where five players on each team get one try each with eight seconds to attack the goal from the 25-yard-line and score.
Wallenpaupack won that session, played in wet conditions in fading light, 3-2.
The Lady Buckhorns had made three of four attempts when Pittston Area wound up scoring on just two of five, meaning Wallenpaupack won without taking its final attempt.
“Obviously, we were very disappointed,” Pittston Area coach Kate Connors said. “It’s tough to lose a game, but it’s even tougher to lose one like that.”
Arianna Pisano made 22 saves to help Pittston Area get to the shootout of the division final.
Pittston Area did not get a shot on goal in the first quarter when Kayla Schmalzle scored the first of her two goals for Wallenpaupack.
Jianna Eike tied the game on the team’s first shot in the second quarter off an assist from Bella Giardina.
Kaitlyn Bucci gave Pittston Area a lead in the third quarter with an unassisted goal, but that lasted less than three minutes before Schmalzle scored.
Pittston Area got to go first in the shootout and Catherine Zaladonis put the Lady Patriots in front.
Each team missed once before Hannah Karp, Scarlett Schartt and Abby McCue connected on the next three Wallenpaupack attempts.
Morgan Hilbert tied the shootout at 2-2 for Pittston Area on its fourth attempt, but McCue’s score that followed became the game-winner when the Lady Patriots could not convert their last attempt.
Wallenpaupack led in shots, 24-9, and penalty corners, 14-6.
Pittston Area 3, Hanover Area 0
The Oct. 24 home-field victory allowed Pittston Area to finish in a tie for first and force the playoff for the WVC Division 2 title.
Jianna Eike scored third-quarter goals 5:14 apart to break the game open.
Kaitlyn Bucci scored unassisted 4:25 into the game, then assisted Eike’s first goal. Bella Giardinia had the other assist.
The final Division 2 standings: Pittston Area 8-2, Wallenpaupack 8-2, Nanticoke 6-4, Tunkhannock 4-6, Berwick 2-6, Hanover Area 0-8.
Tunkhannock 2, Pittston Area 1
Tunkhannock pulled off the Oct. 23 home upset, which ultimately cost Pittston Area the division championship, when it rallied for two goals in the second half, including the game-winner in the final minute.
Jianna Eike scored the Pittston Area goal on an assist from Kaitlyn Bucci.
