Wyoming Area field hockey players react to the 1-0 loss to Boiling Springs in the state championship game on Saturday.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatch
Warriors fall 1-0 in Class A field hockey title game
Wyoming Area’s Lyla Rehill weaves her way between Boiling Springs players Zoe Collins and Regan Eicckhoff (21) on Saturday.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatch
Wyoming Area’s Alexys Moore shoots the ball past Boiling Springs’ Kate Yenser during the PIAA Class A field hockey championship game on Saturday.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatch
Wyoming Area’s Alexys Moore falls to the turf after battling for the ball with a Boiling Springs player on Saturday.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatch
Wyoming Area’s Alyvia Yatsko sends the ball past Boiling Springs’ Lexi Hanlin during the PIAA Class A State Championship Game held at Chamberland Valley High School in Mechansburg on Saturday afternoon.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatch
Boiling Springs’ Regan Eickhoff (center right) scored the winning goal for the Bubblers in the fourth quarter against Wyoming Area in the PIAA Class A championship game on Saturday.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatch
Wyoming Area’s Alexys Moore carries the runner-up trophy back to the team bench.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatch
The Wyoming Area players face the fans in the grandstands as their runner-up metals were handed out after Saturday’s PIAA Class A field hockey championship game.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatch
Wyoming Area’s Bianca Pizano tries to take the control of the ball away from Boilong Springs’ Lexi Hanlin in the PIAA Class A field hockey championship game on Saturday in Mechanicsburg.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatch
Wyoming Area’s Alexys Moore and Boiling Springs’ Kate Yenser try to keep the ball in play as it rolls toward the sideline in the first half of play in the PIAA Class A field hockey championship game on Saturday in Mechanicsburg.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatch
MECHANICSBURG – The longer Wyoming Area and Boiling Springs went not only keeping each other off the scoreboard, but also allowing very few combined threats, the more likely it became that the first goal was going to mean a first state field hockey championship for the team that scored.
Wyoming Area escaped a scare with 5:05 remaining when a Reagan Eickhoff shot, originally signaled as the game’s first goal, was disallowed following a consultation of the umpires.
By the time Eickhoff took the shot that counted, on another penalty corner with 3:02 left, the Warriors were out of time to mount a threat and the unbeaten Bubblers had what they needed to produce a 1-0 victory in the PIAA Class A state field hockey championship game.
“A few things didn’t go our way,” Wyoming Area coach Bree Bednarski said. “But, I’m super proud.
“It was a huge accomplishment for our team to get here.”
The Warriors played 8:44 shorthanded the result of being on the receiving end of the only three cards issued in the physical, defensive struggle in their first state championship game appearance.
They made it through two minutes early in the game and five minutes early in the fourth quarter without allowing a goal, but playing the last 1:44 a player down, while a goal down, resulted in Wyoming Area being unable to mount a late threat.
There were few threats throughout.
Boiling Springs outshot Wyoming Area, 6-1 in the second half and 10-2 in the game. It had all three of the fourth-quarter penalty corners for a 10-4 lead in that category.
Wyoming Area started the second half strong with two penalty corners and a shot just about a foot wide of the goal in the first three minutes, but did not get another of either the rest of the way.
“I really wanted us to pick it up offensively, but it wasn’t in the books for us,” Bednarski said.
As the game wore on, Boiling Springs backs became more aggressive stepping into passing lanes breaking up plays each time Wyoming Area began to put together what looked like a promising transition.
Wyoming Area, no stranger to battling through low-scoring games, kept it scoreless until deep into the fourth quarter.
The Warriors allowed just 14 goals in their 22-3 season.
Boiling Springs, however, finished strong, earning three penalty corners in the last six minutes after Eickhoff shot wide from the middle of the circle on the game’s best chance to that point on a fastbreak with 11:37 left.
“We’re here for each other,” said Eickhoff, who received the insert from Alex Bandura, moved slightly in and to her right, then unleashed the winning shot. “We just picked up the urgency.
“We played our game and went out and got it.”
Wyoming Area sends its two senior captains off to NCAA Division I programs – Bianca Pizano to Michigan State and Alexys Moore to Massachusetts – but returns the rest of the roster as it tries to extend a streak of three straight Final Four appearances in the last three full tournaments the PIAA was able to conduct.
“I’m really excited,” Bednarski said. “We have a lot of underclassmen. Obviously our seniors are both fantastic players; both going to D-I.
“They will be missed, but we have a lot to build on for next year.”
