Wyoming Area’s field hockey team has had its fair share of quality and important wins in the last few years. However, none may be bigger than the team’s win over Lackawanna Trail.
In the first round of the District 2 Class AA field hockey playoffs Monday, Wyoming Area took down Trail, 8-3. The win marked the team’s first playoff victory at Atlas Field. Wyoming Area (14-3) would eventually fall to Crestwood, 8-1, in the quarterfinals of the tournament, a loss that eliminated the Warriors from District 2 contention.
Bree Bednarski scored six goals Tuesday and Wyoming Area had its first playoff victory at home.
“I just saw opportunities,” Bednarski said.
After more than 10 minutes of solid defensive play on both sides, Bednarski broke through with the game’s first goal to give the Warriors an early edge.
Considering the hard shot through a scrum came from the girl who led the Wyoming Valley Conference in scoring – by far – and finished with more than 40 goals for the second straight season, that first goal wasn’t a major surprise.
The second one was.
Little more than a minute after her first goal, Bednarski spun around and lofted a high, rocketing shot that clanked hard off the crossbar before falling into the cage to give Wyoming Area a 2-0 lead.
“I like the one corner shot – I did a reverse and it went very high off the crossbar,” chuckled Bednarski, a Michigan-bound senior who’s made goals before in similar fashion.
Also adding goals for the Warriors were Jillian Spak and Ally Bresnahan. Katie Wolfgang made eight saves in the win.
Against Crestwood, Bednarski notched the team’s only goal when she got a give-and-go from Spak in the first half.
Patriots knocked out in play-in game
Pittston Area is no stranger to playing in overtime. In fact, the overtime games the Patriots played in this year are what kept them in the district championships.
Lo and behold, Pittston Area and Delaware Valley needed two overtimes to help settle the PIAA District 2 Class 3A field hockey play-in game on Monday. Six minutes into the second overtime, however, Delaware Valley’s Kara Gearhart scored the unassisted goal that ended the Patriots’ season.
When the district seedings came out last week, the Patriots were left out of the playoffs and the Warriors were given the fourth seed. On Sunday, however, the district informed the teams there was a miscalculation and the two would need to play a play-in game to decide the final spot in the Class 3A field.
Pittston Area and Delaware Valley were tied at 1-all just 12 minutes into the game. From there, however, defense and play from both goalkeepers allowed the overtime periods to come to fruition.
“We couldn’t find the back of the cage,” Pittston Area coach Caitlin Hadzimichalis said. “We got a little stagnant in the circle and we were carrying it too much. We needed to fire it on the cage.”
The Patriots got on the board first, in a big way.
With six minutes gone in the first half, the Patriots were awarded their second penalty corner of the first half. Molly Walsh took the corner and sent a screamer out to Paige Danko. Danko blasted a shot from the center of the field. A Warrior defender got her stick on the shot and the ball popped into the air. DelVal goalkeeper Sophia Festa couldn’t reach the ball and it went into the back of the cage.
Penalty corners played a large part in the matchup between the two teams. Combined, the teams were awarded 24 penalty corners. DelVal tied the game on a corner six minutes after Danko’s tally.
