Wyoming Area took its rise in field hockey one more step in the 2019 season.
After making the state tournament and winning a state playoff game for the first time ever in 2018, the Lady Warriors made it another round, reaching the semifinals before falling Tuesday.
Wyoming Area defeated Boiling Springs, 1-0, Nov. 9 in the quarterfinals, the round where it was eliminated last season.
Oley Valley then stopped the run, 2-0, Tuesday.
The Lady Warriors finished 20-3-1, with the three losses coming to the teams that were facing each other in Saturday’s Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class A state championship game. The other losses were to Wyoming Seminary in the regular-season finale with the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 title at stake and in the District 2 Class A championship game.
“The kids had a great year,” Wyoming Area coach Erin McGinley said. “Truly fantastic. We came all that way and made it into the state semifinals.
“We did a really good job.”
Oley Valley 2
Wyoming Area 0
EMMAUS – For more than 46 minutes, Makenzie Switzer pulled a shadowy act on one of the best high school field hockey players in the country.
Then Sophia Gladieux stepped out of those shadows and straight into the state spotlight.
Gladieux scored twice in the game’s final 14 minutes Tuesday and that was just enough to push Oley Valley into the championship game with a victory over Wyoming Area in a state semifinal game at Emmaus High School.
“We just didn’t put the ball in the cage,” Wyoming Area coach Erin McGinley said. “We had opportunity after opportunity. Balls trickled over the end line, or we didn’t get a tip. It happens.
“It’s unfortunate.”
In the end, it was Gladieux who found a way to put the ball in the cage.
No surprise there, since she’s one of only five high school players to register more than 200 career goals.
What was a bit of a shock was that it took her so long.
But after being hounded by Switzer’s tight defense all game, Gladieux finally broke free a scoreless battle, making a move into the circle just in time to take a pass from best friend and fellow Division I college recruit Sarah Beers, who is headed to James Madison.
Gladieux whipped home her 205th career goal with 13:25 to play to break a scoreless tie that began leaving both teams a bit frustrated.
The Penn State commit then scored again with 2:59 to play to give the Lynx (25-1) breathing room while setting the final score.
That it took so long for Gladieux to get going was a credit to Switzer – who marked one of the nation’s premier stick handlers as well as goal scorers.
“She did a fantastic job,” McGinley said of Switzer. “Props to her. She stopped what everybody considers to be the best player in the country.
“That’s pretty amazing.”
Especially since Switzer had limited experience marking a player – defending in a one-on-one situation – through most of the sophomore’s two-year high school career.
“I was definitely nervous at first,” Switzer said. “I knew she had 200-plus goals, I knew she was going to Penn State. She’s a good player. I just knew I had to do what I had to do.”
Wyoming Area’s collective defensive efforts led Oley Valley to eight shots on goal and five penalty corners. Wyoming Area had five shots on goal and seven corners.
Wyoming Area 1
Boiling Springs 0
SOUTH WHITEHALL TWP. — Toni Minichello tipped in the game’s only goal in the first half, then helped Wyoming Area stave off a two-player disadvantage in the second as the Warriors advanced to the PIAA Class A semifinal round with the victory over Boiling Springs at the Zephyr Sports Complex.
“I’m so excited,” Minichello said. “We got knocked out last year in this same game.
“Advancing on is pretty exciting.”
It was new territory for the Lady Warriors.
“We made history again,” coach Erin McGinley said. “Now we exceeded where we got last year.
“I’m extremely proud of them.”
Especially given the circumstances.
Nursing a one-goal lead late in the game, a Wyoming Area midfielder was handed her second yellow card of the second half with 13:04 to play – resulting in a penalty that took her off the field for 10 minutes. And while protesting the call, the Warriors coaching staff was slapped with a five-minute yellow card and forced to pull another player from the field for five minutes.
“They said something about her body (contact),” McGinley said of the officials’ explanation for carding the same player twice. “We were shocked. As a coaching staff, we were complaining about the call.”
That meant the Warriors would have to play with a two-player disadvantage for five minutes and a player down for five more during 10 of the state quarterfinal’s final 13 minutes.
“At first, I was like, ‘All right, this is going to be terrible,” Minichello said. “We need to really step it up. As it kept going, I was like, all right, as long as we kept our mentality, we’d be good.”
It turned out the Warriors were good to go.
Forward Kayla Kiwak shifted to right mid — “Kayla typically never plays a mid for us,” McGinley said — Makenzie Switzer went to left mid and Wyoming Area easily killed five, then 10 minutes of short-handed action while allowing just one solid shot at the start of the disadvantage.
“We adjusted very quickly when it happened,” McGinley said. “They (the Warriors) did what we told them to do. We played the game in the second half with somebody out for five minutes, then 10 minutes, then five more minutes. Props to them, they’ve never been in that (two-player shorthanded) situation before.”
Minichello certainly helped Wyoming Area overcome that.
After scoring her third goal in two state games and assisting on Wyoming Area’s other this season, she showed some defensive chops by not only scurrying the ball down the field and away from danger, but keeping the ball on her stick for long stretches while valuable time ran off the clock.
“I got a lot more defensive-minded then, as we got down a couple players,” said Minichello, a starter on last year’s Warrior team that lost a state quarterfinal game in overtime to Newport. “I think our team does a very good job of running our defense, knowing how to stop a play.
“If they got a breakaway, it would have been tough on us.”
It was even tougher for teams to stop Minichello in the postseason.
Minichello opened state play with two goals and an assist in Wyoming Area’s 3-0 victory in the first round.
The state quarterfinal game-winner came when Kayla Kiwak rifled a shot toward the cage, and Minichello re-directed it into the goal with 17:40 remaining in the first half.
“It was a really nice deflection off of Kayla,” Minichello said. “I was there for the tip in the cage.”
That’s becoming a recurring them for Minichello, who has developed a knack for tipping Kiwak’s rocket shots.
“We always say the harder you work in practice, the easier it is in games,” McGinley said. “Toni’s seeing the benefits of how hard she’s working in practice. We really push her. She’s working to get in position to score, working to get her stick down, working on her tips.”
Even with he short-handed time, Wyoming Area never allowed a penalty corner while building a 16-6 advantage in shots on goal.
Ellie Glatz had six saves in the shutout.
The Lady Warriors had six penalty corner chances.
