PIAA Class 2A Field Hockey: Radnor cruises past Pandas, ready to make noise in state tourney
RADNOR — Tuesday was a chance for the Radnor field hockey team to press the reset button. The Raptors had no trouble disposing of Bonner & Prendergast, 12-1, in the first round of the PIAA Class 2A tournament.
It was a convincing, one-sided win that saw the District 1 runners-up in control from start to finish.
Sadie Schultz, Alex DeCain and Marin Mooney powered the offensive attack, scoring three goals apiece. Radnor will meet the winner of District 11’s Whitehall and District 3’s Hershey High in the quarterfinals on Saturday.
Radnor (17-6) knows all too well what it means to be in second place, or to fall just short of reaching its intended goal. Second is where the Raptors placed in the Central League, behind still-unbeaten Conestoga, and in the District 1 tournament.
The Raptors are poised to take it to the next level in the state playoffs.
Three days after a 2-1 defeat to Villa Maria in two overtimes for the district championship, Radnor coach Gretta Ehret had her players prepared for the task at hand. What happened in districts in the past.
“The tough loss Saturday was the most intense high school field hockey game I’ve ever been a part of. And I’ve been coaching high school hockey now for 10 years,” said Ehret, who is in her first season at the helm of the Raptors. “I think the painful part was that we had so many chances to finish and win it. But we also said in the locker room afterwards, we can hang with anyone, we can play with any team, any top team in the state, and we can win. We can put away a goal in double overtime. We know we can do it. While I think it was very heartbreaking because there were moments where we could’ve won, I also think it’s fuel for the players. Our goal was to go one round further than they did last year in both the district tournament and state tournament. And we ended up going to the district championship and we’re already in the state quarterfinals. It’s our goal now to just keep winning.”
The Raptors believe they have what it takes to make a deep run in states. If Monday’s performance is any indication, they will be difficult to stop. Perhaps they will get a second opportunity down the road to beat Villa Maria, which defeated Red Land, 4-2, in another first-round game Tuesday. Radnor and Villa are on opposite sides of the bracket and wouldn’t play again unless the teams made the final.
“I feel like going from districts to states, it’s definitely a new season, a new type of play. So we knew we had to come in with more intensity,” said Schultz, a sensational forward/midfielder who pilots the Radnor attack. “Especially after what happened this past weekend. We want to play hard and we want to keep playing and make it to the finals in states. Last year we lost in the first round of states, so we also use that as motivation.”
Radnor wasted no time pressuring a scrappy Bonner & Prendie (13-8) team that competed all game long. The Raptors raced out to a 5-0 lead in the first half, pelting B&P goalie Mere Shallow (17 saves) with an array of shots. Schultz and Mooney each scored twice and De Cain had one goal in the opening 15 minutes. De Cain showed off her tremendous stick skills and ability to penetrate the striking circle throughout the match.
“We definitely don’t take any games for granted,” De Cain said. “Any team can come back at any point. We also try to focus on ourselves and what we’re doing and not the other team. We are constantly saying, control your attitude and control your intensity.”
Schultz scored off a corner early in the second. The play that Ehret called from the Radnor bench was aptly titled “Let’s go Sadie.”
“It was a new one we put in at practice,” Schultz said. “It worked for us.”
De Cain scored her second goal, on a pass from Schultz, and senior Laura Girton tallied to give Radnor an 8-0 advantage.
Bonner & Prendie’s Marina Tagliaferi scored on an assist from Grace Edwards with 5:50 left before halftime. De Cain found the back of the cage for the third time in the third quarter and Mooney completed her hat trick with five minutes left in regulation.
“It was a good game for us. We used a lot of subs and we were able to get some of our players in the game that haven’t played in some of the closer games in the postseason,” Ehret said. “And we were able to put 10 goals in the net with every single player contributing significant minutes and that was something important to me. It was their last home game. We have a bunch of seniors and it was nice to see them play and put something together as a team that we can walk away together and be proud of.”
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