‘They’ve worked hard since preseason,’ Boiling Springs field hockey coach on 2-1 OT District 3 Class 1A win over Oley Valley
The Boiling Springs girls field hockey team won 2-1 in overtime Saturday to win their second District gold.
Bayley Leonard inherited the Boiling Springs girls field hockey program in the Spring of 2023, a few months after the Bubblers won their first District 3 Class 1A championship.
On Saturday, she was yelling colors to her attack penalty corner inserter senior Lexi Boyle. There were 30 seconds on the clock in the first overtime.
Boyle selected her play, passed the ball to the top, where Kendall Longenberger received it. The sophomore barely looked at her target and ripped a shot.
“I was locked in,” Longenberger said.
Boiling Springs won the first of three high school field hockey district championship games held in Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Park on Saturday. The final score in the Class 1A championship game was 2-1.
After the game, Boyle, Longenberger, Avery Doyle, and Gracie Bush all expressed immense pride in the team for earning their second district gold medal.
“It’s a comeback season,” Bush said. “We were down in the fourth 1-0 and found a way to score.”
Oley Valley scored first late in the third. During the first three quarters, Oley and Boiling Springs had to figure out how to pack the left side defensively and stop their opponents breakaways.
The Bubblers were having a hard time containing Kadyn Rhoads and Ava Walters. Rhoads ran the left side seam and Walters played a high defensive center mid.
Boiling Springs were struggling to match their energy and ran into clean block tackles. The Bubblers were fortunate that Oley was panicking in their offensive circle. When they were defended, they would turn around and stick obstruct Boiling Springs defense.
The Bubblers earned at least 20 calls in their favor because of the stick obstructions. While they were able to turn and burn, the Bubblers also ran into a strong Oley backfield.
It was late in the third when Rhoads landed her shot on an attack penalty corner. Despite the edge, the second half was played more in favor of Boiling Springs.
The Bubblers synergized after Leonard called a timeout in the fourth with 3:50 seconds left in the game. The duo of Longenberger to Doyle again snapped the Bubblers out of any doubt that they could win with a passing sequence to goal.
The score was 1-1 with just over two minutes remaining in regulation.
“I just thought that we found our energy,” Doyle said. “We weren’t really energized the first half and then we pushed to the end.”
The “key” to the championship game was the “momentum shifts,” Oley Valley head coach Tiffany Cappellano said.
“I feel like we really had the momentum in the first half,” Cappellano said. “We were able to get on the board in that third quarter. After we came out of that timeout, we kind of made just a few mental errors. They've got nothing to lose at that point. So, when you're playing a team like that, and in those moments, like, you know, they kind of got us on our heels and then were able to tie it up.”
Last year, Oley was 11-11 overall and the Lynx lost in the first round of districts, she said.
“This year, we were county champs, conference champs, which is a huge thing because, you know, we're playing against bigger schools,” Cappellano said. “And then to get back to this game that's an accomplishment in and of itself. We’re Oley Valley, and even though we won silver, that's not good enough for us. And I think that we're learning a lot along the way and these girls are just continuing to be students of the game and allowing us to teach them and allowing themselves to learn and grow.”
For the Bubbler seniors, who were part of the 2022 championship team that defeated Oley Valley, going from being freshman “riding the bench” and “cheering for their teammates” to the reason for the program’s second gold “means everything,” Boyle said.
“It feels good,” Leonard said. “I mean, the girls, I mean, they're truly amazing. I joked after regulation. I was like, ‘you're going to put me on blood pressure medication. I still love you all, but like, they're just a really great group.’ They’ve been working hard not just since the first day of preseason. We've been thinking of being back in this situation since the state championship game last year. They knew what they wanted and they're a determined group of young ladies and they're going to work hard to get what they want.”
Thank you for reading Female Athlete News. Follow us on our social media pages or reach us at femaleathletenews@gmail.com with a story idea.
