Sophia Geiter is pictured reaching for the ball in the District 3 Class 3A 2025 championship game vs Mechanicsburg. Penn Manor plays at Lower Dauphin Wednesday, Nov. 4 in the District 3 Class 3A 2026 semifinal. Photo: Bob Benscoter
Penn Manor field hockey kept knocking Saturday. And Hempfield kept bolting the door shut.
That was until Ava Rothenberger found a little daylight at near post — and squeezed Penn Manor into the District 3 Class AAA semifinals with a fourth-quarter game-winner.
The District 3 tournament continues Wednesday, Nov. 4 in Class A, Class AA, and Class AAA.
Rothenberger scored with 6:05 remaining, breaking a 2-2 tie and giving Penn Manor a 3-2 victory over Hempfield on Oct. 31 in Landisville and a berth in the district semifinals.
The Comets will face Lower Dauphin on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Kreiser Hallman Field at Lower Dauphin Middle School in Hummelstown.
In the deciding quarter, Penn Manor earned six penalty corners and produced just one fourth-quarter goal.
Hempfield’s Emma Epler scored first, only to have Rothenberger answer 30 seconds later. The Comet’s Carly Kohler then scored on a corner with no time remaining in the second quarter to end the first half 2-1 Penn Manor.
Hempfield tied the game late in the third, sending the teams into the final 15 minutes even at 2-2.
Penn Manor’s motto “TNT,” standing for it “takes no talent” reminded them of what needed to be done — tough work ethic and the pursuit of an overall goal to return to the District 3 Class AAA championship game, senior Sophia Geiter said.
“I think that's what was important in the first couple quarters, was just our effort and you know, to just keep trying to get the ball to the back of the net,” Geiter said.
The fourth quarter brought repeated opportunities for Penn Manor: back-to-back corners beginning with 11:07 remaining, another at 9:41 and another at 6:45.
Hempfield held its ground until Rothenberger found the gap inside the post 40 seconds later.
“So it came to me and I saw a little gap and I took it and it happened to hit the back of the cage,” Rothenberger said.
The corner did not unfold as planned, she said. Penn Manor adjusted, kept the attack alive and found the goal.
Hempfield nearly answered 10 seconds later. Penn Manor turned it around and then earned its sixth fourth-quarter penalty corner with 4:30 left, but could not extend the lead.
“Read it, read what you have,” Penn Manor coach Rachel Suter was heard shouting from the sidelines.
Hempfield had its own late opportunities, earning back-to-back corners beginning with 3:18 remaining. Neither produced the equalizer.
With fewer than two minutes left, Hempfield defender Avery Mayer stopped a Penn Manor breakaway, keeping the deficit at one.
“I was super proud of their effort just the entire 60 minutes…to keep fighting,” Hempfield head coach Melissa Schimp said. “Avery did an amazing job of stepping up and being tough. She is little, but she is tough. Taylor in the cage made some great saves for us. She had those first shots; those were hers. The second shots, you know, unfortunately, at some point, when you're getting peppered like that, it's going to sneak in. But I'm super proud for, you know, her composure back there and her ability to be a leader and for Avery stepping up and also being a leader back there.”
Schimp recorded 13 saves on the day.
For Penn Manor, the volume of opportunities did not erase the need to improve its corner execution, Rothenberger said.
“Well…corners are not our strongest suit, so we can definitely work on those and get those to be better scoring opportunities for us,” she said.
The win also gave Penn Manor a measure of redemption. The team lost its previous meeting with Hempfield, a 2-1 defeat on Oct. 2, Geiter said. Penn Manor had been eliminated in the first round of the league playoffs before winning its first two district games, Rothenberger added.
“Our next game will definitely be tough, but I think we just worked really well as a team today with our passing and being around the stroke and the post to get some balls in,” Geiter said.
The competition against Hempfield “feels so dangerous” because “you just never know when they’re going to score,” Suter said. Talia Leber is one of those athletes. Geiter was specifically assigned to mark her.
“We knew that she was going to be marked,” Schimp said. “We've seen it twice before. We just need to get her a little bit more room to be creative. Talia does a great job when she can get into space. That's where she shines. So, you know, moving forward, we know what we need to do. We need to go back to basics. We need to kind of reset, know what Hempfield field hockey is, and get after it the next game.”
Penn Manor had to step up the pressure to win, Suter said, especially since this year’s brand of Penn Manor field hockey, the reigning champions, feels that they have something to prove.
“I think we always just keep in the back of our mind what last year's team was and just how special as a group we felt,” Suter said. “And then knowing that that was a special group and that we might not be the same on paper, but we can still work hard and we can still prove ourselves. I feel like the underclassmen are getting more and more confident and more comfortable, and it's just the perfect time for that to happen. They come in, they work hard every day, and it does, it takes no talent. So, we're gonna run headfirst into the storm on Wednesday against Lower Dauphin and see what we can do.”
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