BUCKTOWN — The only thing predictable about the battle for field hockey playoff spots among the top five teams in the Pioneer Athletic Conference Liberty Division is that nothing is predictable. And Owen J. Roberts continued to prove that anybody can beat anybody on any given night with a 2-0 win over visiting Upper Perkiomen Thursday at Wildcat Field South.
That tightened up the wild jumble at the top of the division even more with one week to go in the regular season as the Wildcats (4-4 Liberty, 7-4 PAC, 10-6 overall) won their seventh straight league match after dropping their first four.
Avery Taylor scored in the second and third quarters and Jazlynn Campbell made 15 saves in goal for OJR, including six in the first quarter as the Indians (4-3-1, 6-3-2, 9-4-2) dominated the early play. Upper Perk goalkeeper Ryann Sanfelice made eight saves.
The Indians, who defeated OJR 5-2 earlier in the season, had a penalty corner opportunity in the opening minute and put three quick shots on goal. But Campbell came up with the stops, setting the tone for the rest of the period during which Upper Perk had five corner chances as compared to just one for the hosts.
“We didn’t let the first 30 seconds rattle us,” said senior keeper Campbell. “I think we were really communicating on defense.”
“They had some solid shots, solid opportunities,” said Wildcats head coach Amy Hoffman. “(Campbell) is seeing the ball really well. They’re doing a great job communicating. Our whole defense is playing amazing right now.”
The OJR defense, which has allowed two goals or less in each contest during the team’s eight-game win streak, continued to settle in during the second quarter as Campbell added four saves to her total.
“Their defense did make adjustments,” said Indians head coach Meghan Griffin “On our end, we didn’t execute when we had the opportunities. We had a lot of corners and nothing was converted. That was our biggest fumble of the day.”
Late in the first half, Sanfelice made back-to-back saves, but the ball was knocked out to Taylor on the second one and she shot it into the cage for the lead with 5:06 remaining until halftime. Taylor scored again with 5:30 to go in the third quarter off a pass from Emmy Youngblood.
Upper Perk had four corner opportunities in the fourth quarter to none for the Wildcats to finish with a 12-9 advantage on the night. But Campbell and the Wildcat defense continued to do what they had to do to keep the ball out of the cage.
“I think it was a mindset shift,” Hoffman said concerning her team’s recovery from the rough start on Thursday. “We said we know what we’re doing, we have our game plan. We just have to focus and do what we do.”
“We were focusing on our basics,” said Taylor. “We’ve been highlighting that in our practices.”
OJR began its PAC schedule with consecutive losses to the other division contenders – Boyertown, Upper Perk, Spring-Ford and Methacton. But the Wildcats have beaten those first two teams in rematches and will finish league play with contests against the other two next week.
“We’ve been on a little mission here in the second half of the season,” said Hoffman. “They weren’t happy with the way they’d been playing in the first half. But we’re cycling back through the teams and we can help ourselves.”
“We were able to notice what was going on and changed it and fixed it,” said Taylor.
Campbell thought the turnaround was also a matter of the team maturing.
“I think it came with being mature enough as a team,” she said. “It’s a team sport. If we want to go anywhere, we can’t play as individuals.”
Almost anything can happen next week as the five contenders fight it out for the division title and the automatic spot in the PAC semi-finals that goes with it, along with two wildcard berths.
Whatever happens, the Indians – playing in the large school Liberty Division for the first time – feel that their tougher schedule will prepare them for what is to come.
“Our team is doing a pretty good job of meeting the level of competition,” said Griffin. “It’s super-competitive. It bodes well for us in the postseason.”
