Panthers move on with eyes on the prize
BLOOMSBURG — Bloomsburg knew it had something special on its hands and made it exceptional Saturday afternoon.
Because of the pandemic, the Panthers got the rare opportunity to host a PIAA Class A field hockey quarterfinal match. In normal circumstances, they would have played at a neutral site.
The District 4 champion made the most of the occasion, securing the program’s first state playoff win, 2-1, over District 11 champion Northwestern Lehigh.
Bloomsburg advances to the state semifinals where it will meet District 2 champion Wyoming Seminary, a 4-0 winner over Hope Solbury. The game will be played Tuesday at a site and time to be announced; if PIAA sticks to the current format, the Panthers will travel to Wyoming Seminary.
“I thought this was the biggest opportunity we’ve ever had,” Bloomsburg coach Chuck Baker said. “We’ve never won a state playoff game. We knew that having home-field advantage and them traveling, it was a premium chance for us to make history.”
“... But we’re not content yet. We know now that we are one game away from the state final.”
Bloomsburg showed early that it could win with speed and stick control, correlating to the Panthers dominating ball possession. It was second chances, though, that got translated into points.
Aydan McFarland, coming off a corner, missed scoring the game’s first goal by mere inches, having her shot ricochet off the left goal post. Gracie Brosious, though, was there on the rebound, sneaking the ball to the right corner.
Brosious accounted for both of Bloomsburg’s goals. Coming off a penalty corner in the third quarter, Cassie Slusser got a nice cross pass off in front of the goal to Brosious who placed the finishing touch.
“The ball just went right past them,” Brosious said. “I said ‘alright’ and just put the last touch on both of them.”
Despite having such success on the pair of corners, Northwestern Lehigh did give the Panthers fits. Bloomsburg had 13 corners in the contest but faced a defensive scheme that made it tough to do much with the ball in play.
“We just knew that a direct shot wasn’t going to work today,” Baker said. “They kept everybody back behind the stroke line and with a triangle and a goalie, basically playing a diamond.
“(Lauren Schellhamer) and (Greenleigh McGehee) are so sound and it would be tough to get by them. We knew that our corners had to go around and that’s what worked on the two that went in.”
The Tigers held their weight and made things interesting with a late breakthrough.
After being turned away from what looked like their best opportunity to score in the third quarter, the Tigers took the intermission to regroup. Schellhamer cut the deficit in half less than two minutes into the fourth with the Panthers seemingly playing flat-footed.
“The fact that we don’t have timeouts this year, that goal was a big momentum swing for them,” Baker said. “We knew we had to start taking over.
“... I think we played a little tentative. The goal they scored, I thought we should have got. We discussed that that’s where their shots come from. We just didn’t get to our positions at the time.”
Before their only goal, the Tigers were awarded a pair of corners and got a shot off in the final minute of the third quarter.
Baker, though, said the goal served as a wake-up call. The Panthers closed out the game by playing a lot like they had in the first half. They made the needed adjustments to stop the Tigers’ last-minute scare with Maggie Mylin playing the defensive hero — breaking free up the sideline and later getting the ball out from a clutter in front of Bloomsburg’s goal.
Mylin stopped Tiger rallies on multiple occasions, using her speed and passing abilities to take the ball back the other way.
“They came back with some passion and fire,” Baker said after Northwestern Lehigh’s goal. “Maggie was on fire today on the defensive side, stopping them with the speed that she has.
“It took the momentum they had late away. She has such speed that if you don’t realize the ball is loose, she’s going to get it off of you.”
The Panthers outshot the Tigers, 16-4. Bloomsburg contained the Tigers to one shot and one corner in the first half.
Northwestern 0 0 0 1 — 1
Bloomsburg 1 0 1 0 — 2
First quarter: 1. Bloomsburg, Gracie Brosious (Aydan McFarland), 3:25. Third quarter: 2. Bloomsburg, Brosious (Cassie Slusser), 6:51. Fourth quarter: 3. Northwestern Lehigh, Lauren Schellhamer (Charlotte Horn), 13:37.
Shots: Northwestern Lehigh 4, Bloomsburg 16. Penalty corners: Northwestern Lehigh 6, Bloomsburg 13. Saves: Northwestern Lehigh 8 (Maxine Hoffman), Bloomsburg 2 (Nadja Hartmann).
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