Mount hockey falls to Emmaus

By TOM UTESCHER

ALLENTOWN - When Sarah Reinprecht guided the ball through the circle with a series of brilliant dodges to give Mount St. Joseph a 1-0 lead in last Tuesday's state tournament opener, Magic supporters dared to entertain thoughts of an upset. Then, on this frigid evening on the artificial turf of J. Birney Crum Stadium, the Emmaus Green Hornets got hot. The perpetual District XI champions tied the game, pulled ahead with two seconds left in the first half, then struck two more times in the second period.

The 4-1 win moved the Hornets into the quarterfinals of the Class AAA tourney and hoisted their record to 23-1. The single blemish on their ledger reflected a 2-1 loss to the top-ranked team in the country, Eastern High School of Gibbsboro, NJ. The Mount Magic, champions of the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies and the fifth seed from District I for the PIAA tourney, sheathed their sticks for the season with a final record of 23-3.

"This team is far-and-away the best team we've played," Reinprecht said of Emmaus.

Senior classmate Nina Ferrier concurred: "It was great competition. Everyone played 110% and we left everything we had out on the field. We were pumped before the game and I think everyone did an awesome job."

While it was only the second trip to States for Mount St. Joe (the locals reached the quarterfinals last year), Emmaus is a fixture in the PIAA tournament. Before the game, the Hornets' scorekeepers provided journalists with a 21-page print-out containing current stats and detailing the program's past successes.

Still, it was the Magic who made the initial imprint on the scoreboard. They earned the first penalty corner of the evening, and after Reinprecht's shot was blocked at the top of the circle, she moved inside to her left, retrieved the ball, and went through the defense to score. The goal came just three minutes and 27 seconds into the match, and the Hornets tied it up with 17:21 to go in the first half. Moving rapidly down the right wing with a series of precise passes, Emmaus angled in towards the circle and junior Christina Bortz delivered the ball inside to set up the score by sophomore Amanda Huck.

MSJ's Ferrier blocked shots by the Hornets off of a pair of corners, and on a third, Magic goalie Kieran Sweeney rejected the ball with a kicksave. Sweeney also got a hand from Katie Burke, who stopped the ball at the goal line when it got behind the keeper during another Emmaus assault. At the other end, Katie Reinprecht could not quite get her stick on the ball on a corner play designed for the left post, and later she dribbled the ball into the circle on an exciting rush but was forced wide of the goal.

With five minutes to go, Emmaus goalie Andrea Mainiero sprawled out flat in front of the cage to stop a charge by the Magic, and with 90 seconds left Sarah Reinprecht took a free hit from outside the circle and the ball thumped off of the Hornets' backboard. Unfortunately for the locals, it had gone in off a Mount player's body, rather than her stick.

If you were close to the play, Reinprecht reported, "It was obvious it wasn't a goal. I think it bounced off the foot of one of our post players and into the cage."

After another Mount corner shot was blocked, Emmaus came back up the field and earned a corner of its own with 16 seconds left in the half. The Hornets took a short hit out from the endline, and although they did not get off the shot they'd planned, the ball stayed in the circle low on the right side. Junior Brooke Patterson slapped it into the goal with just two seconds remaining, giving Emmaus a 2-1 edge at the interlude.

Nine-and-a-half minutes into the second half, the Lehigh Valley club went up 3-1 when another corner play clicked. Off of the insertion to Patterson on the left side of the circle, the junior passed the ball even farther out to the left to her classmate Jess Werley, who blasted a sharply-angled shot into the cage.

It was now clear that the Mount would have a very tough time climbing back into contention. Taking advantage of the uniform artificial surface, Emmaus played a sophisticated control game employing numerous pushes, sweeps, and back-passes.

"They're more of a passing team than a dribbling team," attested MSJ's Ferrier. "They put pressure on our left side taking the ball down, and that was somewhat new to us. That's how they got through us, I guess you would say."

When the Hornets play defense, Sarah Reinprecht noted, "They hunt in pairs; they're always playing the two vs. one putting two girls on the ball. They were phenomenal today; they kept pressuring us and pressuring us."

Emmaus would add its fourth goal in the final minute of the game. In the interim the Magic earned four corners; on three of them their shots were blocked or deflected by defenders and on the fourth - a short play targeting the left post - the Hornets' Mainiero came out to kick the ball clear.

On the last of three Emmaus corners in the final three minutes, the ball came out long on the left, and a drive back inside by Werley set up junior Tara King for the Hornets' fourth goal of the evening with 52 seconds to go. Mainiero and MSJ's Sweeney each logged six saves for the night.