November 2, 2006 Issue                                       

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©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Mount hockey avoids familiar trap, reaches district semifinals
by TOM UTESCHER

The Mount’s Katie Reinprecht keeps control of the ball over CB West. (Photo by Devon Grieb)

After a bye last Monday in the first round of the PIAA District One Class AAA field hockey tournament, top-seeded Mount St. Joseph Academy won through to the semifinal round, defeating number 17 Central Bucks West, 4-0, on Wednesday, and knocking off ninth-seeded Haverford High School, 2-0, on Friday afternoon.

That third-round, quarterfinal game had been a sticking point for the Mount in recent years. Friday’s win guaranteed the Magic a place in the 2006 state tournament.

“That was our main thing, to get through that game,” remarked veteran junior midfielder Laura Iacovetti. “No team in Mount history had gotten to the district semifinals before.”

In both 2004 and 2005, the Magic lost their District One quarterfinal match, then prevailed in a play-in game to become one of the six district teams which would advance to the state tournament. Both years, the Magic went on to win the match which determined the fifth and sixth seeds, and each time their reward was a first-round meeting in the state tourney with the squad that would go on to claim the championship, Emmaus High School.

As the top seed in the district this time around, the Magic were able to play both of last week’s bouts on their home field.

A classic Mount corner play put the hosts on the board three-and-a-half minutes into the C.B. West game. Carolyn Cabrey made the insertion and Katie Reinprecht stopped the ball near the top of the circle and belted it back towards the cage. Bucks goalkeeper Lisa Belcastro got a piece of the ball, but could not keep it from crossing the goal line.

The visitors pretty much gave as good as they got for the rest of the first half, though. Although C.B. West arrived with a relatively modest 14-7 season record, it should be noted that the Bucks play in the Suburban One League and square off against some of the strongest hockey teams in the area during the regular season.

In light of the competition yet to come, it was good for the Mount that goalie Kieran Sweeney faced some pressure and did not stand idle during last week’s contests. The junior booked five saves in each game to record her 12th and 13th shutouts of the season.

The Magic were still only ahead of C.B. West 1-0 at the intermission, but as sophomore Julia Reinprecht pointed out, “In the first half we were going against the wind. I think we just needed to build momentum, and once we got that going we were able to put some more goals in.”

The Magic shored up their position by scoring twice in the first eight minutes of the nether half. West’s Belcastro stopped a penalty stroke by Katie Reinprecht with 3:18 elapsed, but just 19 seconds later Jen Sabia got to a loose ball in front of the Bucks’ pen to make it 2-0.

Four minutes after that, players were crowded in front of the visitors’ goal once more, and Brittany Gavin tipped the ball to Nicole Schuster, who tacked the Magic’s third point on the board. Down the stretch the Magic attacked steadily, and their efforts yielded a fourth marker with 4:12 remaining, when Julia Reinprecht scored from the right side of the circle off an assist from her sister.

The Mounties were aware that as they worked their way deeper into the tournament, they’d encounter increasingly tougher teams, with skilled players who could put a lot of pace on their drives. To prepare for this, Mount coaches Lois Weber and Tina Reinprecht pulled a seldom-used device out of the equipment shed at Thursday’s practice session. The JUGS pitching machine company makes a model designed to hurl hockey balls, and this was now trained on the current crop of Mounties.

Iacovetti related “They were pitching balls at us to have us practice stopping, and those balls were going pretty darn fast.”

The next afternoon, Haverford High School proved to be a scrappy opponent, and more than 20 minutes into the contest, the count was still 0-0.

With nine minutes left in the opening stanza, a pass by Gavin got past the visitors’ sticks into the middle of the circle, and Katie Reinprecht shot what would prove to be the gamewinning goal. The Magic increased the odds against a Haverford comeback by striking early in the second period.