Penn-Trafford shuts out Woodland Hills
Penn-Trafford coach Cindy Dutt was getting more and more antsy during the first half of the WPIAL Class AAA field hockey semifinal Tuesday night at Wolvarena.
Time after time, her Warriors attacked Woodland Hills only to come away empty-handed. Even when they worked off set post corner plays that are normally high-percentage scoring chances, Penn-Trafford couldn't get anything to click offensively. The ball either bounced off a stick or rolled untouched out of scoring range.
That was until senior striker Niki Jordan finally got an impromptu bounce that went Penn-Trafford's way.
Jordan poked home a shot off a blown post corner with 22:49 remaining in regulation for the only goal Penn-Trafford needed as it came away with a 2-0 victory over Woodland Hills in the first of two WPIAL Class AAA semifinals.
The Warriors will play the winner of tonight's Fox Chapel-North Allegheny match in the title game at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Fox Chapel.
"The ball went up to Sydney Pribanic, she passed back to Isabel (Siergiej) and it just happened I was on stroke," Jordan said. "It wasn't planned. It just happened."
Junior Ashley Mandich added a much-needed insurance goal with 5:24 left, scoring off a scrum in front of Woodland Hills goalkeeper Jared Hanley to give Penn-Trafford (10-1) its first postseason victory.
The Warriors have never won a WPIAL Class AAA field hockey title, had never won a section title and had never even qualified for the playoffs until this season.
"We knew the goalie was very good, and we'd have to move him around," Dutt said of Hanley. "We couldn't go straight on at him and had to get him out of his position at get at him from the other side."
Defending champion North Allegheny split with Penn-Trafford during the regular season. Fox Chapel lost to the Tigers in the title game a year ago.
"We always missed the playoffs by a goal or a half-game or something, but we're just going to continue with our conditioning regimen because your field skills fall off when your conditioning drops," Dutt said. "We're just going to continue along the same path, and we were able to beat North Allegheny the first time. We completely didn't play our game the second (time), but we'll continue doing much the same thing."
Woodland Hills (10-1) won the Section 2 title for the first time in school history and was making its first-ever postseason appearance.
"They handled the ball pretty good, and ... we had some opportunities early. And if we had scored earlier, I think it would have been a little different," Woodland Hills coach Jim Haberfeld said. "I'm hoping this brings out more kids ... and some kids are already talking about coming out and playing next year."
