Fifty years ago, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association started hosting and tracking a state high school field hockey tournament.
The teams included Springfield Township, Lake-Lehman, Elizabethtown, Southern Columbia, Bellwood Antis, Fox Chapel, Emmaus, and Delaware Valley. There was only one bracket. And, at the end of the first recorded PIAA state championship was Elizabethtown.
Flash forward to 2024, and staring in the 2024 PIAA Class 2A bracket quarterfinals: Kennett versus Elizabethtown.
Decades later, Kennett is feeling a sense of accomplishment that has stayed with every field hockey athlete who has played the game as it has grown.
Kennett defeated Elizabethtown 1-0 in overtime on Saturday. They will play against Northern York at 6 p.m. at Millersville University today in the semifinals.
The Blue Demons are the No. 4 seed out of District 1. They beat Archbishop Carroll to advance to the quarterfinals. They have an overall record of 16-7-1.
“My heart is racing,” Kennett’s Morgan Carter said immediately after scoring the overtime goal. “I’m so happy. I couldn’t believe it was going to be me that was going to get the goal. But, I think my team, we all did it together.”
Final: Kennett 1, Etown 0
5:19 pic.twitter.com/GQjxpSrI91— FemaleAthleteNews (@Female_FANews) November 9, 2024
The one and only time that Kennett has participated in the PIAA state tournament was in 1983. They were a 2A school then and didn’t get out of the first round. The last time Elizabethtown made it to the state postseason was in 2003. They also didn’t move forward, beyond the first round.
“It’s so surreal,” Carter said. “Knowing this is the first time in Kennett history, of field hockey, it’s so amazing to feel, I have so many emotions. I first started crying when I got the goal. Everybody lifts each other up so much.”
As a mini-motivator, Kennett’s coaching staff huddled with the girls before overtime, and they chanted, “tick, tick, boom.”
“We really wanted to uplift everybody as much as possible,” Carter said. “We didn’t want to get tired in overtime, we didn’t want to get lousy, we wanted to give 100 percent effort. And, I think we really did do that. I think our tick, tick boom was just a little funny inside joke we had before we started overtime. Our coach gave us that before we came into the game today. We’re using it to help each other out.”
Kennett and Elizabethtown had different styes of play. But, they cancelled each other out causing a stalemate that led to overtime.
The Blue Demons are scrappy. They fight for every ball, and send passes to teammates off their back foot. They keep the game moving, even if it isn’t pretty. They push hard and are relentless.
The Bears were positioned wide and utilized the entire field. They weren’t as aggressive, but they maintained a passing flow that interrupted Kennett’s playbook.
“I’m extremely proud of them,” the Bears head coach Rebecca Brown said. “We haven’t been to states in many years. I’m am just so proud of them. It’s hard to see the seniors go, but they left a legacy and good leadership for the younger class coming up. Piper Patrick, really solid back there, Amber Musser, back there, Tessa Cronin, Faith Musser, and Reagan Flory, it’s hard not to give credit to all the girls out there.”
Elizabethtown had the motto: “One team, one dream.”
They had eight corners to Kennett’s 10; one shot to Kennett’s 11; and, 19 saves to Kennett’s two.
“This is unprecedented for us,” the Blue Demon’s head coach Meghan Shumway said. “It’s a phenomenal feeling. Seeing them play together, and even though Morgan had a goal at the end, that was such a team win. They’ve worked together so hard this season, and this postseason. And, it’s just really great to see how they could pass it down the field and then finish. We had dominated much of the game, definitely the second half and missed a lot of opportunities.”
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Photo: Elizabethtown vs Kennett, 2024 PIAA Class 2A quarterfinals, Bob Benscoter
