LOWER GWYNEDD – Kendall DeLuca heeding teammate Riley Meehan’s advice in the final minute of the third quarter gave the Gwynedd Mercy field hockey team the lead for good Friday afternoon.
“She told me to take it left and I listened to her,” DeLuca said. “And I saw the open spot.”
DeLuca drove around an Oxford defender at the top of the circle on a penalty corner then the junior ripped a shot into the net with 24.9 seconds left in the third, breaking a 1-1 in the District 1-2A fifth-place game.
Meehan extended the host No. 5 Monarchs lead to two early in the fourth while DeLuca completed her hat trick with 8:30 remaining as GMA pulled away to beat the No. 6 Hornets 4-1 to secure a berth in the PIAA tournament.
“I really wanted it today,” DeLuca said. “I know this team deserves to get to states and I was just hungry for a win.”
Gwynedd Mercy (14-8-0) advances to states for the fifth consecutive season, a run that includes getting to the 2A championship game in 2021 then the semifinals in both 2022 and 2023. The Monarchs face the District 3 champion – either Palmyra or defending state champ Warwick – in the first round Tuesday.
“It feels awesome,” DeLuca said. “We definitely didn’t have the easiest road, we lost second round and then we had a good win last Tuesday against Springfield. And then today we really just pull it together.
“We also had some rescheduling so we just worked together as a team, made sure our heads, our mindsets were in the good place and we just came out and did what we do best.”
GMA’s matchup with Oxford for District 1’s fifth and final spot in states was originally scheduled for Thursday but rainy weather postponed it to Friday, which featured windy conditions that twice blew over a net in the first quarter.
“In the beginning of the game the goal fell over and there’s a lot of stoppages that we were just like, we got to get focused, play our game,” DeLuca said.
Oxford came close to grabbing a goal in the first quarter but its shot hit off the left post. DeLuca scored her first at 8:28 in the second quarter off a feed from freshman Lily Campbell.
“She took it baseline and I was there at stroke and just put it in for us,” DeLuca said.
GMA stayed in front 1-0 until Reese Goane put a shot in the back of the cage on a corner at 8:19 in the third.
“We had one off the post, a beautiful corner, just a little touch – one or two of those, just like any game they go our way and it’s that momentum that you were talking about, kind of tilts in our direction,” Oxford coach Karly Belford said. “So those are the type of big games that happen when you’re in districts so we just go back and we learn from them and go back to work for next season.”
Oxford had not won a district game since 2016 and lost in the 2A first round the previous four seasons. The Hornets topped No. 11 Penncrest 5-2 in this year’s postseason opener, lost to Mount St. Joseph 7-1 in the quarters but bounced back to beat No. 2 Bishop Shanahan in playbacks.
The last eight years I’ve coached, we’ve always gone out in the first round so to make it this far, to have a chance to come back in the playback, have a young team, I’m very excited for the future,” Belford said. “And we owe a lot to our seniors. I know it was tough for them this game but we owe a lot to them cause they’ve kind of persevered through a lot of different things with our small little town out there but I am very excited for our younger guys and our future.
So you might not have much history but you are going to have quite a bit of it, I think, here in the next couple years that’s for sure.”
The Monarchs, who won last year’s District 1-2A title, lost to No. 4 Kennett 4-2 in the quarterfinals 4-2 but stayed alive with a 4-0 victory over top-seeded Springfield (Delco).
After DeLuca struck on a corner in the third’s final minute to break the tie, Meehan made it 3-1 at 11:26 in the fourth as she put a shot into the goal’s left corner.
DeLuca pushed the Monarchs’ lead to three with her third tally of the afternoon, getting into the circle and connecting on a shot at 8:30.
“I definitely feel most comfortable in the circle,” DeLuca said. “I love taking shots.”
Source: Berkshire mont