Oley Valley field hockey coach Tiffany Cappellano stressed the importance of starting fast to her team in the days leading up to Tuesday’s PIAA Class 1A opener against Dock Mennonite.
The Lynx certainly got the message.
Oley Valley scored its first goal just 1:14 into the game and led by four after a quarter in rolling to an 8-0 victory Tuesday at Oley.
“I felt that we did a good job coming out of the gates really strong,” Cappellano said, “and that’s something that we talked about over the last couple of the days at practices, about the energy that we bring into that first quarter, and especially even like the first two minutes of each quarter, just to make sure that we’re kind of setting the tone and we’re doing that in our favor.
“I felt that we did a very good job tonight of just bringing a good energy and looking to share the ball.”
The quick start was of particular emphasis after the Lynx gave up a goal 22 seconds into its 3-1 loss to Boiling Springs in Saturday’s District 3 Class 1A final.
Things were different Tuesday against the District 1 runner-up Pioneers (17-5)..
Abby Thompson scored off an assist from Lauren Habakus to get the Lynx (22-3-1) started.
Tetje Williamson scored on a penalty stroke just over seven minutes later, then Alexandra Lopez scored twice in just more than two minutes.
She scored off an assist from Morgan Snyder off a corner with 4:28 left in the first quarter, then scored off an assist from Taylor Vaccaro with 2:12 left.
Mia Woodard made it 5-0 on a goal off an assist from Habakus with 7:34 left in the first half.
Olivia Thompson scored in the third quarter.
In the fourth, Snyder scored on a penalty stroke and Woodard off an assist from Lopez.
The Lynx outshot the Pioneers 23-0 and had an 8-1 advantage in corners.
“Really it was an overall good team effort,” Cappellano said. “We didn’t give up a shot, so I really like to see that. I felt like the energy was just really good tonight, the girls were really connecting and that they really wanted to put in a good effort, put a good foot forward going into the state tournament after coming off the loss in the district final.”
Oley Valley will face District 4 champ Lewisburg (15-5) — a 4-3 winner over Berks Catholic Tuesday — in a quarterfinal game Saturday, site and time to be announced.
The Lynx are looking to advance to the championship game for the second straight season.
“They worked hard at practice yesterday,” Cappellano said. “We talk about the mental piece just as much and I thought between the physical things that we wanted to change and the mental preparation heading into the game, I felt like we just did a really good job of making sure that all of that was taken care of.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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