It’s a concern for every coach coming off a championship and moving on to the next tournament: How will my team respond?
Oley Valley’s Tiffany Cappellano got her answer pretty quickly Wednesday night in a District 3 Class 1A first-round field hockey game against Schuylkill Valley.
The Lynx, who won the Berks title four days prior, scored just 1:33 into the game on the way to a 9-0 victory over the Panthers at Oley.
“Coming off of a championship sometimes you kind of have that little hiccup where you can’t put yourselves back together,” Cappellano said, “and I think that we did a really good job of coming out tonight and setting a tone and kind of making sure that we were taking a step forward “
The top-seeded Lynx (20-1-1), looking to win their first district title since 2021, strode into Saturday’s quarterfinals, where they will host eighth-seeded Newport (15-2-1), a 7-1 winner over Wyomissing Wednesday, at 11 a.m.
Ava Walters scored the first goal for Oley against 16th-seeded Schuylkill Valley (11-9). Molly Rothenberger scored off a corner less than three minutes later to make it 2-0, then Morgan Snyder scored off a corner to make it 3-0 with 5:14 left in the first quarter.
The Lynx — who beat the Panthers 7-0 in their county playoff opener — ended with a 29-2 advantage in shots and 25-3 in corners. They led 6-0 at the half and 8-0 after three quarters.
“I know that later in districts we are going to face some really difficult teams if we keep winning, so it’s really good to keep that energy up no matter who we play,” said senior Taylor Vaccaro, who finished with two goals and two assists.
Rothenberger and Mia Woodard each finished with two goals, Snyder had a goal and two assists and Kadyn Rhoads had a goal and an assist.
With the big lead, Cappellano was able to substitute liberally and get more players experience in a district game.
“It’s great,” she said. “We’re carrying everybody in the postseason this year, because we really value everybody’s role, and it’s something that we have talked about and we’ve worked on a lot this season. Everybody’s role is important, and I think tonight that was on full display for us.”
Schuylkill Valley, making its first appearance in districts since 2021, played without Reese Weddle, one of its top players, who was out due to illness.
“The kids kind of missed her,” Panthers coach Randy Lykens said. “Playing Oley, that’s a heck of a program there, but it’s good for our girls to play this fast game.”
Sierra Merkel made 18 saves and Taylor Riggins made two defensive saves for Schuylkill Valley.
Oley Valley now shifts its focus to the next round as it tries to win its 11th district championship.
The Lynx lost in the final last year.
“We do a lot of goal setting,” Vaccaro said. “So we have our goal and obviously we want to win. We have a lot of things we have to do to get there, like we have to follow our game plans and we have to be very disciplined at practices, be competitive. We have a lot of goals set, so we have to work on that.”
“We talk a lot about how mental the game is and how we have to be prepared,” Cappellano said. “They do a lot of the work, even in the classroom, talking about things and setting a new goal. Our last goal was to win the county championship. Okay, what’s next? So they have their eyes on a new goal. We assessed how we’re gonna get there.
“And tonight I think they came out and I think that we kind of sent a message that we’re here, we’re ready, we’re regrouped. We’re ready to go and, you know, it’s a new tournament.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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