Villa Maria wins hockey semifinal over Springfield-Montco

When asked what she said to her top-seeded Villa Maria Academy field hockey team after it found itself down by a goal at halftime in Tuesday's District 1 Class AA semifinal game against Springfield-Montco, coach Maurene Polley didn't go into specifics. She described it in one word.

"Fiery," Polley said.

Fiery it must have been because the 18-1 Hurricanes, led by Caroline Troncelliti's second hat trick in as many games, exploded for all of their scores in the second half enroute to a 6-1 win over the No. 4 seeded Spartans (14-4).

"We just weren't staying with the ball," Polley said of Villa's first-half performance. That, of course, prompted her halftime speech.

By beating the Spartans, Villa earned a spot Saturday in the district championship game against Sacred Heart, a winner in Tuesday's other AA semifinal over Upper Perkiomen.

It was a much more motivated Villa team that took the field for the second half. Troncelliti, an 11-goal scorer in her last five games, put the Hurricanes on the scoreboard less than three minutes into the half. She fired the ball into an open goal cage when Springfield goalie Maggie Olson came out to challenge.

Villa continued the pressure with a pair of offensive penalty corners in the next two minutes only to come up empty. Troncelliti made it 2-1 at just under the 23-minute mark on a pass from Marie Elena Bolles.

"I'm just there to finish it," said the sophomore forward/midfielder of her three-goal day. "My teammates just made some perfect passes to me."

Senior Molly Murphy set up her freshman sister Meghan for the next Villa goal. Then it was junior Samantha Ostoich for a pair of goals in less than three minutes to make it 5-1.

"We had to dig down after that first half," said Molly Murphy. "I don't think we were playing that badly [in the first half] but nothing was going our way."

Troncelliti finished out her day with the last goal on another pass from Bolles with less than a minute to play.

Springfield's lone goal came when Ellie Field converted on a penalty stroke shortly before halftime. Villa goalie Anna Zarkoski was charged with dangerous use of her hand pad while deflecting a high shot.

Long time coach Linda Nixon, who returned to take over the team this season while Katie Coll is on maternity leave, said the Spartans weren't ready to play in the second half.

"We stopped playing and made it infinitely easier for them," Nixon said. "I told them Villa would be tenacious. We only played one half."

Springfield    1 0 - 1

Villa Maria     0 6 - 6

Goals: S-Ellie Field. VMA-Caroline Troncelliti 3, Samantha Ostoich 2, Meghan Murphy.

Saves: S-Maggie Olson 7, Julia Boles 3. VMA-Anna Zarkoski 5.