Field hockey
On Friday afternoon, Haddonfield and West Deptford are meeting for the first time since last season, when they shared the Colonial Conference Liberty Division field hockey title.
And they're both undefeated.
Haddonfield has allowed one goal in three outings while scoring 15. West Deptford has recorded three shutouts and tallied 24 goals. Both teams have played all of their games in the Colonial Conference.
Danyle Heilig, Eastern's field hockey coach, won her 300th game Wednesday in a 10-0 victory over Paul VI in an Olympic Conference interdivisional game.
"I'm very excited, personally, to reach 300 but I look at it as an accomplishment for the program," Heilig said. "I've been the head coach 12 years and 286 of those wins were here, so it's an accomplishment for the program as well as the outstanding players who have contributed."
The other 14 victories were at Haddon Heights in 1998, when the team went 14-2-4.
Pennsville didn't score one goal in its Tri-County Classic Division loss to visiting Gloucester Tuesday. However, the Eagles' goalkeeper shined in the season-opening 5-0 loss.
It could have been much more lopsided if Emily MacGrath had not been up to the task. The junior faced 18 shots in the first half, when Gloucester relaxed with a 2-0 lead.
After intermission, MacGrath faced 14 more shots and stopped all but three. The 11th grader wasn't afraid to dart out of the cage to cut down angles of the attackers. She was just as fearless between the posts.
Toni D'Amato and her Cherry Hill West field hockey teammates were on the losing end of a 3-1 final Saturday as visiting Winslow Township skipped off with the victory.
However, D'Amato stood out as a player around whom West will improve this season. The diminutive forward-midfielder is a playmaker who gets the rest of the team involved.
A four-year starter, D'Amato scored the Lions' lone goal with 6:37 left in the game. West was down, 3-0 at the time.
The Bishop Eustace field hockey team had the No. 1 team in South Jersey, and possibly the state, on the ropes Thursday and let them off.
Eustace was leading Eastern, 3-1 at imtermission and lost, 4-3. But that did not dissuade Crusaders' coach Krissy Holak from praising her players.
"They got us on corners and that's what they do," Holak said of Eastern's 17 penalty corners, three of which it scored on. "They're good at creating them.
After the Eastern field hockey team pulled out a come-from-behind victory over Bishop Eustace, 4-3, Thursday, Vikings' coach Danyle Heilig put it all into perspective.
"We were a very young team last year and we had great success," Heilig said in reference to the Vikings winning their 12th consecutive state title. "We're a little bit more experienced, but we're still young. There are a lot of sophomores and juniors out there and a few seniors but this year there's an expectation because of what we did last year.
"I think that they allowed that expectation to put doubt in their mind, and I think they played scared tonight. They played with fear.
Mentioned: Eastern
Florence has a firecracker of a forward and she happens to be the coach's daughter.
Lexi Smith, whose mother is head coach Gina Smith, enters her third season as a starter with 87 goals. The junior already has broken the school's career scoring record of 73, set by Melissa Bond in 1995.
Now Smith is going after the school's single-season scoring record of 46 set by assistant coach Dianne Carey-Stranko in 1992. Carey-Stranko is Lexi Smith's aunt and Gina Smith's sister.
Mentioned: Florence
Rancocas Valley has adopted a wait and see attitude towards the field hockey team.
The Red Devils have two returning starters, five letter winners, a goaltending job up for grabs and a group of eager players anxious to get varsity experience. - Bill Iezzi
Mentioned: Rancocas Valley Regional High School
Throughout the field hockey season that just ended, there was a boy helping the girls on the Washington Township team.
His name is Kenny Patrone, a Township sophomore and brother of former Minutemaids' star Lisa Partone. And he is headed to South America as a member of the USA Field Hockey Junior National Team, Dec. 11-22.
Patrone is one of 17 players on the U-19 team. Last February he earned a silver medal as part of the U-17 team that competed in the 2010 Youth Pan American Championships in Hermosillo, Mexico.
Mentioned: Washington Twp.
Eastern field hockey coach Danyle Heilig went right to the point after Oak Knoll upset the Vikings, 4-2, Sunday in the Tournament of Champions' final.
"They took advantage of opportunities and we didn't," Heilig said of Oak Knoll, which had been outshot, 22-6, and outcornered, 28-2. "They had six shots on goal and converted on four. We dominated the game but couldn't finish the ball."
The stats clearly were on Eastern's side.
Mentioned: Eastern
