Left to right, Jane Brennan controls the ball. Molly Gallagher makes a save for John Jay in the semifinal game against Greeley. John Jay’s Kayla Magier tries to make a play off a corner. Jim MacLean Photos
By JIM MACLEAN
Both teams knew what was at stake, and both teams knew what it took to get to this point as No. 3-seed Horace Greeley came to face No. 2-seed John Jay in the Section 1 Class B field hockey tournament semifinals on Oct. 31.
The host Wolves had defeated the rival Quakers just about a week ago by the score of 2-0 to earn the second seed, but both teams knew it could all come down to which team capitalized first. After a scoreless first half, it was Greeley pouncing on the opportunity as the Quakers scored off a corner in the third period and added another on a penalty stroke to start the fourth period and earn a 2-0 victory to advance to the finals.
It was not the ending John Jay was hoping for as the Wolves finished the year at 15-3-1 overall, but coach Debbi Walsh knows how much her team accomplished this season playing against a power league schedule that was grueling over the final weeks of the regular season.
“Tonight, they were the better team, but I look at the whole season and it has been the best season for me as a coach,” admitted Walsh. “The first half we were in it with them, that first goal took some of the air out, but I look at what we did the whole season. We’ve grown so much, beating Lakeland, getting my 100th win, being co-league champions, being in a powerhouse league made it feel like we’ve played four sectional finals already just to get here, and we took it on and had a great season.”
John Jay came out strong and applied the pressure in the second period earning a string of corner opportunities, but the Wolves were unable to capitalize and it was 0-0 at the half.
Greeley came out strong to start the third period, and earned a number of corner opportunities. John Jay goalie Molly Gallagher came up with some big saves to keep it scoreless, but the Quakers finally broke through on a corner play as Phoebe Warshaw scored off an assist from Nina Byrne for a 1-0 lead with 3:30 left in the period.
The Quakers carried the momentum into the fourth period, and capitalized again as they were given a penalty stroke and Byrne converted it for a 2-0 lead with 13:56 left to play.
John Jay tried to rally back with senior captains Jojo Degl and Kaycie Keeley pushing the attack, but the Quakers were able to hold them off to advance to the finals against Lakeland.
Gallagher had another big game for the Wolves, with seniors captain Jane Brennan and senior Kayla Magier leading the way on defense in front of her. Gallagher finished with nine saves in goal.
“Molly has come so far and had a great career, goalie is not an easy position and she was so coachable and I will really miss Molly a lot,” said Walsh. “The seniors, I’m going to miss all these girls, three and four year varsity players that I’ve seen grow throughout their entire high school life. Jojo is such an elite athlete and it all came together for her this year. Jane is special, the maturity she has shown this year, she came into her own. Kaycie plays at such a beautiful level and she adapted her game this year for the team. All of these girls, they’re part of my family. I have three daughters at home, and I have 20 here and I’m proud of them all. I’m a pretty lucky mom.”
The feeling is mutual from her team as explained by Jojo Degl after the game. All three of the senior captains have a younger sister that plays on the team, and that family bond with the team and their coaches makes it a tough loss to take to finish the season and their field hockey careers.
“I get emotional every time I talk about her, she’s our second mom,” Degl said of coach Walsh. “She takes so much time to work directly with each player. She saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. That’s what makes this loss so difficult, we have the family aspect by blood, I love playing with my sister, but it goes so far beyond that. You’re not playing for yourself, you’re playing for your coaches and the girls left and right of you, it’s so much bigger than yourself, John Jay field hockey is such a phenomenal community. We didn’t stop playing until the final whistle and we had a very successful season.”