The Charlottetown Rural Raiders bounced back in a big way to give first-year head coach Hannah Fong a long-awaited title.
After spotting the Bluefield Bobcats a 1-0 lead, the Raiders scored two unanswered goals en route to winning the P.E.I. School Athletic Association Senior AAA Girls Field Hockey League championship at the UPEI turf field on Wednesday night. The final score of the gold-medal game was 2-1.
“We kind of started slow,” Fong told The Guardian in a post-game interview. “Once we got our first goal to tie the game, we got rolling from there.”
It marked the first provincial field hockey championship Fong has won as either a player or coach. Her playing career included eight years at Queen Charlotte Intermediate, Colonel Gray and Western University in Ontario. Fong, who has won tournament titles before, said, “it feels good” to win that elusive first provincial crown.
First goal
Keera Vos gave Bluefield a 1-0 lead, but a late first-half goal by Livi Lawlor, the Raiders’ player-of-the-game, evened the score 1-1.
Rural forward Kayla Batchilder scored the game-winning goal early in the second half.
“We just got it to the net, and I just put it in,” said Batchilder, who made no mistake scoring low into the corner of the net.
Batchilder, who added it feels “amazing” to win the provincial championship, said the Raiders did not panic after falling behind.
“We just didn’t get down and kept going,” said the 15-year-old Grade 10 student from East Royalty.
Fong said once the Raiders started clicking, they began to carry the play and credited the team’s centre-line.
“They kept pushing the ball forward. They were playing strong offence and defence, and we could rely on them to keep the ball from not heading too far down in our end and keep pushing it back up for some goals.”
Fong liked that the Raiders did not sit back after taking the lead and kept pushing forward in search of an insurance goal before putting another defender back to hold the line in the final five minutes.
Avery Bradley registered the goaltending win. Her counterpart, Carla Stewart, was named the Bobcats’ player of the game.
First meeting
The final, which was a rematch of last year's final won by Bluefield in a shootout competition, marked the first meeting of the 2020 season between the Raiders and Bobcats. The teams played in different pools during the regular season.
The Raiders went 4-0 (won-lost) in pool play against Montague and then Colonel Gray, edged Montague 1-0 in the semifinals. The gold-medal win capped a 6-0 season.
The Bobcats went 4-2 overall. Bluefield and Three Oaks comprised the other pool, with the Bobcats winning three of four regular-season meetings. Bluefield defeated Colonel Gray 1-0 in the semifinals.
“It's hard to prepare in a season when you can only play one team, and you have four in-season games and you move right into playoffs,” said Bluefield co-coach Sarah Sonier. “All things considered, they had a great season and it was great that they were able to have a season. They had a lot of fun, and that is what matters most, no matter the outcome of the game."
Sonier added the Bobcats played a strong game in the final and credited Rural with a well-deserved win.
Bluefield co-coach Hannah Sentner said the Bobcats “played their hearts out" and did what the team worked on all season.
Bronze Medal
CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – Colonel Gray edged Montague 1-0 in the bronze-medal game of the P.E.I. School Athletic Association (PEISAA) Senior Girls Field Hockey League at the UPEI turf field on Wednesday.
Mckenna Munn scored the game’s lone goal while Laura Scantlebury registered the shutout.
Players of the game were Gray’s Ella Hennessey and Montague goaltender Karyss MacDonald.
Jason Simmonds is a sports reporter for The Guardian.
