By Joe Koch / Tri-State Sports & News Service, September 30, 2016
Fox Chapel rallied from a one-goal deficit to defeat visiting Peters Township, 2-1, in a WPIAL Class 3A Section 2 field hockey showdown Tuesday night.
“Both teams worked their tails off,” Fox Chapel coach Jen McCrady said. “It was a hard-fought, clean game that was really fun to play and watch.”
Peters Township’s Sammi Schratz opened the scoring with a goal off a deflection 7:32 into the first half.
But Fox Chapel, now 6-1 overall and 6-0 in section play going into Thursday’s home section game with Upper St. Clair, rebounded to tie the score later in the first half when Megan Botos scored on a tip-in with an assist coming on a Paige Ryan cross. The Foxes then set the score in the final minute of the first half when Abby Pitcairn blasted a shot from inside the circle with an assist to Meg McCrady.
“Fox Chapel had many chances to put the ball on the net with 11 [penalty corners] to Peters Township’s five,” McCrady added. “Peters is a great defensive team, and [they] shut us down on many scoring chances. I suspect our second meeting will be quite a game and has the potential to impact the playoff scenario.”
Peters Township coach Amy Casciola lauded her team’s effort.
“They played well and gave a lot of effort,” she said of her team, which was 5-3 overall and 5-1 in section play heading into Wednesday’s game at Allderdice. “We had our chances to score but didn’t capitalize on them.”
McCrady expects the rematch Oct. 20 at Peters Township will be just as competitive as Tuesday night’s game.
“I suspect [Tuesday’s game] will fuel both [teams] to play even harder for the remainder of the season,” she said.