FIELD HOCKEY: Saline Falls By Slimmest of Margins to Pioneer In Championship Game

EAST LANSING - Saline's varsity field hockey squad fell to Pioneer, 1-0, in the MHSAA Division 1 Championship at MSU's Ralph Young Field Saturday.

Pioneer scored the game's only goal with just under a minute to play in the first quarter. Both teams employed defenses that thwarted the offense the rest of the game.

"I am so proud of this team. Going into this season, we don't know exactly how it's going to go," coach Sophia O'Connor said. "I think the biggest team I'm most proud of is the way we were able to pull together and play like a team."

O'Connor noted that Saline had seven goal-scorers in its semifinal win over Detroit Country Day. In the championship game, many girls made important defensive stops.

Pioneer had a territorial advantage throughout the game, but Saline limited their chances.  But Saline had the best scoring chance when the game was scoreless. 

On a penalty corner, Claire Clark at the top. She went to her right but backtracked to her left and fired a reverse that deflected off the stick and clanked off the crossbar.

Moments later, Pioneer took advantage of a turnover and got rare positioning on Saline in front of the goal, banging home a rebound for the 1-0 lead.

Saline seemed to lose its focus and did all it could to keep the one-goal deficit, but late in the second, Saline mounted an a few could rushes.

Pioneer did have most of the possession after the first quarter, but Saline limited actual goal-scoring chances.

"Our defense is just amazing," O'Connor said, pointing to  Kendall Bohl, Clark, Alivia Pufpaf, Alex Ley and Amelia Meinke. "They came up with huge stops.  Our goal was to keep them out of the circle and we did that through the majority of the game."

In the fourth quarter, Saline had it's two best chances to tie the game. 

On one play, Arvai exploded up the middle, got past the goalie, sprawled on the turf, but a defender got in the way of the shot.

On another, Elle Pufpaf was weaving her magic through the circle when she was tripped - with no call.

Saline played Pioneer three times - all three losses in the Hornets' 19-3 season. The first time they played, Saline was without Arvai, and Saline lost 5-0. The second time they played, Saline closed the gap, but really didn't have many offensive looks in a 1-0 loss. Saturday's championship game was Saline's best.

Coach O'Connor has praised her senior class all year. The 10 Hornets paced the club.

"Every one of them brings something unique and different," O'Connor said. "Their leadership, their talent, their drive to win - they hold themselves to such a high standard that it brings the rest of the team up as well. Some have only been playing for a few years. Some have been playing since elementary school. I'm so proud of our seniors to play in a game like this and have the leadership. Some of our seniors played in the state championship two years ago."

In the coming weels, O'Conor will beging assessing the team.

"We have several starters that are juniors. We have girls coming up from JV that will be on varsity. We have a good middle school program that will help feed in our program, as well," O'Connor said.

But on this Saturday afternoon in East Lansing, it seemed like the team was enjoying a post-game meal.

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