FIELD HOCKEY: Saline Clinches Share of Division Crown on Senior Night

Saline’s varsity field hockey team is regular season co-champion of the Michigan High School Field Hockey Associations Division 1. Saline and Pioneer tied, 2-2, on a rainy senior night at Hornet Stadium.

Saline and Dexter finished with identical 5-0-2 records to finish with 12 points. Pioneer was 5-1-1 to finish with 11 points.

Saline improved to 8-0-3 overall. To have an unbeaten season with such a young team - just four seniors - was a remarkable accomplishment. But, coach Erica Reilly said, these kinds of expectations come with the program today.

Saline Field Hockey Erica Reilly coach on a hard-fought 2-2 tie with Pioneer, what looks to be a co-championship in their division, and great leadership from the senior class. pic.twitter.com/n9SsbRx1wI

— TheSalinePost (@TheSalinePost) October 3, 2019

“Our expectations are always high. If we practice hard, we’ll play hard. We get a lot of out of our players. In our starting 11 we’ve got a lot of girls who do not play club ball year-round,” Reilly said, pointing to senior Sophie Goethals. “Sophie Goethals has stepped up big time this year and has done a great job for us at midfield and today at defense.”

Seniors Goethals, Erin Reilly, Ali Groth and Bridget Skelly were honored before the game.

“They’re a special group and they’re going to be missed next year,” Reilly said.

The game opened with both teams generating chances. Pioneer had an early penalty corner but didn’t generate a shot. Saline had three successive penalty corners but couldn’t cash in.

Pioneer broke the seal on a penalty corner when Cecilia Maixner scored with 6:18 to play in the first half.

That seemed to jolt the Hornets to life. Senior Erin Reilly scored with a wicked reverse tomahawk that soared high into the goal from about 12 yards with 3:11 to play in the half.

“Erin had a beautiful shot. She upper-decked it,” coach Reilly said.

Moments later, Tenley Schrzan and Emelia Little worked a give-and-go. Little, running down center, worked it outside to Schrzan, on the right. Schrzan passed it into the slot where Little tipped it past the Pioneer goalie. Saline led 2-1 with 1:44 to play.

“We’ve been working on give-and-goes for the last two weeks with the forward line. Tenley had a beautiful ball, she laid it in to Emilia. And Emelia tipped it in. She’s been working on that,” Reilly said. “So that was nice to see.”

The Hornets dominated play as the second half began and seemed poised to blow the game open. But the Pioneers held the fort. Finally, late in the game, the Pioneers worked the ball up the right side of the field and were awarded a penalty corner. On the ensuing scramble, Malia Sanders deflected the ball past goalie Abby Kleinschmidt to tie the score.

“Against this team, you never have a win in the bag. Jane Nixon is a great coach. She called a timeout and they regrouped. I’m sure their goal was to get a corner. They did. And they scored on it,” Reilly said.

In the game’s final four minutes, Saline was awarded five penalty corners but couldn’t score. On one of those corners, Erin Reilly set up Bridget Skelly for a bomb of a one-timer that was turned away.

“We had our chances. We had five penalty corners right in a row, but it’s a testament to the defensive penalty corner team on Pioneer. They did a nice job,” Reilly said. “But I’m super proud of the way we played in these conditions and we’ve got some takeaways that we’ll use in preparation for Dexter next Monday.”

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