Villa Maria dominant in opening round state tourney win

WEST GOSHEN—It doesn’t get much more dominant than Villa Maria’s win over New Oxford in the opening round of the PIAA, Class AA tournament. Emily Doyle and Hannah Miller registered hat tricks, and five different Hurricanes overall scored as Villa cruised to a 10-0 shutout victory.

With the win, the Hurricanes advance to the quarterfinal round, where they will face Berks Catholic, a winner over Bonner Pendergast in its quarterfinal round, this coming Saturday, Nov. 11, at a site and time to be determined.

“It’s always great to get out to a win like this one,” said Villa coach Daan Polders. “We tried to play our normal, high-paced game and move the ball around as much as we could. We knew nothing about the opponent, so you just have to play your game.”

Hannah Miller opened the scoring for the Hurricanes, bringing a ball down the left edge of the circle before unleashing a wicked backhand of a shot into the far netting.

“We all have the mindset that once you have the ball in the circle, you just want to get rid of it quickly,” said Miller. “You either take the quick shot or get it to someone that can take the open shot. I saw I had the opening, so I took the shot. It just worked out perfectly.”

Not two minutes later, Emily Doyle made it 2-0, when Adele Iaccobucci sent a ball towards the cage. Doyle was waiting on the post and blasted it in. It was the first of three goals on the day from Doyle.

Up next it was Lindsay Dickenson’s turn. This time Miller took another hard shot, but was rejected by Colonials’ goalie Franzie Bacher. But Dickenson grabbed the rebound and slammed it home. Dickenson had a pair of goals, including one on a penalty stroke, and assisted on a third.

“We knew that this was states, so every team we played was going to be good or they wouldn’t be here,” said Dickenson. “So we came out playing the way we know how to play and showed we want to go far in states”

In addition to the offensive explosion, the Hurricane defense could not have played any better. Rarely did the Colonials even cross midfield, and didn’t so much as force a penalty corner until there was just 4:03 left in the game. New Oxford did not get off a shot on goal in the game.

Also scoring for the Hurricanes were Mary Harkins and Maggie Powers.

“We really connected well today,” said Dickenson. “We’ve practiced switching the field and making sure everyone touches the ball. We’re a very unselfish team. We try to get the ball to anyone who can make a shot, and it doesn’t matter who it is if we’re scoring and winning games.”

New Oxford 0 0 –0
Villa Maria 6 4 –10

Goals: Miller (3), Doyle (3), Dickenson (2), Harkins, Powers
Goalie Saves: Bacher (NO) 21 Acuna (VM) 0