Back Again: Owen J. Roberts blanks Phoenixville, earns sixth straight PAC Championship berth

RED HILL >> The seniors on Owen J. Roberts’ field hockey team know the difference between walking off the field as champions and departing as runners-up.

A season after falling short in its quest for a three-peat, Owen J. Roberts secured a sixth straight trip to the Pioneer Athletic Conference Championship with a 6-0 win over Phoenixville on Tuesday night at Upper Perkiomen’s Indian Stadium.

“Our senior class came out ready and we got the rest of the team to come with us,” said OJR senior defender Natalie Fuertsch. “We wanted to make sure we came out strong, played well and finished.”

With the win, the Wildcats (8-2 PAC Liberty Division; 17-2 overall) advance to face top-seeded and unbeaten Perkiomen Valley — a 3-2 winner over Upper Perkiomen during Tuesday night’s other semifinal — in the championship game back at Upper Perkiomen on Thursday night at 7 p.m.

Having faced Phoenixville (9-1 PAC Frontier; 14-4-1 overall) in a divisional crossover game earlier in the season, sophomore Raina Smolij and her teammates had a good idea of what they were matched up against Tuesday.

“We knew we needed to come out hard and fast,” said Smolij. “They’re a fast team, they have a lot of really quick people all over the field. So we knew we needed to pass the ball well and keep possession throughout the game.”

Just over three minutes into the game, senior Eloise Gebert misdirected a shot off the stick of Smolij and into the back of the cage for the game’s opening score. Then eight minutes later, Fuertsch corralled the insert from sophomore Jenna Kirby at the top of the circle and sent a missile past the keeper to give the Wildcats a quick 2-0 lead.

“I saw some open space, so I thought to myself, ‘I’m gonna finish this,’” recalled Fuertsch of her goal. “That was all I really wanted to do — score that goal and give us an early lead.”

The Wildcats were rolling from there.

Owen J. Roberts kept Phoenixville without a legitimate scoring threat until late in the first half, though the Phantoms’ corner try was quickly dismissed by the Wildcat defense. For the game, OJR held an 18-1 advantage in corners as well as a 30-1 advantage in shots on goal on the way to their eighth shutout of the season.

“The girls came out and they were hungry,” said Owen J. Roberts head coach Amy Hoffman. “They wanted to make it back to Thursday night, that was one of their goals. They certainly did it right from the start.”

Kirby added a goal of her own after a frenzy in front of the Phoenixville cage with 6:32 left in the first half to give the Wildcats a 3-0 lead at the break.

Then 10 minutes into the second half, junior Julia Lamb finished a ball from Maddi Koury to make it 4-0 before Bridget Gallagher and Olivia Leclaire each got on the board to seal it for Owen J. Roberts.

“We knew what to expect when we were coming into this game,” said Phoenixville head coach Claire Emplitt, “but we didn’t execute the things we needed to execute to score. They (Owen J. Roberts) were able to move the ball really nicely and quickly. They keep teams off balance with a lot of different players who can play all over.”

The Phantoms will now shift focus to the District 1 Class 2A playoffs, which get underway next week. Currently, Phoenixville is seeded at No. 6 and will likely have a home game to open up the bracket.

“We take the season one game at a time and we never take a game for granted,” said Emplitt. “So we’ve got to go into districts and prepare the way that we know we can play. I think we’ll have plenty of success if we can do that.”

Owen J. Roberts, meanwhile, will shift its focus to the only team that’s beaten them all season. Both times in overtime, no less.

“We’ve just got to come out stronger, forget about the two games we lost to them,” said Fuertsch of Perk Valley. “We’ve got to come out and play the way we have before. We know it’s a PAC Championship and there’s a lot more on the line now.”