Western field hockey keeper Genevieve Repich is just in her first season as a goalie for the Warriors.
But when the Warriors needed her to step up Wednesday night in the Region 4A West semifinal with Western’s season on the line, Repich answered the bell, stuffing four York penalty stroke attempts in the final overtime segment to push the Warriors to a 1-1 (2-1 penalty strokes) win after a deadlock persisted through regulation and two 15-minute overtimes.
“She is the best goalie that I’ve ever seen for her first year out, it’s absolutely incredible,” said Western senior Olivia Markopoulos. “I’m so proud of her. She played awesome, we couldn’t have asked for a better effort.”
The win advances Western to the Region 4A West Final Thursday against Tabb on the road and gives the Warriors a long-sought after state tournament berth.
Repich, a senior, made one particularly savvy adjustment during the penalty strokes portion of the proceedings. After a York player lifted the ball onto her stick, sprinted toward the goal and flicked it over Repich’s head easily for a goal, she was ready for the move next time they tried it. Repich settled in, baited the shooter into trying it and then adjusted and then kicked the lifted shot away easily.
“The adjustment was amazing because today was the first time any of us had seen a team use that tactic,” Western coach Milo Oakland said.
Valerie Hajek and Dylan Wright both finished goals for the Warriors in penalty strokes with Hajek scoring in the second round before York equalized in the same round on the first lift and toss try. Wright scored in the fifth and final round by chipping it over an aggressive attempt at a stop by the York keeper, putting the pressure on York on the final try. Repich made a head-first, diving stop just in front of the cage, and the ball ricocheted and slowly dribbled out of bounds.
“That was our most even game of the season,” Oakland said. “They have some great individual players, so do we. They have great passing, so do we, they’ve got some phenomenal, fast defenders that drove the ball out really cleanly….but so do we. I really thought top to bottom that might’ve been the most similar match we had.”
Western appeared to be in danger of its season coming to an end during regulation when York’s Bentley Zabicki broke the 0-0 tie with a goal at the 12:11 mark. But Western adjusted and countered with a breakaway goal by Markopoulos to equalize.
“We got a breakaway, Joie (Funk) passed it to me, I was there, and I tipped it in,” Markopoulos said.
While it happened much later on in the game, that counter attack breakaway was a direct result of Oakland’s early extremely early timeout in the first three minutes of the contest. Oakland called the timeout to get the Warriors to go ahead and adjust to Zabicki’s presence and change their approach.
“Their center mids were so talented that we were having to sit a little bit,” Oakland said. “I changed out strategy immediately and said we’ve got to keep track of (Zabicki), she’s good and we’ve got to make sure we’re countering.”
Western settled in after that and kept pace with a quick, skilled York squad. Markopoulos’ goal and Repich’s performance in penalty strokes turned the tide and helped Markopoulos make good on essentially a promise back on senior night for the Warriors that Western was going to make the state tourney. They’ll face tab in the Region 4A West title game Thursday at 6 at Tabb.
“We were definitely the underdog going into the game and we came out fighting,” Markopoulos said. “It’s been a long time since a goal was scored on us and that (woke the Warriors up). It ws a pretty intense game.”
