KINGSTON — The end of the title game, not to mention two years of district championship game dismay, came so suddenly, it seemed to stun most people who watched it.
Including the girl who scored the winning goal.
“It was crazy,” Lake-Lehman senior Lilli Stepanski said. “I was surprised. I was shocked. I was like, ‘Did I make this?’ “
Oh, she sure did.
Stepanski scored her second goal of the game with 7:57 remaining in overtime Tuesday, lifting Lake-Lehman to the District 2 Class A field hockey title with a dramatic 2-1 victory over Holy Redeemer in a battle of unbeaten and defensive-minded Wyoming Valley Conference championship teams at Nesbitt Field.
Stepanski’s winning goal came off a rebound after Holy Redeemer goalie Randie Kuhar made a spectacular diving stop of an initial shot by Lynea Gregory.
”I didn’t even see it coming,” Stepanski said. “She (Kuhar) dove and I just saw the ball and I hit the ball right over.”
That ended two years of torment in a district title game for Lehman.
The Black Knights suffered consecutive District 2 championship losses to Crestwood, losing 4-0 in 2014 and 7-1 in 2015. Both came in the Class 2A tournaments, before the PIAA separated its state field hockey playoffs into three classifications and dropped Lehman down to Class A.
That’s where the Black Knights found their first district championship in at least 10 years.
“It’s been a long time,” Lake-Lehman coach Jean Lipski said. “But it feels great.”
For the longest time, it felt like a stalemate.
Neither team managed a goal through the first 49 minutes in a game where two of the stingiest defenses in the Wyoming Valley Conference dominated the action.
WVW Division 1 champ Lake-Lehman, now 16-0-1, got off 12 shots in the game, but Kuhar expertly turned away 10 of them, including one she batted away with her blocker from point-blank range midway through the second half.
Meanwhile, the 14-1 WVC Division 2 champion Royals were relegated to just two shots on goal for the day.
“It was a beautiful game, everything a district final should be,” Lipski said, whose Black Knights will play the No. 4 team from District 3 in a PIAA opening-round game next Tuesday while Redeemer faces the No. 2 team from District 2 in a state opener the same day. “Redeemer came out strong, they’re fast, they keep their sticks low. They were very, very good.”
Stepanski found a way to crack the deadlock.
She punched home the game’s first goal off a hard shot by Makayla Adams with 10:45 to play, allowing the Black Knights a sigh of relief.
“We executed the cross ball and it was great passing from my team,” Stepanski said. “That’s how I got it.”
But Redeemer only got rejuvenated.
Little more than two minutes later, McKenna Dolan slapped home a feed from Kat Finnegan, and the game was all even again at 1-1.
An inspired Royals team then controlled the action over the game’s final eight minutes of regulation, creating a couple of breath-taking rushes but no other goals. And minutes before Stepanski’s second goal ended the suspense, Redeemer just missed on an attempt on a winner during a one-on-one break.
The Black Knights didn’t crack, though, and when Stepanski scooped up the block of Gregory’s shot and lifted it into the cage, the mounting frustration in District 2 championship games was instantly lifted from Lehman’s shoulder.
“We know we have each others’ backs,” Stepanski said. “We believed in each other, worked as a unit. And finally got it.
“It just feels great to finally have one gold medal after two years of getting silver.”
Lake-Lehman 2, Holy Redeemer 1 (OT)
Lake-Lehman`0`1`1`—`2
Holy Redeemer`0`1`0`—`1
Second half — 1. LL, Lilli Stepanski (Makayla Adams), 10:45; 2. HR, McKenna Dolan (Kat Finnegan), 8:09. Overtime — 3. LL, Stepanski (Lynea Gregory), 7:57.
Shots — LL 12; HR 2. Saves — LL 1 (Alicia Galasso); HR 10 (Randie Kuhar). Penalty corners — LL 19; HR 3.
