Cougars roll on

Goalie Gilligan, defense shine to lead Schalick field hockey past Florence and into the South Jersey Group I final

FIELD HOCKEY
SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I
Semifinals
Schalick 4, Florence 1
West Deptford 2, Collingswood 1
Championship
Tuesday at Gateway
Schalick (14-5-1) at West Deptford (13-3-3), 2 p.m.

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

FLORENCE – Defense, they say, wins championships. It definitely propelled Schalick to the championship game of the South Jersey Group I field hockey playoffs.

The Cougars turned back 22 corners from Florence and pushed in four goals on the other end to beat the third-seeded Flashes 4-1. They’ll now play top-seeded West Deptford Tuesday at Gateway in the sectional final.

“Our defense was hot today,” Cougars coach Heather Cheesman said. “Our defense was just on fire. It was a team effort. (Goalie) Lydia (Gilligan) was on her game. The defense was on their game. There was a girl on their team who had (21) goals this season (Katie Studzinski) and we marked her hard as soon as she got past the 25, so she got nothing from us.

“Our defense is pretty good anyway, but this is the best game by far that our defense has had. They were great.”

The Flashes (15-3-1) may have had 22 corners, but they only managed to put 10 shots on Gilligan in those situations. More often than not, defenders Ella Cheesman, Hannah Widdifield and Natalie May cleared the ball from harm’s way.

“Our defense really killed it today,” Gilligan said. “I’m so proud of them.”

Cheesman, a freshman, made one of the biggest plays of the game, coming back to the cage after Gilligan got caught a little too far off her line and couldn’t get back in time to make a defensive save.

“I didn’t think I was going to save the ball,” Cheesman said. “I was facing the goal and (she put her chances at) like 40 out of 100 percent, but I trusted my instincts and hit it out.”

The Cougars (14-5-1) didn’t have nearly as many corners (3) or shots (6), but they made them count. They got goals from Phoebe Alward, Lucy Virga, Ella Shimp and Ava Scurry. They opened a 4-0 lead before Florence’s Kierra Rivera finally got one behind Gilligan.

Schalick, the sixth seed, has beaten the 3 and the 2 in its last two matches to reach the sectional final for the first time since 2018 when lost to Woodstown. West Deptford is in the finals for the second year in a row.

Both sectional finalists take a five-game winning streak into the match and are unbeaten in their last six games. Schalick, however, has allowed only three goals on its current streak, while West Deptford has given up at least one goal in each game on its stretch run and eight total.

WEST DEPTFORD 2, COLLINGSWOOD 1: Kaylee Wonsetler and Zoey Gibbons gave West Deptford a 2-0 lead, but Peyton Ryan made it interesting with a goal with 1:08 left. 

This story will be updated.