The Whitehall field hockey team scored two goals in a span of six minutes, the second coming in overtime as they completed the comeback over Parkland on senior night.

After Parkland took the lead 1-0 with five minutes left to play, they were reminded from the sidelines that they had to get things in gear. To that point they had forced the action, keeping the ball in Parkland’s end for long stretches, but some brilliant saves by Trojan goalkeeper Brie Barraco kept it knotted at 0-0.

Cozette El-Kik found the back of the cage for the visiting Trojans to put them ahead, and now the Zephs were staring at consecutive losses, both to division rivals.

They needed some heroics. With just over a minute left in regulation, Whitehall secured another corner, one of their 14 on the night.

That’s when Rachel Schannauer drove home the tying goal, getting that equalizer at the 1:09 mark after some tenacious play from Vita Marks who battled for possession, keeping the Parkland defender from clearing the zone.

That goal seemed to lift Whitehall as they wasted little time in the extra session to win 2-1, notching another victory to raise their season record to 10-1. Kassidy Cunningham provided the game winner for the Zephs. She was able to get behind the Trojans defense and then planted herself at the left goal post, eventually jumping on the rebound, smacking it past Barraco for the win.

Head coach Jennifer Bodnar said it wasn’t really in the game plan for it to have it happen like that.

“But we’ll take it,” she said.

Bodnar said they needed to pick up their intensity, indicating they had plenty of opportunities throughout the game. Some of that was the result of Barraco’s “phenomenal play,” as well as her surrounding cast who are well coached, making it a tough battle every time the two teams get together.

“We knew it was going to be a very tough game,” said Bodnar. “We had chances, their goalie made amazing saves throughout, and we wanted to get on the board a little sooner, but I’m extremely proud that they didn’t give up.”

She said that most teams would have faded away giving up a go-ahead goal that late, but it’s part of their philosophy where they emphasize that it only takes one play, one corner to get right back into the game.

Prior to Parkland’s goal, Whitehall had a goal disallowed. Taylor George’s shot was deflected and it ended up sailing past Barraco’s shoulder into the upper left hand corner of the cage. However, the referee said that George didn’t strike the ball inside the offensive circle, negating the score.

George was one of three seniors who were instrumental in helping the Zephs stay in the hunt for the divisional title.

George said they were able to control the action for most of the game, and that didn’t stop despite Parkland jumping out to a lead.

“We had the momentum all game, so I don’t want to say necessarily that they took away our momentum, but we definitely knew that we had to keep on pushing all the way to the end,” said George. “We had so many more opportunities than they did, and we knew that this was a much needed win after losing to Emmaus, so we knew we had to stay strong and positive and keep pushing.”

Vita Marks, a defender, is another player who’s been through these battles with the Trojans. Over the last three years, the Trojans are 5-1 in head-to-head competition.

“It’s awesome to get this win,” said Marks. “In the past senior nights, we haven’t been able to come out and beat them, and this year we were able to come off a hard loss to Emmaus, and really try our best and not give up against Parkland, which is an amazing feeling.”

Rachel Hibshman, another defender, was part of a stalwart back line that limited the Trojans to just one goal on nine shots.

“We all worked together and we all stayed low and kept our sticks down and stayed strong,” said Hibshman. “We never gave up.”

Goalkeeper Kayla Nailor played just as well as her counterpart, making a number of crucial kick saves, and often times coming out to challenge shooters to break up chances.

It was a nice win for the Zephs following their first loss of the season.

“This is a really big win for us because we know we can bounce back after a tough loss,” said George. “We now have momentum and there are no games left where we can take it easy, and every game is going to be a competition, and it’s going to be a fight, so this definitely boosts our confidence.”

“We were disappointed losing to Emmaus,” said Bodnar. “We watched game film and we learned a lot from that game, and we realized that we can play with them. We just did not play our best game or capitalize on our opportunities.”

She said it was a valuable lesson moving forward, reminding her team that how they react the rest of the way after dropping that game is what character is all about.