The saying “Neither team deserved to lose.” has become clichéd, but in the case of the Whitehall vs Northampton field hockey game last Thursday, it was apropos. The K-Kids scored the go-ahead goal with 4:36 left in the game and survived penalty stroke with 56 seconds left to claim a 2-1 win and the Cement Belt Trophy point.

Northampton drew first blood when they earned a corner just before the horn at the end of the first period. Brooke Peters knocked home Alivia Bankos’ pass with the clock at zeros to put the K-Kids up 1-0.

While Northampton had the better of the play in the first quarter, the Zephyrs took control of the second, earning 7 corners in the period to the Kids’ 2. The fifth of those corners was the one the paid dividends as Ally Cook scooped up a rebound off an Emma Bonshak drive and put it in the cage at 3:52 to even the score.

The third quarter was fairly even, but a big save by Whitehall’s Lilly Trocki on a breakaway at 6:05 was the key to sending the game to the final stanza all square.

After combining for 18 corners in the previous 2 periods, the war of attrition limited each team to just a single corner in the fourth quarter. Northampton cashed in on theirs as Taylor Kranzley fed Eliza Rogerson for a blast that found an opening on the left side of the cage.

With the clock running down under a minute, K-Kids’ goalie Kadee Schrader came aggressively out of her goal to try to clear the ball, stumbled and knocked down a Whitehall attacker giving the Zephyrs a penalty stroke. Schrader responded by making the save and clinched the win.

Northampton head coach Carrie Saul summarized the game, “All three goals were scored on corners and we knew it was going to come down to who could capitalize on their corners. They have a very nice corner unit, offense and defense. A lot of good sticks. I give Whitehall a lot of credit.”

The win propelled the K-Kids to the 7th seed in the EPC tournament where they took on second-seeded Nazareth at Andrew S. Leh Stadium on Saturday. Like their last meeting with the Blue Eagles, the game went into overtime. Nazareth scored at 8:14 to claim the 1-0 sudden death win.

Northampton was done in during a 28-minute stretch where Nazareth earned 16 corners to none for the K-Kids. The constant sprinting back into the play sapped the energy from the team and they struggled to generate quality scoring chances. Schrader stood tall, recording 28 saves before the Blue Eagles scored on a corner during 7-on-7 play in OT.