West Field Hockey Scores Home Playoff Victory

It was one of those games where everything was going right and nothing was going right for Cherry Hill West’s field hockey team.

They’d piled up nine corners in the first half Wednesday, dominated possession and had plenty of opportunities to take the lead and get the first home playoff win in anyone’s memory against Manalapan Tuesday.

But nothing was working—at least until a fluky sequence with 3 minutes to go in the half.

After a crossing pass slid harmlessly in front of an empty Manalapan cage, the Lions bounced it back into back into the scrum inside the circle, and the ball found its way to Katie Stetser, who slammed what proved to be the game-winner home with 2:24 to go before halftime.

Stetser said the frustration and the funk the team had been in to that point evaporated the moment her shot crossed the line.

“We just really needed a goal,” she said. “It really pumped us up. I think we just all felt it at once, and we needed it in order to keep going.”

It also made it easier for West to weather the first 10 minutes of the second half, when Manalapan came out with heavy pressure and tested the Lions’ defense, racking up the bulk of the team’s seven corners in a search for the equalizer that never came.

With a second goal from Jamie Robertson late in the second half—with an assist courtesy Stetser—the Lions’ celebration was on, complete with more than a few leaping hugs amid the postgame joy.

Excitement was unequivocally the name of the game—with the Lions' first home playoff game in recent history came a boatload of student fans and an atmosphere more evocative of a final than a first-round game.

“It was really exciting—we haven’t had fans like that, ever,” Stetser said.

Getting the W in front of them was that much better.

“It was by far the coolest feeling in the entire universe,” Robertson said of the home win. “We’ve been so pumped up for this game, because it’s so awesome to host a home game.”

With six regular-season wins, the players said they had a good feeling about where things were headed—though a home game in the playoffs was an added bonus.

“It took a little while to get things going…but we mesh really well together,” Robertson said. “Once we started to get the flow going, we had a feeling we’d get to the playoffs.”

It was all about getting on a roll, Riley said, and building as the team ran the brutal gauntlet that is the Olympic Conference.

“They’re just so motivated and excited to just keep playing,” the coach said of her players. “We peaked at the right time—I feel like we’ve worked on a lot through the season, and now it’s starting to show.”

West now moves on to face Freehold Township, the No. 2 seed in Central Jersey, Group 4.

Toms River East 5, Cherry Hill East 3

Kelsea Kenniff’s 18 saves weren’t enough to keep the Cougars in the playoffs, as Toms River East got a hat trick from Sam Stecher and pulled away in the second half to win.

Cherry Hill East got two goals from Zoey Abrams and one from Brittany Strouse.