Kingsway Field Hockey Looking For Continued Growth As State Tournament Nears
The Dragons have won the previous three state Group 4 field hockey championships.
Yet, the team was hit hard by graduation. There are many younger players performing this season, along with the Dragons’ first-year head coach Erin Bernat.
Add the fact that Kingsway is playing one of the toughest schedules in the state, and one can see how, during the first month of the season, there have been growing pains.
Kingsway began the week 4-8, but the Dragons were coming off a 5-1 win at Haddonfield, which entered the game 10-1 and was among the top 20 teams in the state.
Could that win be a springboard?
Anything is possible.
While Kingsway won’t be near the favorite in the upcoming South Jersey Group 4 tournament, dismissing the Dragons’ chances might also be a bit premature.
Kingsway began the week No. 10 among South Jersey Group 4 teams in power points. Howell, Cherokee and Freehold Township were the top three teams.
What will help Kingsway is the killer schedule, which has included two conference games against two-time defending Group 3 state champion Clearview. There was a game against Southeastern PA power Notre Dame Academy and two games in the Max Field Hockey Invitational, one of the top events in the country.
The Dragons didn’t win any of these games, but benefited from the difficult competition.
“It is going to help us tremendously, seeing all these teams that are nationally ranked,” Bernat says. “It hurts in the beginning, but as you can see from the Haddonfield game, it’s really helping us.”
What is also helping the Dragons is having one of South Jersey’s top players: senior Isabella Sanchez, who began the week with a team-high 10 goals, along with contributing five assists. That gave her 58 career goals and 19 assists.
As one of just four seniors on the roster, Sanchez realizes that she had to be patient going into the season.
“It has been good that we have played all these good teams because we’re a pretty young team this year and we really need to get used to each other and how we play with each other and playing the harder teams will helps us a lot and sets us up for the playoffs," she says.
Sanchez has earned a field hockey scholarship to St. Joseph’s University, which competed in the NCAA field hockey championship game last year, falling to Northwestern in the final.
This year Sanchez has had to take even more of a leadership role with such a young team.
“It’s a good challenge working with a young team and what’s good is that we’re getting better every day,” she says.
One of those key young players is sophomore Alexandra Beety, who scored seven goals last season and began the week with seven goals and a team-high eight assists.
Beety and Sanchez give Kingsway the type of scoring duo that will challenge any opponent.
A key will be how much the team continues to grow between now and the season finale, against six-time defending state champion West Essex on Oct. 30. After that, it will be a difficult field in South Jersey Group 4, but at least Kingsway will be prepared for the rugged postseason competition after facing a playoff caliber schedule all season long.
Photo: No. 20 Isabella Sanchez of Kingsway / Marc Narducci
advertisement
Author: Marc Narducci
Archives
South Jersey Football Games of the Week
Follow the Leader
Tech Titans
Mindful Money Management
Phillies Experience Postseason Heartache Once Again
South Jersey Boys & Girls Soccer Teams Gearing Up For the Coaches Tournament
South Jersey Football Games of The Week
No Time To Panic About The Eagles—Yet
Delran Boys Soccer Outlook
South Jersey Football Games of the Week
Phillies Looking For Extended Postseason
Back to Business
Supporting the Arts
Higher Learning
A Learning Opportunity
More...
