NA Field Hockey Plucks Road Win At Penn-Trafford
In their Section 1-AAA opener on Wednesday night, the North Allegheny Tigers earned a road win over the Penn-Trafford Warriors by a 4-1 decision. Senior Olivia Scherrer and sophomore Ally Barcaskey netted two goals apiece to pace the Tigers offense. The win extended NA’s head-to-head winning streak over the Warriors to 10 straight games. (The game was video streamed via pay-per-view by the North Allegheny Sports Network for $5.00. You can watch an archived broadcast of the game by clicking below.)
Facing the reigning Class AA WPIAL champions on the road, the Tigers started strong and used their team speed to race out to an early 2-0 lead. Scherrer netted the game’s first goal at 19:33 of the first half on a fine assist from junior Angie Genter. North Allegheny opened up a 2-0 lead when Izzy Ingram fed a pass in front for Scherrer on her second goal of the night with 15:16 left in the half. For her efforts, Scherrer was named the Wright Automotive Player of the Game.
Following a time out by Penn-Trafford head coach Cindy Dutt, the Warriors responded with spirited play and trimmed the NA lead to 2-1 courtesy of a goal by Natalie Norman with 6:47 remaining before halftime. The Tigers answered back to regain their two-goal advantage when Barcaskey tallied a marker with 2:08 left in the first half for a 3-1 lead.
The defenses for both teams took hold in the second half as the pace of the game slowed significantly. Penn-Trafford had a chance to edge back into the game with a penalty corner opportunity with a little over 10 minutes left in the game. The NA defense denied the penalty corner and quickly cleared the ball to Ingram who raced up the right side line and sent a pass into the circle for Barcaskey who cashed in for a goal and a 4-1 Tigers lead.
The Barcaskey goal proved to be a backbreaker for Penn-Trafford as the Tigers easily closed out the win in the remaining minutes. First-year head coach Trish Herbert has dubbed the team motto for the 2017 season as “under construction” and Wednesday night’s victory is certainly a great foundation to build on for this year’s Tigers squad.
The Tigers improve to 2-0 overall and 1-0 in Section 1-AAA. Penn-Trafford slips to 0-2 overall and 0-1 in the section. North Allegheny will take on Hathaway Brown on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at Fox Chapel.
Field Hockey Summary vs. Penn-Trafford, 9-6-17
| GAME SUMMARY | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| SCORE BY HALVES | 1 | 2 | FINAL |
| North Allegheny | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Penn-Trafford | 1 | 0 | 1 |