Oley Valley 5, Forbes Road 0

READING —  The Forbes Road Cardinal Field Hockey team, District 6A Champions, traveled to Exeter Township High School in Reading Tuesday evening to take on the District 3 Runner Up, Oley Valley in the first round of the PIAA Class A State Field Hockey Tournament.

The Cardinal cagers (17-2-1) finished up their stellar season with a hard-fought loss to the turf savvy Oley Valley Lynx.

The Cardinals jumped out to a fast start earning two penalty corners in the opening minutes of the game. Oley Valley would earn their own set of corners shortly thereafter. The tough Cardinal defense held off the scoring attempts of the Lynx until the 19 minute mark when Oley’s Sarah Beers landed the first of her two goals.  Eight minutes later Sophia Gladieux would score on an assist from Brynn Gilbert. The score at the half would remain 2-0 in favor of the Lynx.

The Lynx scored two back to back goals shortly into the second half of play.  Three minutes in, Kayla Maciejewski would score on a loose ball off the pads of Cardinal keeper Zoe Cutchall.  Beers added her second goal less than a minute later on a questionably high ball that bounced of a Cardinal defender’s upper body and into the cage.

An undeterred and resilient Cardinal squad dug deep to hold off Oley’s scoring attempts down the stretch and into the final moments of the game. Gladieux added the final goal with just 6 seconds remaining on the clock.

Forbes Road’s goalie, Zoe Cutchall, had a very respectable 14 saves for the night and halfback Brianna Waters added a defensive save.  Forbes Road Interim Coach Mindy Horne commented, “This team never quit, there is not much else that a coach can ever ask for.”