NE gets its ‘revenge’ with state championship title

New Egypt field hockey team wins NJSIAA Group I title game (Nov. 24)

By: Kyle Moylan
   EWING — Shannon Houston tried to be diplomatic. The New Egypt High School senior tried to explain how one game — even for a state title — shouldn’t be how an entire season is judged.
   It turns out even Shannon didn’t believe what she was saying.
   In the NJSIAA Group I title game, for the third straight season and with nine seniors on the roster, the New Egypt field hockey team needed a win Sunday. It needed a state championship to officially proclaim how great this era of field hockey has been at the school. And with a 2-1 victory over Pingry at The College of New Jersey, it did that.
   "After being here for a third time, a loss would have been a big letdown," Shannon said after the win. "Our whole entire season was based on winning this game. If we would have lost, our season would have been ruined. Forget about what I said before, we needed this win."
   And the fact it came against Pingry, the team that defeated New Egypt in the Group I final the previous two seasons, was also very satisfying.
   "It had to be Pingry," smiled Sara Messinger, who scored the game-winning goal with 18:13 to play. "We needed our revenge."
   New Egypt scored the winning goal on a penalty corner. Sara started the play with a pass to Houston, who got the ball quickly back to her teammate. She then scored the biggest goal in the history of New Egypt High School field hockey.
   "We haven’t done that corner play all season," noted Sara. "It was a new one and it was perfectly executed."
   Added Shannon, "We’ve been playing together for so long, it’s easy to read other."
   This game was a lot different than almost any other the 21-1 New Egypt squad had faced this season, though. New Egypt may have outscored the opposition 131-8 for the season, but on this day it was outshot (16-6). On this day it generated four penalty corners while having to kill off 18.
   "After we got the lead, those were the slowest 18 minutes of my life," New Egypt Coach Patti Nicholson said. "We just needed to keep getting the ball out of the defensive end."
   Thanks to the play of goalie Kelly Casey (15 saves) and defenders Heather Garces, Margaret Ecke, Brittany Kennedy, Tara Adamovich, Molly Dixon and Lindsay Rajeski, New Egypt did that.
   "Last year we controlled the (Group I final) game and Pingry won," Brittney Horner said. "It flip-flopped this year. All that matters is we won."
   Brittney played a big part in the win with an unassisted goal in the first half. Well, at least not an assist by anyone on the field.
   She took a shot that hit off a defender and then Pingry goalie Katie O’Connor. The ball fell to the right of Katie. Before the Pingry goalie could regroup to get the ball out of the zone, Brittney came running up and poked it into the goal.
   "The last thing my father said coming out of the house today was, ‘make sure you follow your shot and get the rebound. That’s the most important thing,’" Brittney said. "I was like, ‘yeah, yeah, dad.’ I guess it stuck with me."
   Brittney stopped talking and laughed loudly for a few seconds. "That’s all I thought about after I scored the goal. My dad told me to do that."
   She scored with 7:08 to play in the first half. Five minutes into the second half, Pingry tied the game on a goal by Katrina Pregibon. New Egypt then played the 25 minutes that defined this team, this season, and this era of field hockey at New Egypt High School.
   "My kids weren’t going to leave here with a loss again," Ms. Nicholson said. "We weren’t going to go to another consolation party. We’re leaving here and going to a championship party. It’s the way it had to be."