A piece of candy nearly derailed the biggest goal of the season for the Collingswood field hockey team.
Fortunately, Hazel Howkins was able to recover in time to deliver when the Panthers needed her the most.
Howkins scored on a penalty stroke early in the fourth quarter to snap a 1-1 tie and 10th-seeded Collingswood went on to beat second-seeded Schalick 3-1 in the NJSIAA South Jersey, Group 1 quarterfinals on Wednesday in Pittsgrove.
The Panthers improved to 10-10 and advanced to the sectional semifinals for the sixth year in a row. They will face third-seeded West Deptford, their longtime Colonial Conference rival, on Monday for a berth in the final.
Schalick suffered its only loss in a memorable season that ended at 18-1-1.
Since the Cougars came into the game undefeated and with an explosive offense that had produced 117 goals, the Panthers were certainly the underdogs on paper, but coach Valerie Dayton was confident in her team and didn’t feel the need to make any drastic strategical decisions.
“We were aware of their scorers, but I’m going to be honest, we don’t get fancy and we don’t change up a whole lot, because our kids are comfortable with doing what they do best,” she said. “So we just talk them through what they should expect, and they made some adjustments on their own and played smart.
“Honestly, we don’t have the greatest record; we don’t have a record like they do. But we play in an extremely tough conference and we schedule tough out of conference, and we hope that it pays off down the road. I think we really experienced some of the best teams in South Jersey, and even though we didn’t always come out on the winning end, we learned some lessons and it paid off today.”
The game was tied 1-1 at halftime, but Collingswood controlled most of the action after the break and had an 8-0 advantage in corners at one point of the second half. One of those corners led to the tiebreaking goal, as Peyton Ryan was taken down at the top of the circle after receiving the entry and the Panthers were awarded a stroke.
As usual, Howkins was chosen to take the shot, and she buried it into the top right corner for her second goal of the season.
“I would say I’m naturally good at (penalty strokes),” she said. “I practice them sometimes at practice and I feel like I have a strong send. They depend on me for them.
“But even though I’m the designated stroker, I do get very nervous when I’m up there on that line. I just steady myself, look down at the ground and try to focus. It’s nice to know my team is rooting for me back there.”
Howkins was happy to just be playing in the game after an incident at school earlier in the day, and her goal was the icing on the cake.
“I was at lunch and my friend threw a Sour Patch Kid Watermelon right in my eye,” she said. “My eye got all puffy and I had to go to the nurse. I had to flush it two times with water and saline. I was worried that it wouldn’t go away … since I may have scratched my cornea. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to see, because during warmups when I looked at the sun, it would burn my eye and I had to look at the ground. But when we started playing it cleared up.”
Schalick coach Heather Cheesman wasn’t so sure a stroke should have been awarded on the play, but she understood that it was a bang-bang call.
“(H)onestly, I believe it should have been another corner,” she said. “It’s not like she was definitely going to score, like a one-on-one breakaway where somebody does something intentionally. But that’s just my opinion — if you ask the other coach, she’d probably have a different story.”
Schalick struck first when Lena Virga blasted home a pass from Lucianna Virga on a corner with 8:27 left in the second quarter. But Collingswood evened the score with 1:35 left in the half when Riley McSweeney made a steal in the middle of the field and passed the ball up to Ryan, who dribbled into the circle and found Sophia Mazur all alone right in front of the cage for her third goal of the season.
“Knowing my team, that really helped us,” Ryan said. “Sometimes when we go down a goal, we let up a little bit, but once we got that goal it boosted us up again. We were hyped to score again.”
After playing a part in the first two goals for Collingswood, Ryan also scored a big insurance goal, her team-leading 21st of the year, with 3:28 remaining. She and McSweeney were outstanding in the midfield all afternoon.
“That’s my best friend, so we know how to work together really well,” she said.
The Collingswood defense was sensational as well, with senior center back Rory Bernardo leading the effort. She was quick to share in the credit, however.
“I think that we focus a lot on working together as a team,” she said. “We’ve worked every single day since the beginning of preseason on strengthening bonds and transitioning up the field. Individually, we’re all super strong, and when we come together we work really well.
“This was great competition for us. They’re all fast and they have great hits and lifts, but we worked hard and were able to focus in.”
Schalick had not played from behind much all season, so going down by a goal and then by two in the fourth quarter was a difficult task. The Cougars did pick their intensity up in the final minutes and had their only three corners of the second half during that span, but Collingswood was able to survive and hold on to its two-goal lead.
“I’m sad for them,” Cheesman said of her players. “If they played this (whole) game like they played the last five minutes, I think things would have turned out a lot different. They just couldn’t put it together today.”
Still, when the dust settles, the Cougars will realize how special of a season they had, including a perfect 8-0 mark in the Tri-County Conference Diamond Division. And with the entire roster returning — including leading scorers Ava Scurry and Phoebe Alward — they’ll have a chance to make a deep playoff run next fall.
“I think they’re going to remember this and they’re going to remember how they feel, and if they don’t then I’m going to remind them,” Cheesman said. “They’re going to work hard so this doesn’t happen again.”
Collingswood will now turn its attention to a familiar foe. West Deptford, the two-time defending state champion, defeated the Panthers in last year’s sectional semifinals and in the 2022 sectional final, both by 2-1 scores.
The Eagles also swept Collingswood in the regular season, winning 5-2 and 4-2.
“I think we got a little bit better the second time we played them, so we’ll see,” Dayton said. “We’re going to get excited for it. … We talked about it on Monday that these seniors deserve to get back to the semis and hopefully past that.”
“I’m ready,” Bernardo added. “We’ve made it there too many times to not win. West Deptford is a big rival of ours but I feel like we’re right there with them, and I think we can do it if we really lock in. I like playing the hard teams like them and Haddonfield. It’s always a difficult game but it’s so much fun.”
At the very least, the Panthers are still alive and have given themselves a chance. And since Wednesday night was their homecoming dance, the win was even sweeter.
“It’s going to be fun to walk in with a win,” Bernardo said, “and tell everyone about this.”
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Matt Cosentino can be reached at [email protected]
