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Field hockey: South River saves best defense for last
By JAMES PETERS, For The Capital

COLLEGE PARK - If the 4A state field hockey final named a Most Valuable Player like the Super Bowl, there's no question South River senior goalkeeper Irene Jorden would have been the player telling everyone of her impending trip to Disney World shortly after last night's contest.

Facing a relentless Whitman attack, which included a slew of second half shots deep inside the penalty circle, Jorden dove on, kicked away and blocked 16 of Whitman's 19 shots.

On the other end, the Vikings put the clamps on South River's high scoring trio of Shannon Long (21 goals, 10 assists), Jill Hodges (14 goals, 19 assists) and Janna Wojtech (11 goals, 10 assists) but failed to mark lesser known sophomore attacker Molly Gregoire on one of her team's three penalty corners about six minutes into the second half.

The result was a 1-0 Seahawks' victory under the least likely scenario for a team that had produced nearly 80 goals this fall and dominated its first four playoff opponents by a combined 14-3 score.

Nonetheless, South River (17-3) walked away with its second state crown in the program's history while denying the Vikings (11-6) their first title in four final appearances. The Seahawks won their first state title in 2000 as a Class 3A program.

"I would say my goalie played awesome," said South River coach Laura Hoffner. "I mean, those last, I don't know, 10 minutes, Irene was
incredible and my No. 7, Heather Bresnahan, came up with a bunch of big saves.

"I'm very excited (but) I feel bad that they loss because I think they played their hearts out as well."

That was certainly the case in the second half, as the Vikings outshot South River, 16-4, and produced four penalty corners to their opponent's none. Many of those shots, however, met with some serious resistance from Jorden, who used every piece of equipment to hold Whitman scoreless.

Ellen O'Brien, for example, punished a shot just in front of the cage but Jorden stepped right up and sent the ball backwards with a violent crash off her pads.

Later on, Jesse Crouch struck a shot deep inside the circle but Jorden threw her body in front of the ball to save what would have most likely been a goal. She stopped the rebound shot as well before knocking the ball loose to avoid a penalty stroke.

"She's a very good goalkeeper," O'Brien said. "Every time we hit it in the circle, she got it out for them. We just couldn't get it in the goal."

Jorden added: "I play indoor hockey so I've been practicing (her dynamic saves) on turf and on concrete, everything. You learn to get down to make a save. Its an amazing way to end my senior year."

Whitman's frenzied attack was fueled by Gregoire's goal that came shortly after a penalty corner and during a melee for the ball inside the circle. Her shot, one of the officials said, rolled past goalkeeper Elissa Gerfen and hit the leg of a defender before trickling into the goal. The official said she would have called a penalty stroke but the ball crossed the goal line before she could blow the whistle.

"We've been practicing corners a lot and we knew we had to score because we hadn't had it down in there end the whole game so we just had to put it in," Gregoire said. "We usually dominate but . . . they were a good team. They have really good stick skills. They know how to pull back and dodge."

The frustrating loss was one of many for Whitman, which has reached the state playoffs eight times since 1995 under long-time coach Mary Pat Veihmeyer (240-119-9 career record) but returned empty-handed each time.

"So many shots but we didn't do it," she said. "They did everything else right but they didn't finish. I'm really proud of them. They played super. They just came up one short."

South River (17-3) 0 1 _ 1 Whitman (11-6) 0 0 _ 0 GOALS: SR - Gregoire. SHOTS: SR - 5. WH - 19. SAVES: SR - Jorden 16. WH - Gerfen 2. PENALTY CORNERS: SR - 3. WH - 5.