TOMS RIVER -- Streaks, pardon the pun, come and go, and the one that Warren Hills' field hockey team dearly wanted to end continues for at least one more year.
Hoping to get the monkey off their backs on the eighth attempt, the Blue Streaks fought tooth-and-nail and ultimately came up short in a 1-0 loss in double overtime to nemesis Ocean City in what was a classic Group 3 final on Saturday at Toms River East High School.
Warren Hills (22-4-1) saw its program-best 19-game win streak end -- one victory shy of setting the school's single-season record -- while falling to 0-8 all-time in state championship games. For the second straight year and fifth overall, it was Ocean City (19-5) that ended the Warren County school's bid for an ever elusive title. This was the third time in the postseason series between these teams that the title was decided in overtime as the Red Raiders also won in OT in 1999 and 2009.
Junior forward Kelly Hanna ended the drama by scoring off a penalty corner with no time left on the clock to give Ocean City its ninth state championship. Hanna, who leads the team with 22 goals, took the pass after a little give-and-go from Lauren McNally near the top of the circle and slammed it into the left corner of the cage to end one of the finest games you'll ever see.
"We're 0-8 ... I don't know what it is," said an emotional Blue Streaks coach Laurie Kerr, whose teams are 0-6 in these games in her 14 seasons at the helm. "The girls played with a lot of heart and soul. They left everything out on the field."
Ocean City advances to the Tournament of Champions that begins on Monday with a play-in game at Rider University. The five Group champions (four public and one non-public) will play to an overall champion in a three-day span, culminating with the final next Friday night at The College of New Jersey.
After a slow first half, Warren Hills seized control of the game and held Ocean City to just one shot-on-goal from the second half through the first 10-minute overtime. After nearly winning it several times in the first OT -- a shot by senior midfielder Nikki Schott went off the pads of Ocean City goalie Sarita Charap with 56 seconds left on a penalty corner -- the Blue Streaks gave up two corners late in the second overtime.
On the fateful corner, Warren Hills' defense was whistled for deliberately trying to hit the ball over the goal line with about two seconds left in the period. It was a questionable call, as Kerr felt it was all in the act of trying to clear the ball out of the circle. Had the second OT ended scoreless, a winner would have been decided on a best-of-five round of penalty strokes.
That sequence of corners followed a tremendous stop on a penalty stroke by Warren Hills goalie Taylor Austin. The sophomore was outstanding in the loss, keeping her team alive by knocking down the attempt to her left by Rachael Young with 2:37 left in the period. The stroke occurred when Schott used her hand to stop a threatening shot.
"I really thought that [save on the stroke] was going to give them momentum," said fourth-year Ocean City coach Cory Terry, who had the assist on the game-winning goal in overtime that beat Warren Hills in 1999 at TCNJ and is 80-8 during her coaching career. "I'm completely overcome with excitement and pride for these girls. It was a huge battle and they found a way to persevere. It was an unbelievable finish to a game. Warren Hills is a very strong team."
Schott played perhaps the best game of her four-year career in defeat. The midfielder was a force on corners and fired three laser shots on goal in the second half, one off Charap's pads with 11:00 remaining in regulation.
Needless to say it was a tough final game for Schott and fellow senior starters Shannon Zignoli and Melanie Loth as they were attempting to end the title drought in the 49th season of Blue Streaks field hockey. Those seniors don't leave empty handed as they collected two North 2, Group 3 sectional titles, two Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex and three Skyland Conference Raritan Division championships in their careers.
"We dominated most of the game. It's hard to explain," said Schott, whose sisters, Lauren and Lindsey (who played on the '09 team and is the program's all-time leading scorer), were standout players for the Streaks. "We didn't feel any pressure, we were used to the atmosphere. We just took it as another game. There's nothing negative to look back on at all. We fought hard. I'm proud of my girls."
For the second straight year, Warren Hills' high-octane offense -- shut out for the first time since last year's title game -- couldn't find the back of the cage. Despite holding a 5-2 edge in shots-on-goal in regulation and averaging just over five goals per game in the playoffs, the shots just didn't fall, even on eight corner chances in the second half alone. In a 9-0 win over Northern Highlands in the Group 3 semifinals, the Streaks scored on eight of their 11 corners.
Junior midfielder Nikki Profita, who led the Streaks with 20 goals, and counterpart Sydney Muntone, with 19 goals, did their best with inspired play in the second half and first overtime, as most of the play flowed through their stick work and crisp passes.
"We just needed one more dodge, one more pass," said Kerr, whose team hadn't suffered a loss since dropping a 2-1 decision to Bridgewater-Raritan -- which lost 3-0 to Eastern in the Group 4 final on Saturday -- at home on Sept. 21. "Some days the ball goes in the cage and some days it doesn't go in. We had a lot of opportunities."
"It just happens," Schott said. "You face harder defenses down here."
Not to be lost was the stellar play of Austin, who had never seen a field hockey game much less played in one before Kerr made one of her finest coaching moves in the offseason.
"For a kid I [recruited] out of phys ed class in May, she wasn't bad," said Kerr a bit tongue-in-cheek. "She's been awesome. She's a tremendous athlete."
With eight starters returning, including Austin and the entire defensive backfield, Warren Hills will be an odds-on-favorite to get back here for a third straight year in 2014. Ocean City returns five starters, including Hanna and McNally.
"Next year the girls will fill our spots and I feel like they'll get it next year," Schott said.
Ocean City (19-5) 0 0 0 1 -- 1
Warren Hills (22-4-1) 0 0 0 0 -- 0
Scoring
Second overtime -- OC, Kelly Hanna, 22nd, (Lauren McNally), 0:00.
Shots -- Ocean City 5; Warren Hills 9.
Saves -- Sarita Charap 7, McNally 2 (defensive) (OC); Taylor Austin 3, Amanda Crampton 1 (defensive) (WH).
Penalty corners -- Ocean City 14; Warren Hills 13.
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