The annual meet up has typically been a battle of the two best teams in the Philadelphia Catholic League since Kamper arrived at O’Hara as a freshman. Now, she’s submitted her entry in the latest chapter of the rivalry. Her goal with 1:19 by deflecting a shot from teammate Honor Breen snapped a 2-2 tie and gave the Lions their first lead of the day, which would be safely protected for the remaining 79 seconds 

“I was just amazed,” Kamper said. “Ever since I was a freshman, I’ve been waiting for this moment. It was honestly amazing.”

The Patriots had carried the early play and Golden was rewarded with 6:51 left in the first quarter. But less than four minutes later, O’Hara senior Samantha Connolly provided the equalizer by converting a perfectly-placed penalty stroke with 3:07 left in the opening quarter.

“I thought to myself, I’m going to make this,” Connolly said. “Strokes are one of my strong suits. When it went in, it was such a good moment because we all just got so excited and so hype. It was so fun.”

It took almost a full quarter until Carroll jumped in front for the second time. Morgan Wood finished off a penalty corner opportunity by scooping up some loose change in front of the cage and sweeping the ball into the cage to make it 2-1 just 3:07 before halftime.

The Patriots held the lead until late in the third when Kamper came up clutch by jamming a shot into the cage during a frenzy to make it 2-2.

“It felt really good because we were all together as a team,” Kamper said. “Everything we were doing, we just worked really hard.”

Kamper has been one of the hardest workers.
 

“That was the best I’ve ever seen her play,” said O’Hara coach Hailie Fosbenner. “When we had our little team talk, I told her she was the MVP of this game, without a doubt. All those defensive corners were insane and I don’t think we would have done as well without her back there.”

It set the stage for Kamper’s second swipe at heroics. Teammate Honor Breen slapped a long shot on goal and Kamper deflected the shot high to the far side of the cage for the eventual game-winner.

Although the other sideline was stunned, players on Carroll dusted themselves off after a hard-fought game and realized they were in the same position as last year, which ended up pretty good for the Patriots in the form of a PCL championship as they got their revenge on O’Hara in the title game after the Lions won the regular season matchup.

“We talked about how we’re going to use this to get better and how to push forward during the rest of our season,” said senior co-captain Samantha Hewitt. “We’ll use it as a learning experience. We’re thinking about the things we did good and bad and keep growing as a team.”

Stay tuned for a possible PCL championship rematch on Oct. 26. at Neumann University.

The Crusaders are still sitting pretty at 4-1 while Wood dropped to 3-2. But it wasn’t all bad news for the Vikings, who picked up a key win with a 2-0 victory over Conwell-Egan on Wednesday. Rachel McCaul and Jeanna Kendra provided the goals with assists from Kaelyn Riccini and Tori Strybuc. Laurel Tonkinson notched her third PCL shutout of the year.

Bonner & Prendie faced an early-season schedule nightmare by facing O’Hara and Carroll out of the gate. Since then, the Pandas have rebounded with a pair of wins over Conwell-Egan and Archbishop Ryan. Bonner & Prendie has an opportunity for a statement game against Wood on Monday and a key matchup with Lansdale Catholic the following week.

It’s story time.

This week in the "Ask Me Anything" segment, I asked players from Archbishop Carroll, Archbishop Wood, Archbishop Ryan, Cardinal O’Hara, Conwell-Egan, Lansdale Catholic and Little Flower high schools to admit the worst or most embarrassing thing that has happened to them in a field hockey game.

Kudos to the girls for admitting some pretty funny stories at their expense. 

Share some laughs with them by checking out the video over to the right.