COMING ON STRONG: Princeton Day School field hockey player Gwen Allen goes after the ball last Thursday against Pennington. Sophomore Allen scored two goals in the game to help PDS prevail 3-2 over the Red Raiders. Last Monday, Allen contributed an assist in a losing cause as the Panthers fell 3-2 to Germantown Academy (Pa.) in overtime. PDS, now 11-3, is next in action when it competes in the Mercer County Tournament. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Gwen Allen decided to just fire away when she received the ball on a penalty corner with the Princeton Day School field hockey team locked in a 2-2 tie with Pennington last Thursday.

Lurking near the back of the circle, the PDS sophomore blasted the ball and found the back of the cage for the go-ahead goal.

“I didn’t really expect that one to go in; I just flung it, hoping for the best,” said Allen.

“I thought I was out of the circle for a second, we were just trying any shot that we could.”

Allen’s tally made the difference as the Panthers held on for a 3-2 win over the Red Raiders.

Coming off of defeats to Hill School (Pa.) (6-1 on October 5) and Lawrenceville School (1-0 on October 1) after winning its first nine games, PDS was primed to come out hard against the Red Raiders.

“The losses really motivated us, I think we really needed to win,” said Allen.

In the early stages of the game against Pennington, PDS dominated possession but only had a 1-0 lead at halftime as freshman Julia Lach found the back of the cage.

“That is how we expect it to go, dominating possession,” said Allen.

“It was a little frustrating; we have been able to score a lot of goals in a short amount of time.”

After Pennington tied the game at 1-1 early in the second half, Allen scored on an assist from classmate Val Radvany off of a penalty corner to put the Panthers back in the lead.

“I was OK, let’s get the momentum going, I thought we were going to keep scoring,” said Allen.

Undeterred, Pennington responded with another tally to knot the game at 2-2 with 9:05 remaining in regulation.

“I think that we adjusted well once they scored the second goal to come back,” added Allen.

Less than a minute later, Allen tallied the game-winner as PDS again converted on a penalty corner.

Pennington put the pressure on in the last minute but PDS freshman goalie Lexie Hausheer came up with some big stops to close the door on the Red Raiders and set off a celebration by the Panthers.

“I remember last year that losing to Pennington, in particular, was a really devastating loss for us,” said Allen.

“It was probably one of the worst losses that we had all season and so I think that winning this game meant a lot to us.”

It means a lot to Allen to be developing into a clutch scorer for PDS.

“I am a lot more confident,” said Allen. “I think as a freshman you feel happy to have a place on the team but it is really intimidating to play with girls three grades above you. As a sophomore, I learned from my freshman year not to be intimidated. We have a lot of young players and it helped me notice how I was playing last year.”

In order to raise her game, Allen put in extra work this summer on her shooting.

“I remember last year I couldn’t hit the ball at all and I still whiff it a lot,” said Allen, who kept up her production, chipping in a goal as PDS defeated Hopewell Valley 2-0 last Saturday and then adding an assist as the Panthers fell 3-2 to Germantown Academy (Pa.) in overtime last Monday to move to 11-3.

“Over the summer I was just going to go and hit it and hit it again because I remember every shot last year was a whiff.”

PDS head coach Heather Farlow was impressed with Allen’s play in the win over Pennington.

“Gwen was great, we saw that she was confident with the ball today,” said Farlow.

“She was making those offensive runs. We just told her take it to goal, you have opportunities. I saw that she was open on the corner and so we were trying to get her the ball as much as possible.”

In assessing the win over Pennington, Farlow tipped her hat to some of the team’s unsung heroes.

“Madison Mundenar and Elizabeth Brennan are two kids who don’t get mentioned a lot but their defense helped our counter attack,” asserted Farlow.

“Caroline Haggerty, Kiely French, Eva Petschnigg, and Val Radvany also played well. Those kids really stepped up, they were able to create some offense by moving the ball today. We didn’t really have it yesterday at Hill or against Lawrenceville.”

Coming off the consecutive defeats, PDS was focused on getting off to a good start against Pennington.

“It was, get through the first 30 minutes and let’s see if we can get a goal and get some confidence back,” said Farlow.

Farlow liked the way her team closed the deal, coming through under pressure to pull out the win.

“We just have to work hard for the next 9:05 and get it down into our offensive end and keep it there,” said Farlow.

“It was a character builder; to bounce back from the defeats we needed to show some resilience and mental toughness so it was good.”

With PDS heading into the Mercer County Tournament and state Prep A tourney, Farlow knows there is plenty of room for growth.

“We are a young team, we only have one senior (French),” said Farlow. “There are some things that we are all working on.”

Allen, for her part, believes that PDS can do some good things in postseason play.

“I am confident that we will do well in preps; we lost to Montclair Kimberley Academy in the semis last year; it was a close game so we are really motivated to win Prep B,” said Allen.

“As for the counties, I think that because we have had such a winning record this season, we have confidence that we can go all the way.”