BREAKING THROUGH: Princeton Day School girls’ hockey player Logan Harrison flies up the ice in recent action. Last week, sophomore star forward Harrison scored a goal to help fourth-seeded PDS defeat second-seeded Oak Knoll 5-0 in the state Prep championship game. It marked the program’s first Prep title since 2002. PDS, which defeated Madison High 6-2 last Friday to improve to 11-4, will be playing in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) girls’ state tournament later this month. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Despite losing 3-1 to Oak Knoll in mid-December, the Princeton Day School girls’ hockey team saw a clear path to victory when the teams met for a rematch in the state Prep final last week.

“For us going into the game, we knew a couple of their better players and in order to kind of stop them, we thought we had to use our size and our strength to our advantage,” said PDS head coach John Ritchie. “They are a younger team like us but I think we were a little bit bigger. For us to be successful, we knew that on transition play back into our zone, we had to make sure that we had defensemen back.”

Playing well at both the offense and defensive zones, fourth-seeded PDS produced a strong effort, pulling away to a 5-0 victory over the Royals at Twin Oaks Rink in Morristown.

It marked the first state Prep title for the program since 2002 and snapped a string of titles by Morristown-Beard who had taken the crown in all three seasons from 2018-20.

Clinging to a 1-0 lead heading into the second period, the Panthers exploded for four goals and never looked back on the way to the triumph. Senior Ally Antonacci tallied two goals and an assist in the win with junior defenseman Lauren Chase chipping in a goal and an assist and sophomore stars Logan Harrison and Emily McCann chipping in a goal apiece.

“Ally showed up big time, she was great,” said Ritchie. “We have a lot of field hockey girls and they had high expectations. I know they made it pretty far in their season but they fell a little bit short. In the back of my mind I was hoping that, for their sake, they would get a championship.”

The team’s young guns of Harrison and McCann, along with freshman Eibhleann Knox and sophomore Lily Ryan, have been living up to expectations.

“It was going to be up to them to figure out the more confident they have played, the better off we were going to be,” said Ritchie.

“Since the beginning of the new year, they have been building and building. In the last two-three weeks, they have completely stepped up.”

Coming into 2022, Ritchie sensed that his squad was primed to take things to a higher level.

“It is something that I think we knew was coming,” said Ritchie. “I didn’t know which team was going to be the signature win but I think with Trinity Hall (a 3-2 win on January 25) it all came together for us and that was the jumping off point.”

Things came together at the defensive end in the title game as sophomore goalie Abby Ashman made 17 saves in earning the shutout.

“They outshot us 9-5 in the third period so half of her saves came in the third period,” said Ritchie. “Abby had to stay in there and make a couple of big saves and kind of calm it down. She did a great job of controlling rebounds and not giving second chances. She was locked in, even when she wasn’t facing shots in the first and second  period. She knew to stay focused, she knew to keep moving in the net and stay warm.”

The team’s corps of defensemen also stayed focused throughout the contest.

“All five defensemen have played great but the unsung hero was Nat Celso,” said Ritchie. “Lauren adds the offensive flair but Nat is so steady back there. She really matched up well to their top players and didn’t give up any chances off the rush. That was the biggest thing for us.”

A 3-2 victory over perennial power Morristown-Beard in the Prep semis on February 3 was a big step for the Panthers.

“Mo-Beard has been the standard in the state so to upset them along the way, that was the biggest thing for us and our confidence,” said Ritchie. “We didn’t luck into it, the girls earned it by hard work.”

With PDS starting play in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) girls’ state tournament on February 28, Ritchie believes his team can earn another title.

“We are looking forward to the rest of the year; we have states and I think there are 14 or 15 girls teams statewide public and private that can enter it,” said Ritchie, whose team hosts Trinity Hall on February 17 in a regular season contest.

“I would expect 75 percent of them to play in it so it should be good. I expect our seeding to be favorable based on what we have done recently.”

But what the Panthers did last week in winning the Prep title was something to savor.

“It is cool, getting the messages from a lot of people that have been in the program,” said Ritchie. “We had a couple of former players and parents who made the drive up that were really happy for us.”

Heading home from Oak Knoll with a championship trophy culminated a special ride for PDS.

“As somebody who has been on both sides of those type of games, the bus ride home is always a lot more fun when you win so that was added motivation,” said Ritchie.