OVERJOYED: Princeton Day School field hockey player Sasha Sindhwani enjoys the moment after scoring the game-winning goal in overtime as second-seeded PDS edged third-seeded and defending champion Allentown 3-2 in the Mercer County Tournament semifinals last Thursday. The Panthers went on to fall 3-0 to eighth-seeded Lawrenceville 3-0 in the MCT title game two nights later. PDS, now 14-4, will be competing in the state Prep B tourney where it is seeded first and hosts fourth-seeded Pennington in the semifinals on October 27. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

On October 1, the Princeton Day School field hockey team battled Lawrenceville tooth and nail before falling 1-0.

Last Saturday, exactly three weeks later, the rivals met in the Mercer County Tournament championship game and it appeared that another tense contest was in the offing.

Nearly 10 minutes into the title game held at Mercer County Community College, the teams were locked in a scoreless stalemate. But eighth-seeded Lawrenceville tallied with 20:42 left in the half and then added another score to build a 2-0 lead over the second-seeded Panthers by halftime.

PDS head coach Heather Farlow acknowledged that some defensive lapses put her squad in a hole. “Their first two goals were off corners and we don’t typically get scored on in those situations,” said Farlow. “It was just unfortunate.”

Fortunes didn’t change for PDS in the second half as Lawrenceville added another tally with 25:25 left in regulation as it went on to earn a 3-0 win and its fourth county title in five years.

“I don’t think we played as well as we did in the semifinal on Thursday,” said Farlow, referring to her squad’s come-from-behind 3-2 win in overtime against third-seeded and defending champion Allentown.

“It is our first time here in a long time. We needed to be mentally tough and have some kids step up and play probably their best games and we didn’t have that today.”

Despite being down by three goals for most of the second half, PDS produced some offensive forays as sophomore Gwen Allen hit the post with one shot and the Panthers generated some penalty corners in the waning moments of the contest.

“I think we showed that we were perfectly capable of creating offensive opportunities,” said Farlow, whose team was outshot 19-7 in the contest as it moved to 14-4 on the season. “We didn’t do that over a long span of time.”

While the final result was disappointing, advancing to the county final marked improvement for a program that posted a 2-14 record in 2014 and went 6-13-1 last fall and made it to the MCT championship game in 1998 when it won the crown.

“We have made a lot of progress,” said Farlow. “We are a young team, we only have one senior (defender Kiely French) on the field. This is a team that should get better and better.”

With PDS seeded first in the state Prep B tourney, the squad’s progression this season could still be capped with a title.

“We have Pennington on Thursday so we are trying to focus on that and go after that Prep B title,” said Farlow, whose team would host the championship game on October 30 if it can defeat the fourth-seeded Red Raiders in the semis. “We have some things to work on.”