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KINGSTON — As the bulk of the Wyoming Valley Conference sports schedule was getting washed away by an all-day rain, Alicia Carr kept holding out hope.
It’s easy to see why.
Neither threatening weather nor a dreary beginning could stop Wyoming Seminary from manufacturing a sunny start.
Carr and Julia Christian both scored twice against one of the WVC’s best goaltenders Wednesday and Sem shrugged off an early deficit by dominating Dallas, 6-1 in a season-opening high school field hockey battle between two returning District 2 playoff semifinalists at Klassner Field.
“I was pretty positive the game was going to be postponed,” Carr said. “Every other school in the league was having games postponed — in tennis, field hockey, soccer. I still kept my mentality that we were still possibly having a game.
“And if we did, I just wanted to come out on top.”
With every other game on the WVC field hockey schedule washed out, she made sure Sem started as a league frontrunner.
Carr drove home the go-ahead goal with a blast just inside the top of the circle midway through the opening half, then added a crafty, backhanded chip high into the cage for her second goal in 10 minutes to send Sem into halftime with a 4-1 lead.
“I learned it a few years ago, pretty much from all the coaches,” grinned Carr, a junior who added that her game has received huge help from her brother, Glenn Carr, who was once a member of the US men’s national field hockey team.
After the opening minutes, the Blue Knights didn’t need many tricks to trump a Dallas team that returns one of the league’s best goalies in Melinda Ratchford, but not many defenders from last year’s run to the Class 2A district semis.
Christian tied the game with a shot off a penalty corner with 21:16 remaining in the first half, triggering an avalanche of six straight Sem goals that put the game out of reach.
“The kids looked good,” said Wyoming Seminary coach Karen Klassner, who brings back a lot of the offensive firepower that helped the Blue Knights finish second in the WVC Division 1 and reach the Class A district semis in 2016. “We’ve got a really hard-working team.”
For a bit, it appeared the Blue Knights would have their work cut out for them.
They fell behind when Hannah Yanovich powered home the game’s first goal to give Dallas a 1-0 lead just under five minutes into the season.
So the Blue Knights were in an early hole against one of the WVC’s stingiest goalies, and to a team they edged 1-0 in last year’s season opener.
Time to panic?
“Honestly, I wasn’t concerned,” Carr said. “I know we the potential to fight back and take every scoring opportunity we had. I’ve seen games where a team was up 1-0 and ended up losing 12-1 by the end.”
The score may not have gotten that far out of hand, but the game did. Sem spent most of the final 55 minutes pushing the issue in Dallas territory and limiting the Mountaineers to just four shots for the game.
Christian added an assist on a diving, punch-in goal by Alex Wesneski that gave Sem breathing room, 3-1 in the first half, then Christian capped off a tic-tac-toe passing play with a sizzling score from out front to open the scoring in the second half.
“It’s a much better feeling winning 6-1,” Carr said, “compared to 1-0 like last year. It just shows how much harder we’ve been working and how much we went to move forward and accomplish our goals at the end of the season.”
Aubrey Mytych added an assist on Christian’s game-tying goal on the first-half corner, then closed the scoring with a goal of her own with 20:37 to play.
“Our passing game was exceptional,” Klassner said. “When we pass, we’re pretty dangerous.”
And despite the soggy conditions that forced the game to begin in a light rain and brought off-and-on sprinkles throughout, Sem never seemed to slow down on their home turf.
“We’ve played in a little bit of everything,” Klassner said. “We’re used to playing in rain.”
The Blue Knights aren’t just playing around after finishing second in the WVC and just missing out on states last year.
They broke in a new defensive setup that swarms the ball and shows off tremendous team speed; debuted a new two-goalie system that started freshman Mia Magnotta in the first half and brought in senior Jaryah Patterson for the second; and moved some players around on offense — including Carr, who shifted from right mid to left forward and opened up her offensive game.
“It’s a big difference,” Carr said, “but I guess I’m used to it after playing for my club team.”
It all led to an attack that kept clubbing shots at the cage as Sem made a statement right from the season’s start.
“It’s great to start off,” Klassner said, “you have a confidence-builder. I just really feel we played well as a team. I thought our kids really stepped it up. Now we really have a handle on what we need to work on.”
Wyoming Seminary 6, Dallas 1
Dallas`1`0`—`1
Wyoming Seminary`4`2`—`6
First half — 1. DAL, Hannah Yanovich, 25:45; 2. SEM, Julia Christian (Aubrey Mytych), 21:16; 3. SEM, Alicia Carr, 14:29; 4. SEM, Alex Wesneski (Christian), 11:03; 5. SEM, Carr, 5:09. Second half — 6. SEM, Christian, 27:10; 7. SEM, Mytych, 20:37.
Shots — Dal 4; SEM 9. Saves — DAL 3 (Melinda Ratchford); SEM 3 (Mia Magnotta 2, Jaryah Patterson 1). Penalty corners — Dal 5; SEM 3.
