LEHMAN TWP. — Lake-Lehman found itself playing on its heels right away on Tuesday, with Lancaster Country Day winning three penalty corners in the first five minutes of the game.
The Black Knights’ defense was more than up to the task, and helped send Lake-Lehman through to the state quarterfinals.
Goalkeeper Gigi Kirkutis made 10 saves, and three different Black Knights scored as Lake-Lehman took down District 3’s Lancaster Country Day in the first round of the PIAA Class A field hockey playoffs.
All three of those early penalty corners were successfully turned away by Kirkutis and the Lake-Lehman defensive unit.
Lancaster Country Day enjoyed a 9-3 edge in penalty corners but couldn’t convert on any of them, scoring just once on a right-to-left run from Anna Fisher at the top of the circle.
“We’ve been saying how good our corner defense is, we practice it every day,” Lake-Lehman head coach Jean Lipski said. “Our corner defense is just a great unit, I’m thrilled with how we’re playing.”
After killing off those initial penalty corners, Lake-Lehman drew their first of the day midway through the first quarter and promptly cashed in.
Gracie James sent the ball in to Olivia Oliver, and Oliver launched one high in the air out of the Lancaster keeper’s reach for the goal.
Oliver’s was the only goal of the first half, and the Black Knights would take a 2-0 lead in the third off of a Gianna DeCesaris penalty stroke.
“It’s not really nerves, it’s excitement,” Oliver said. “I’m just ready to score.”
Fisher cut the lead in half at the 4:56 mark, but Lake-Lehman wasn’t about to let momentum start to shift in favor of the visitors.
Oliver hit the ground running when play resumed and fired a perfect pass to Ady Perlis for the goal just 12 seconds after the Lancaster Country Day goal.
“Once they scored, we knew we just have to keep our intensity up and not get down on ourselves,” Oliver said. “It was really big, we work on that at practice.”
Kirkutis made a few more saves on close-range shots in the final quarter to close the game out, delivering a first-round victory for the Black Knights on their home turf.
Lake-Lehman will head to the PIAA Class A quarterfinal round on Saturday, taking on District 3’s third seed, Susquenita. The time and site for the quarterfinal game has yet to be determined.
PIAA Class A First Round
Lake-Lehman 3, Lancaster Country Day 1
Lancaster C.D.`0`0`1`0 — 1
Lake-Lehman`1`0`2`0 — 3
First — 1. LL Olivia Oliver (Gracie James) 6:30. Third — 1. LL Gianna DeCesaris 9:05; 2. LCD Anna Fisher 4:56; 3. LL Ady Perlis (Oliver) 4:44.
Shots — LCD 11, LL 10. Saves — LCD 7 (Yara Elbarbary), LL 10 (Gigi Kirkutis). Corners — LCD 9, LL 3.
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