Seneca field hockey team overcomes inexperience, early season struggles to win program’s first sectional championship
Seneca dominated the competition in the playoffs and defeated Robbinsville High School on Nov. 2 to win the Central Jersey Group II championship.
One week into the season, it would’ve been tough to find someone who felt Seneca High School field hockey would win a championship in 2017.
The Golden Eagles entered the season with a slew of new starters after losing 11 seniors from the 2016 squad. They also started the year slow, losing 4–2 to Camden Catholic High School, 7–2 to Shawnee High School and 5–1 to Bishop Eustace Preparatory School in the season’s first week.
However, those losses would pave the way for what would turn into a magical season for Seneca. An influx of youth and the team’s rapid maturation over the course of the season took the Golden Eagles to new heights. Seneca won its first sectional championship when it defeated Robbinsville High School, 5–0, in the Central Jersey Group II title game on Nov. 2. Seneca would advance all the way to the NJSIAA Group II state championship game, where the Golden Eagles’ playoff run ended with a 2–0 loss to Rumson-Fair Haven High School.
The team’s success came so suddenly, a number of players never thought it was possible for the program to become a champion this year.
“We knew that we had a young team,” senior Abby Regn said. “We graduated 11 seniors. So we knew there was going to be a big hole in the lineup.”
Head coach Julie Smith was very optimistic about her team. She felt they had the talent to make it to states even before the season started.
“I thought they had the ability to win a state championship,” she said. “They all kind of just giggled and looked at each other. They laughed a little bit. But I tried to tell them and the parents at our parent meeting that we had the potential, and if we peaked when we hit October, we had a shot to do it.”
The younger players on the Golden Eagles roster brought an increase in speed to the team. Smith said the team was able to get more creative with formations and its corner play this season thanks to the additional speed.
“Against (the opposition’s) fast forwards, we had fast backs who could keep up with them and our speed going after loose balls was really helpful,” Regn said.
“We got a lot better at winning 50/50 balls throughout the season,” junior Lindy Webb added.
One hurdle Seneca had to overcome early was its inexperience. Seneca struggled to a 3–4 record in the season’s first two weeks. However, the Golden Eagles turned those early season losses into positives.
“We used them as learning experiences instead of just losses,” senior back Kasey Mitchell said of the losses. “Coach Smith said from the beginning, all that mattered was playoffs.”
Junior goalkeeper Jenna Flemings was one of the numerous new starters for Seneca this year and was challenged immediately in those first few games. Flemings, who recorded 10 shutouts during the season, said the team’s two-game season series against Bishop Eustace indicated the progress they had made. In September at home, Seneca lost by four goals to the Crusaders. In the Oct. 5 rematch at Bishop Eustace, Seneca took the Crusaders to overtime before losing, 2–1. It would be Seneca’s last loss until the state championship game.
“We didn’t have the best first game against them, but we came back in the second game against them and stuck with them,” Flemings said.
Seneca went on a roll in October after the Bishop Eustace loss, going 6–0–1 in the team’s final seven regular season games. However, the team’s early losses meant they were only the №6 seed in the Central Jersey Group II tournament.
“We anticipated that,” senior back Kaitlyn Birnbohm-Kaminski said. “We played, at the beginning of the season, a lot of bigger, Group IV schools. So we knew it was going to get us a lower seed but it gave us the drive to get through (the playoffs).”
Seneca dominated in the Central Jersey Group II playoffs, winning their four games by a combined score of 32–2, despite playing a higher seeded team from the quarterfinals on. The team clinched its sectional championship with a win over №1 seed Robbinsville.
“It just built right off of playoffs,” senior Samantha Derkes said of the team’s confidence. “Our first playoff game, we went in confidently. From there, it built, one on top of the other.”
Seneca defeated South Jersey Group II champion West Deptford High School, 3–1, to advance to the program’s first state championship game against Rumson-Fair Haven. Seneca allowed Rumson-Fair Haven to scored two goals early in the first half and weren’t able to strike back as they fell, 2–0.
“In that first half, we had 10 or 15 minutes where we realized where we were and got a little nervous,” Smith said. “We also didn’t play our best. That was the most frustrating part. We didn’t play our best and we lost 2–0 to the third-best team in the state.”
The loss didn’t put a damper on the team’s season. The 2017 team was excited to be the one to finally win a title for the program.
“I could have never asked for anything more,” Derkes said of the experience. “It was unbelievable. As an athlete, I never thought I would get to that level.”
“It would’ve been really cool to win a state title, but I was so proud of us for reaching the finals because no one expected us to succeed,” Regn added.
