Henderson stays unbeaten in field hockey

Unbeaten West Chester Henderson, seeking its first Ches-Mont League National Division field hockey championship since 2004, took another step toward the title Tuesday with a 3-2 victory over host Downingtown East.

Henderson (14-0-1) received two goals and an assist from sophomore Katie O'Donnell to extend its wining streak to 13 games. The only blemish on the Warriors' record is a 3-3 nonleague tie with Conestoga in their second game of the season.

All three of Henderson's goals came off offensive penalty corners. O'Donnell scored the first with 43 seconds left in the first half. It was her 19th goal of the season.

Although the Whippets fell to 5-5-3 with the loss, they let the Warriors know they weren't going to go quietly. Taylor Krynock's goal 23 seconds after O'Donnell's first one made it 1-1 at halftime.

It appeared that O'Donnell, who has one hat trick this season, scored another goal 48 seconds into the second half, but O'Donnell said her shot went off teammate Erin Anderson's stick and into the cage.

"It was a corner that we had to improvise on," O'Donnell said. "I hit it as hard as I could. Erin was on the post right where she should be and tapped it in."

The Warriors were playing shorthanded at that point because of a yellow card that their coach, Jen O'Donnell, Katie's mother, had gotten just before halftime.

The rules require the offending coach to take a player off the field. In this case, the Warriors had to play short for seven minutes. Jen O'Donnell got the card after she slammed some material she was carrying and made a comment because she was upset at a goal West had just scored.

The official "must have thought I was talking to her. I didn't swear, though," Jen O'Donnell said with a chuckle.

Katie O'Donnell scored what proved to be the winning goal with 22 minutes, 41 seconds to go in the game. The score remained 3-1 until the Whippets' McKenna Colby scored with a little more than five minutes to play.

"Henderson's fast and aggressive," West coach Liz Morrow said. "Our strategy was to mark up [defend one-on-one] several of their players. On offense, we wanted to get rid of the ball as soon as they came out to defend.

"We're young - we start two freshmen, three sophs, and four juniors; we graduated eight from last year's team - but we showed we could play with them," Morrow said, hoping her team still might have a shot at the District 1 Class AAA playoffs.

At 11-0 in the league, Henderson can clinch at least a tie for the division title with a win in one of its three remaining league games. Second-place Downingtown East has two league defeats, including a 4-3 loss to Henderson.

West Chester Henderson   1 2 – 3

Downingtown West   1 1 – 2

Goals: WCH-Katie O'Donnell 2, Erin Anderson; DW-Taylor Krynock, McKenna Colby.

Saves: WCH-Rosalie Nolan 7; DW-Colleen Brade.