Box Score On a beautiful Derby weekend, the no. 1 seed Pioneers won the HCLC Championship with a 21-4 win over the Franklin Grizzlies. They were undefeated in the HCLC regular season to earn the regular season championship and take the number one seed to the tournament and a forfeit from no. 4 Hanover in the semi-final gave them a direct route to the championship.
The Pioneers started quickly with a goal from senior Abbey Peterson within the first 46 seconds of the game. Goal two came from senior Sophia Sparks a few minutes later for the 2-0 lead. Sophomore Charlotte Green scored her first of the game, assisted by Peterson. Green added her second goal within three minutes on a seamless assist from senior Vianne Koshoffer. Within 15 seconds, Peterson added her second goal for the 5-0 lead. In a man-up situation, Green added another goal, assisted by Sparks to lead 6-0. At 3:50, sophomore Lula Thompson scored a goal in the top right corner on an assist by Koshoffer. With a 22 second gap, sophomore TaNya Barbee scored on the third assist from Koshoffer on the day to put the Pioneers up 8-0. With 49 seconds remaining in the quarter, Sparks scored her second goal, assisted by Thompsonm finishing the quarter at 9-0.
In the second quarter, Green started up the scoring with a goal 52 seconds in and started running clock. Peterson picked up her third goal on a free position shot for the 11-0 lead. For the twelfth goal, sophomore Linley Dawson was able to score off of a feed from Thompson for the assist. With 3:43 remaining, a caused turnover by senior Lauren Arena along with a groundball set up the play for Peterson to score another goal, unassisted. The Pioneers took the 13-1 lead into halftime.
After the half, Koshoffer scored her second goal of the day, assisted by Sparks for the first goal of the quarter. At 7:22, Peterson netted her fifth goal on an assist from sophomore Diana Bruder. Just under a minute later, Barbee added her second goal of the game for the 16-4 lead. With 15 seconds remaining, Peterson added one more to the Pioneers' lead for a 17-4 score going into the fourth.
Sparks added her third goal of the day with an unassisted shot. Sophomore Linley Dawson earned her first goal of the game with an assist from Koshoffer for the 19-4 lead. With 4:47 remaining in the game, Sparks had another unassisted goal for her fourth of the game. Koshoffer finished with one more goal to give the 21-4 final score.
Diana Bruder led the Pioneers in draw controls with 12, senior Abby Rau led in groundballs with seven and caused turnovers with five. Senior Abi Waldron had a .500 save percentage with four saves.
Members of the HCLC all-tournament team were Diana Bruder, Linley Dawson, Claire Duck, Sophia Sparks, and Vianne Koshoffer.
Winning the HCLC Championship gives the Pioneers the automatic qualifying bid for the NCAA Tournament. The NCAA Selection show will be on Monday and livestreamed for our fans on https://team1sports.com/transy/.
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