Field Hockey: Kirkreit propels Edison to final

Gretchen Kirkreit was like the kid in class who knows the answer and aggressively waives her arm and hand to compel the teacher to call upon her.

Fortunately for the Edison High field hockey team on Thursday, Kirkreit got the call.

The junior defender, who had never taken a penalty stroke in competition, buried both attempts, including the Chargers’ first try in the sudden-victory round, to allow them to advance past host Huntington Beach in the semifinals of the Tournament of Champions.

Edison (10-3-4), which finished third in the Sunset League behind the Oilers (17-1-3), moves to Saturday’s title game at 1 p.m. at Westminster High, in the equivalent of the sport’s CIF playoffs.

Edison will meet Newport Harbor, which upset Harvard-Westlake, 2-1.

Edison and Huntington Beach, who split their regular-season meetings, were tied, 2-2, after 60 minutes of regulation. A 10-minute, seven-on-seven overtime failed to settle things, so the teams went to penalty strokes, in which each team was granted five attempts to try to break the deadlock.

Both teams converted twice in the first round of strokes, to bring up a sudden-victory round in which both teams would alternate taking shots from the seven-yard mark, until one team won a round.

“She wanted it,” Edison Coach Rebecca Antongiorgi said of Kirkreit. “I was looking around and she couldn’t stop moving. She had so much energy. I said ‘Do you want this?’ and she said yes. It was about confidence and people not shrinking in the moment. She wanted it and she came through.”

Kirkreit went second in the five-player penalty stroke round, tucking her shot inside the left goalpost to produce the first of two successful tries for the Chargers.

Senior co-captain Jordan Marcy, also a defender, converted Edison’s fourth try and junior goalie Kaylie Thompson made three saves to maintain the deadlock.

Thompson saved the first try by Huntington Beach in the second round of penalty strokes and Kirkreit once again pushed one into the left side of the goal to spark a wild celebration by the Chargers.

“It was really whoever wanted to take it and those kinds of things really pump me up,” Kirkreit said of her willingness to step up with the season on the line. “I haven’t taken a penalty stroke in a game before, but I practice them all the time. And I always used to take penalty kicks in soccer. To be the one to win the game like that with all my team’s support is a really fun thing.”

Edison overcame two deficits during regulation, as Huntington senior forward Sydney Beale opened the scoring in the fifth minute, and Oilers’ sophomore Elle Saccacio pushed in an assist from junior Lindsey Kenefick to break a 1-1 tie midway through the first half.

Edison, which defeated Huntington Beach in the last two T of C finals, knotted the score when junior forward Jayden McKeague shoveled in a pass in front by senior midfielder Hailey Babbitt with 17:27 left in regulation.

Babbitt scored the Chargers’ first goal in the seventh minute on a long shot after junior forward Megan Blatt initiated a penalty corner by passing to Babbitt at the top of the 16-yard box.

After the Oilers’ first two penalty stroke attempts were stopped by Thompson, they received back-to-back conversions by junior Carly Convery and Beale.

Huntington Beach sophomore goalie Nicole Cramer made three saves on the first five Edison strokes.

Senior Lilly Mattes earned the assist on the hosts’ first goal.

“That’s just a hard way to lose,” said Oilers Coach Cathy Van Doornum, whose team will play for third place on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Westminster High. “We played well and they played well. It was just a good game.”