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KINGSTON — Sometimes, it takes something extra special to win a game.
Every now and again, it even takes the familiarity of family members.
And Wyoming Valley West leaned on it Monday, when Rina Tsioles fed her sister Foto for the game’s only goal as the Spartans remained unbeaten in league play by edging Lake-Lehman, 1-0 in a key Wyoming Valley Conference field hockey showdown between two teams trying to recover from tough losses.
“Oh yeah, it was telepathic,” Foto Tsioles grinned of the connection from her sister. “I saw her, sent her a message, and she got it, apparently.
“I threw in a wink, I guess.”
With a wink and a smile, Valley West rebounded from a heartbreaking 3-2 loss in overtime Saturday to Donegal, which is ranked as the country’s No. 1 high school team by some high school field hockey polls. The Spartans moved to 7-0 midway through the Wyoming Valley Conference schedule and tied with Wyoming Seminary for first place in the league’s Division 1.
“It definitely inspired us,” Rina Tsioles said of Saturday’s defeat. “They’re nationally-ranked, and we kept with them into overtime. It tells us we can compete with anybody.”
Lake-Lehman didn’t back down.
The Black Knights, last year’s WVC Division 1 and District 2 Class A champ, played a strong second half and wound up generating 12 penalty corners.
But Valley West goaltenders Nikki Hartzel, Sydyney Rusnock and the rest of the Spartans defense fended them all off as Lehman was held without a goal for a second straight game, following Thursday’s 3-0 defeat to Sem.
“It’s hard to score in hockey when you have two good, competitive teams,” said Lake-Lehman coach Jean Lipski, whose team fell to 5-2 after going unbeaten for 21 straight games over at least parts of three consecutive seasons. “To get a goal in is big, to be up one is big.”
Bigger things than athletic ability were in play on the game’s lone goal.
It started when Rina Tsioles, a sophomore, whipped a cross-field pass that found her sister charging into the circle.
“I usually feed the ball into the circle. Usually, she’s just open,” Rina Tsioles said. “Most of the time, I know she’ll be to my left side, right near the goal. I feed it to her, she gets to it.”
Once she did, Foto Tsioles, a senior, slammed a low laser into the cage 14:22 before halftime for the game’s only score.
“It was kind of a breakaway,” Foto Tsioles said. “I got a really good pass. I just lifted it into the corner.”
It’s not the first time the two formed a connection that turned into a goal, and Valley West hopes it won’t be the last.
“Being sisters, they kind of have that instinct about where each other are,” Valley West coach Linda Fithian said. “They’ve done it a lot of times before.”
Prior to the game, with temperatures soaring into the high 80s, officials decided to allow time for a water break during the first half. But it hardly helped make things comfortable for either team.
“The heat was an issue,” Foto Tsioles said, “but that’s not controllable. We tried to block it out from our minds and get through it.”
Mainly, though, the Spartans kept blocking Lehman opportunities. Hartzel and Rusnock combined for five saves, as most of the first half was played in Lehman’s end of the field.
“They played great defense,” Lipski said of the Spartans.
Lehman got more aggressive and created more chances in the second half, but couldn’t cash in with a scoring shot.
“Our girls played a very, very solid second half,” Lipski said. “Playing these tough games, you identify and isolate weaknesses. You could tell, from the beginning of the game to the second half, we isolated weaknesses. I’m proud of them.”
GAR 2,
Meyers 1
Erin Leonard scored the winning goal in the last second of the game as the Grenadiers snapped the WVC’s longest losing streak by winning for the first time in more than two years.
GAR, which started this season by dropping four straight to extend its string of defeats to 26 consecutive games, won for the first time since defeating Berwick, 3-2 on Sept. 21, 2015. At that time, GAR had won its third straight game but lost its last 10 games of the 2015 season, finished 0-12 last year and added four more defeats to open 2017.
The Grenadiers appeared headed for another before Sharleen Peralpa scored the tying goal as GAR rallied back from a 1-0 deficit by scoring twice in under 20 minutes.
Selena Soto scored the lone goal for Meyers and goalie Olivia Jackson had seven saves.
Holy Redeemer 7,
Hanover Area 0
Leah Mullery scored the first three goals of the game and assisted two more scoress, and McKenna Dolan added two goals and one assist as the Royals ran their record to 6-0 and their WVC-best winning streak to 18 consecutive league games over the last two years.
Hanover Area’s Alyssa Wivell had 10 saves.
Coughlin 8,
Lackawanna Trail 0
Jolene Ulichney scored a hat trick and Abie Sorokas scored twice as the Crusaders thumped Trail.
Briannah Lee made four saves to record the shutout. Ali Tedik added a goal and an assist in the victory, while Ulichney also added a pair of assists.
Dallas 5,
Delaware Valley 0
Hannah Yanovich had a hat trick and Melinda Ratchford made 12 saves as the Mountaineers shut out Delaware Valley and rolled to victory.
Crestwood 4,
Hazleton Area 0
Emma Janosczyk scored twice in the first half and Sarah Richards had a goal and an assist in the second as the Comets evened their record at 3-3 with their third consecutive victory.
Eryn Venesky made five saves in goal to preserve the shutout.
Jenna Corra made eight saves for the Cougars.
Wyoming Seminary 12,
Pittston Area 1
Alicia Carr scored five goals and Alex Wesneski finished with two as the Blue Knights moved to 7-0 and remained tied with Wyoming Valley West at the top of the WVC Division 1.
Hannah Maxwell dished out three assists and Carr added two, while Aubrey Mytych and Julia Christian each had a goal and an assist for the Blue Knights.
Nina Cirelli scored for the Patriots with 62 seconds remaining to prevent a shutout.
Honesdale 1,
Abington Heights 0
Sarah Meyer scored the lone goal just under eight minutes into the game and Brianna Potter made it stand up with 11 saves to lift the Hornets.
Ashylynn Fitzgerald made four saves for Abington Heights.
Wyoming Valley West 1, Lake-Lehman 0
Lake-Lehman`0`0`—`0
Valley West`1`0`—`1
First half — 1. WVW, Foto Tsioles (Rina Tsioles), 14:22.
Shots — LL 8; WVW 6. Saves — LL 5 (Alicia Galasso); WVW 8 (Nikki Hartzel 3, Sydney Rusnock 5). Penalty corners — LL 12; WVW 5.
GAR 2, Meyers 1
Meyers`0`1 —`1
GAR`0`2 —`2
Second half — 1. MEY, Selena Soto (Suzie Garowski), 20:09; 2. GAR, Sharleen Peralpa (Alexis Whiting), 5:19; 3. GAR, Erin Leonard (Alanna Germano), 0:01.
Shots — MEY 13; GAR 7. Saves — MEY 5 (Olivia Jackson); GAR 12 (Reilly Holden). Corner kicks — MEY 11; GAR 3.
Holy Redeemer 7, Hanover Area 0
Holy Redeemer`6`1 —`7
Hanover Area`0`0 —`0
First half — 1. HR, Leah Mullery (McKenna Dolan), 28:31; 2. HR, Mullery (Kayla Kruk), 26:57; 3. HR, Mullery (Ava Fino), 24:51; 4. HR, Madison Zulkoski (Kruk), 19:57; 5. HR, McKenna Dolan (Mullery), 16:21; 6. HR, Caron Fahey (Mullery), 7:59. Second half — 6. HR, Dolan (Kruk), 12:06.
Shots — HR 17; HAN 0. Saves — HR 0; HAN 10 (Alyssa Wivell). Corner kicks — HR 5; HAN 0.
Coughlin 8, Lackawanna Trail 0
Lackawanna Trail`0`0`—`0
Coughlin`3`5`—`8
First half — 1. COU, Jolene Ulichney (Ali Tedik), 24:30; 2. COU, Tedik (Kaia Stets), 18:27; 3. COU, Bailey Cunningham (Ulichney), 14:14. Second half — 4. COU, Ulichney, 28:14; 5. COU, Abie Sorokas, 24:35; 6. COU, Hannah Rushkowski (Ulichney), 22:05; 7. COU, Ulichney, 19:34; 8. COU, Sorokas, 10:20.
Shots — LT 4; COU 16. Saves — LT 8 (Sam Baltusaitis 7, Mackenzie Dolittle 1; COU 4 (Briannah Lee). Penalty corners — LT 1; COU 8.
Dallas 5, Delaware Valley 0
Dallas`2`3`—`5
Delaware Valley`0`0`—`0
First half — 1. DAL, Hannah Yanovich, 24:46; 2. DAL, Maddie Pertl, 15:25. Second half — 3. DAL, Sam Banks, 26:07; 4. DAL, Yanovich, 24:06; 5. DAL, Yanovich, 19:48.
Shots — DAL 20; DV 12. Saves — DAL 12 (Melinda Ratchford); DV 15 (Kristen Dunn, Emily Festa). Penalty corners — DAL 7; DV 10.
Crestwood 4, Hazleton Area 0
Crestwood`2`2`—`4
Hazleton Area`0`0`—`0
First half — 1. CRE, Emma Janosczyk, 19:08; 2. CRE, Emma Janosczyk (Chloe Greene), 11:25. Second half — 3. CRE, Sarah Richards (Katie Karpinski), 18:04; 4. CRE, Mackenzie Kile (Richards), 12:01.
Shots — CRE 12; HAZ 5. Saves — CRE 5 (Eryn Venesky; HAZ 8 (Henna Corra). Penalty corners — CRE 13; HAZ 4.
Wyoming Seminary 12, Pittston Area 1
Pittston Area`0`1`—`1
Wyoming Seminary`4`8`—`12
First half — 1. SEM, Alicia Carr (Hannah Maxwell), 21:34; 2. SEM, Carr (Bari Lefkowitz), 20:54; 3. SEM, Alex Wesneski (Carr), 15:38; 4. SEM, Aubrey Mytych (Carr), 9:39. Second half — 5. SEM, Carr (Maxwell), 26:47; 6. SEM, Carr, 26:22; 7. SEM, Carr (Kelsey Reznick), 22:54; 8. SEM, Wesneski, 15:40; 9. SEM, Ava Bufalino (Maxwell), 13:18; 10. SEM, Kaitlyn Bucci (Julia Christian), 10:30; 11. SEM, Christian (Mytych), 6:12; 12. PA, Nina Cirelli, 1:02; 12. SEM, Maxwell, 0:30.
Shots — PA 4; SEM 22. Saves — PA 10 (Jess Zaladonis); SEM 3 (Mia Magnotta 3, Jaryah Patterson 0). Penalty corners — PA 1; SEM 8.
Honesdale 1, Abington Heights 0
Abington Heights`0`0`—`0
Honesdale`1`0`—`1
First half — 1. HON, Sarah Meyer,, 22:08.
Shots — AH 11; HON 5. Saves — AH 4 (Ashlynn Fitzgerald); HON 11 (Brianna Potter). Penalty corners — AH 8; HON 12.
