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DALLAS – With little more than three minutes left before halftime, Kate Supey went down like a shot.
Just as she was getting ready to take another shot at the goal, an errant ball bounced up and bopped her in the nose, leaving the Lake-Lehman star a little bloodied.
It was the only thing that slowed Supey all night.
The Syracuse-bound senior scored four goals Wednesday and Lilli Stepanski rifled home three more as defending District 2 Class 2A runner-up Lake-Lehman dominated rival Dallas, 7-1 in a high school field hockey season opener at Mountaineer Stadium.
“It is a rivalry, but we knew we wanted to come out our first game and make a statement,” Supey said. “We went all the way to the quarterfinals last year in states.
“We wanted to make a statement.”
Message delivered with a stamp.
Stepanski took a pass from Supey and rifled it into the net little more than seven minutes into the season, getting the Black Knights off to a strong start.
“You just wanted to keep going after that, finish it off,” Supey said. “It was a feeding frenzy.”
The defending Wyoming Valley Conference Division 3 champion Black Knights mostly fed off Supey’s energy.
She scored three goals within an eight-minute span of the first half, turning what had been a tense opening 10 minutes into a lopsided lead for Lehman.
“We just told her she better eat before every game whatever she ate before this one,” Lake-Lehman coach Jean Lipski said. “She was awesome. She’s been a captain for two years. Her leadership really came out tonight.”
Between Supey’s net-smacking shots, Stepanski scored again, helping Lehman take a 5-0 advantage into intermission, then scored her hat trick goal eight minutes into the second half.
“Lilli was injured last year,” Lipski said. “She tried to play through shin splints and ended up with stress fractures. She rehabbed and came back. She’s playing so beautifully. She deserves to have a great game. She certainly moved the ball.”
An inexperienced Dallas team returning just one senior from last season made a move toward progress, getting its lone goal from first-year player Hannah Yanovich with 4:20 to play.
“When we finally got into our game, it was a little too late,” Dallas coach Kylie Fisher said. “We saw some great things from our young players. “
Still, the only real scare for Lehman came when a high shot moved Supey straight to the ground in front of the Dallas net late in the opening half, knocking her from the field for a few minutes.
“I got it right in the nose,” Supey said. “My one teammate was on the post, I was right there to go low to hit it in. It popped up and (smacked her) right in the nose. It didn’t really hurt at first, but they said I was bleeding so I had to come off.”
The sight of their standout scorer on the turf had the Black Knights holding their collective breath.
“You know, first thing you have to do is think of who’s going in,” Lipski said, “and how you’re going to proceed without her. Then she popped right back up.”
Not only did Supey recover quickly enough to get back in the action during the second half, she wound up scoring the game’s final goal with three seconds remaining on the clock.
“I was still trying to play hard and help my team out,” Supey said. “I couldn’t have done it without my team. The passing today was timely. And the energy rubbed off on me. I was all over the place. It was good to make a statement and try to get back to where we were last year.”
Tunkhannock 1, Holy Redeemer 0
Kailey Reposa scored off of a penalty corner which propelled Tunkhannock to a one-goal win over Holy Redeemer. Dana Kuffa made six saves during the contest for the Tigers.
Holy Redeemer outshot Tunkhannock, 11-9 and Goalkeeper Bailey Janowski stopped eight saves in the game.
Crestwood 10, Nanticoke 0
Hannah Ackers scored three times to lead the Comets to the rout.
Abington Heights 3, GAR 0
Schuyler Smith, Olivia Kerrigan and Anna Barrufaldi all scored for Abington.
Lake-Lehman 7, Dallas 1
Lake-Lehman –5`2`7
Dallas –`0`1`1
First Half – 1. LL, Lilli Stepanski (Kate Supey) 6:54; 2. LL, Supey (Sarah Sabaluski) 14:55; 3. LL, Stepanski 17:39; 4. LL, Supey (Maranda Martin) 20:08; LL, Supey 22:12. Second Half – 6. Stepanski 7:50; 7. Hannah Yanovich 25:40; 8. LL, Supey 29:57.
Shots: LL 14; DAL 10. Penalty Corners: LL 8; DAL 5. Saves: LL 8 (Alicia Galasso); DAL 7 (Melinda Ratchford)
Tunkhannock 1, Holy Redeemer 0
Holy Redeemer`0`0`—`0
Tunkhannock`1`0`—`1
First half — 1. TUNK, Kailey Reposa, 4:25.
Shots — HR 11; TUNK 9. Saves — HR 8 (Bailey Janowski); TUNK 6 (Dana Kuffa). Penalty corners — HR 6; TUNK 10.
Crestwood 10, Nanticoke 0
Crestwood – 6`4`-`10
Nanticoke – `0`0`-`0
First Half – 1. CRE, Hannah Ackers (Ashleigh Thomas) 28:47; 2. CRE, Ackers 22:23; 3. CRE, Ackers (Lizzy Dessoye) 14:31; 4. CRE, Dessoye 11:56; 5. CRE, Rachel Speck 4:20; 6. CRE, Ashleigh Thomas (Mackenzie Kile) 2:00. Second Half – 7. CRE, Arden Morgans (Mackenzie Kile) 28:50; 8. CRE, Gwyn Shermanski (Arden Morgans) 22:05; 9. CRE, Lauren Rowski (Kile) 16:36; 10. CRE, Kile (Arden Morgans) 9:26.
Shots: CRE 31; NAN 0; Penalty Corners: CRE 18; Nanticoke 0; Saves: CRE 0 (Marlee Dillon, Kaitlyn Roberts); NAN – 27 (J. Maute 16, Trolter 11)
Abington Heights 3, GAR 0
GAR –0`0` 0
Abington Heights –`2`1`3
First Half – 1. AH, Schuyler Smith 6:59; 2. AH, Olivia Kerrigan 5:07. Second Half – 3. AH, Anna Barrufaldi (Arla Davis) 18:54.
Shots: GAR 11; AH 11; Penalty Corners: GAR 7; AH 6; Saves: GAR 6 (Brittany Vital, Samara McDaniels); AH 8 (Olivia Mendo, Ashlynn Fitzgerald)
