LARRY HANSON

CATHOLIC HERALD STAFF

Jordan Bonk stepped up for her turn in the fifth (and final) round of the shootout tiebreaker in the Wisconsin High School Field Hockey Association championship game Oct. 19 at Hart Park knowing in less than eight seconds she could make school history.

It took her five seconds.

DSHA won the school’s first field hockey state tournament Oct. 19 at Hart Park with a 2-1 victory over Arrowhead. (Submitted photo)

Bonk took the ball, dribbled right at the Arrowhead goalkeeper and then breezed past her to Bonk’s right and shot the ball home, giving the Dashers a 2-1 shootout victory and the school its first state title in the 16-year history of the program.

“Our team just has a resilience to them,” Loucks said. “While other teams might have had a better player, our team was willing to pass, pass, pass, and created a lot of opportunities for each other out of that.”

The victory capped quite a journey for the Dashers and co-head coach Quinn Loucks, who said the first field hockey game he ever saw, 11 years earlier, was his first game as a coach. Sue Walline is the other co-head coach for the Dashers. It’s the third season the two have shared varsity coaching duties.

“It’s been a really long road,” Loucks said.

In some ways, the championship came out of the blue for DSHA; in others, it wasn’t a huge shocker to people around the program.

The Dashers entered the season-ending tournament as the fourth seed, but were able to defeat fifth-seeded University Lake School (6-0) and first-seeded Brookfield Academy (1-0) before toppling second-seeded Arrowhead. The victory over three-time defending champion Brookfield Academy was a breakthrough for the Dashers, who had lost all three regular-season meetings this year by a combined score of 7-0.

However, the run had been bubbling since the middle of the season, when DSHA, which went 6-6 in the regular season, went on a run to close the regular season on a high note. After starting the season 1-4, the Dashers won five of their final seven matches, including a 1-0 victory over Arrowhead late in the regular season.

“We knew we had some very good players but we had four seniors and a lot of juniors, and then two freshmen,” Loucks said. “We had some early cancellations, so we played a lot of games in the last two weeks of the season, and we kind of just started getting on a roll.”

In the championship match, Arrowhead opened the scoring in the first half, but DSHA came right back three minutes later to knot the score at 1-1. The teams then played a scoreless second half and two scoreless, sudden-death overtimes before the shootout, the first in state championship history.

During the second half, junior goalkeeper Kaitlyn Mulchahy staved off an Arrowhead penalty shot, keeping the dream alive.

“It was never easy; let’s just say that,” Loucks said.

The shootout is structured similar to shootouts in soccer and hockey, where both teams take turns for five rounds and the most made shots wins. The championship shootout was tied at 1-1 when Bonk’s turn came around.

 

DSHA Field Hockey Roster

Co-Coaches: Quinn Loucks, Sue Walline

Jordan Bonk, Mary Margaret Brennan, Kennedy Conklin, Layne Diffley, Mack Doerr, Gracie Hecht, Sofia Hernandez, Maddie Kellner, Ava Konopa, Ashlyn Krogulski, Morgan Mackey, Jessica Mapalo, Maggie McDevitt, Emily Mueller, Kaitlyn Mulcahy, Mary Rose Otten, Miah Otto, Lizzie Reinbold

Manager: Molly Kalmer

Statistician: Alayna Wigchers