WORTON — In sports lingo, it’s referred to as “peaking at the right time.”
That is the narrative for Kent County High School’s field hockey team, which enters the Class 1A South Region I tournament tomorrow with well-placed confidence after having won two of its last three games.
KCHS will travel to No. 1 seed Bohemia Manor (10-2) for a 6 p.m. contest.
This will be a rematch of the season opener on Sept. 11 when Bo Manor on its home turf scored with 1 minute, 5 seconds remaining for a 2-1 victory.
That was a month and a half ago, and Kent County is much improved since then.
The expectation is that Bo Manor also has gotten better, but the hope among locals is that KCHS is “more better.”
Kent County defeated North Caroline, 1-0, in the regular-season finale for both schools on Oct. 15.
Senior McKenna Messick scored what turned out to be the winning goal with 12 minutes, 54 seconds remaining in the first half, deflecting a shot from freshman Keelyn Clayton taken from the top of the circle to capitalize on a short corner opportunity.
The Trojans (2-9) launched eight shots in the second quarter, including a flurry of five in a row taken from close range that were turned away.
They finished with a season high of 21 shots.
Goalie Aiyanna Copper was not required to make a save, earning a second shutout in three games.
Playing in front of Copper was a stingy defense led by Tess Fuchs, Taylor Strong and Jane Cleary.
KCHS won for the first time at home in four years, and defeated North Caroline, a larger Class 2A school, for the first time in four years.
It was an emotional day for the Trojans, who celebrated seniors Messick, Fuchs and Grace Gerstung before the game started.
Despite having so much going for them — Senior Day, a home game, ideal weather and lots of fans — the Trojans were slow out of the gate.
In fact, North Caroline (3-9) moved the ball quickly into the scoring circle and earned a penalty corner with less than a minute expired.
The corner did not lead to a shot, but the Trojans were on their heels.
Head coach Susan Wright-Taylor called a timeout with 8:17 remaining in the opening quarter.
“They were very flat, not moving to the ball. They didn’t have that fire in their eyes like they did when they played at St. Michaels,” Wright-Taylor said, referring to the 1-0 victory at St. Michaels on Oct. 9.
“I told them they needed to get it together because this was their game to win,” she said.
Kent County would draw its first corner about two and a half minutes later — after North Caroline had been awarded four corners — as the momentum subtly started to change direction.
Once Messick found the back of the cage, there was no denying the Trojans.
They came close to adding an insurance goal with 3:18 to play before intermission on a nifty Abby Gallo reverse-stick shot that was saved and again with 1:02 remaining in the third quarter on a Clayton shot that was just wide left.
North Caroline had only one shot and one penalty corner in the second half.
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No. 2 seed Elkton (6-6) will host North East of Cecil (3-9) in Thursday’s other region semifinal.
The 1A South Region I championship game is Tuesday, Oct. 28 at the higher seed.
