Ponciroli’s game-winner punctuates dominant second half as Villa Duchesne defeats John Burroughs to earn 15th state championship

MARYLAND HEIGHTS –Hannah Ponciroli plays in the defensive midfield for her club field hockey team to utilize her exceptional anticipation, positioning and tackling skills.

But as a freshman at Villa Duchesne, she transformed into an offensive force.

“We moved her up to forward because we needed speed up there, and she is so quick,” Villa Duchesne coach Kate Graft said. “She creates opportunities and she’s a great goal scorer. She has a lot of different facets to her game.”

Ponciroli, who seemed to be all over the field Saturday, was in the perfect spot to score the championship-winning goal as Villa Duchesne defeated John Burroughs 1-0 in the Midwest Field Hockey Tournament title game at SportPort International.

Villa Duchesne (24-2), which won its fourth title in the last five seasons, captured its state-record 15^th championship since the Midwest Tournament began in 1978.

Ponciroli showed no trace of freshman jitters, creating a pair of excellent scoring chances in the opening minutes. She delivered a backhand pass that skipped tantalizingly through the circle, and after an interception, found junior Finley Meek for a shot that nearly lit the scoreboard for the Saints.

“The best thing about (Ponciroli) is she tackles back. To have a forward who knows defense is great,” Graft said. “She doesn’t play like a freshman.”

John Burroughs (17-3) looked to move the ball side-to-side, using the whole width of the field before zipping it up the sideline, and found success on the right side with the combination passing of juniors Jane Dunaway, Katy Chapman and Kate Logsdon.

Both Chapman and Logsdon earned penalty corners in the first half, but Villa Duchesne goalie Izzy Miller made two of her six saves on a pair of strong shots from senior Sarah Ding to keep the game scoreless at halftime.

In the second half, Ponciroli, Meek and sophomore Trudy Redmond created a forward wall that often proved impenetrable for John Burroughs, with sophomore Lauren Pelikan, junior Margot Leary and senior Katie Crump lurking in the midfield in anticipation of the next Bombers’ pass.

“We needed to set the pace by getting to those passes, intercepting them and not playing on our back foot,” Leary said. “As the game went on, we got a sense of what was going to happen, how to position our bodies and how to work together as a unit.”   

Villa Duchesne created a bevy of turnovers, applied immense offensive pressure and produced four corner opportunities in the opening four minutes of the third quarter.

On the fourth corner, Crump blasted a shot that hit the foot of a Burroughs defender, but the play remained alive and Crump took another swing. Her follow-up shot struck the pad of Bombers’ goalie Tessa Zwicker and caromed to Ponciroli, who turned and aimed for the inside of the right post.    

“It bounced off the goalie’s pads and I just tried to use all my force to put that ball in the corner,” Ponciroli said.

Ponciroli found the back of the cage, and she and her teammates leapt in the air as one in celebration.

Still 25 minutes remained, but the Saints did not retreat into a defensive shell in hopes of protecting the lead. They did the exact opposite.

Villa Duchesne earned eight penalty corners in the third quarter alone, with the speed and skill of Ponciroli producing the final two. The Saints earned six more corners in the fourth quarter for a total of 16 for the game.

“We were under a significant amount of pressure in the second half, and having to sustain that wave of corners is tough for any team,” John Burroughs coach Meridith Thorpe said. “I have all the confidence in the world in my defensive penalty corner unit, but to have to withstand that many corners can take its toll.”

John Burroughs began to escape the jaws of the Villa Duchesne pressure early in the fourth quarter. On a Bombers corner opportunity, Ding unleashed a pass that senior Sophie Buchowski deflected inches wide. Emma Zhang and Reese Rafferty also found room in front of the cage but could not produce the equalizer due to the quick reflexes of Miller.

In the final moments, Pelikan intercepted a pair of long passes and sent them back into the Villa offensive zone.

The clock ticked away and the celebration ensued.

For Villa Duchesne, the win snapped a three-game losing streak to John Burroughs, including a 3-0 loss on Sept. 18 in the only game the Saints were held without a goal.

“We were still a pretty fresh team and still trying to figure out how to play with each other,” Leary said of that loss. “This past month-and-a-half, we’ve really focused on being able to trust each other and depend on each other’s ability, and it really paid off.”

Crump, a senior captain, highlighted the willingness of each player to accept and excel in their roles.

“Every single person knows they can make an impact, and they do make an impact, no matter how many minutes they play, how many goals they score or how many defensive saves they make. Everyone has a role and everyone executed it today,” Crump said.

And nobody exemplified that more than Ponciroli, who played as a defender for the final eight minutes in the Saints’ semifinal victory over St. Joe’s on Wednesday before making her mark on offense with her 20^th and most memorable goal of her short varsity career on Saturday.

“We all worked so hard to get this win,” Ponciroli said. “It was so fun.”  

Photo gallery at https://benvessa.smugmug.com/Field-Hockey/2024-Season/Villa-Duchesne-vs-John-Burroughs-state-championship-11-2-24