Tues. S.J. girls' roundup: Moorestown earns OT victory

Despite dominating ball possession, Moorestown was forced to play catch-up twice in Tuesday's NJSIAA Central Jersey Group 3 field hockey championship at top-seeded Wall Township.

The second-seeded Quakers finally took their first lead with 4 minutes, 34 seconds left in the second overtime, with Sarah Powell's unassisted goal giving Moorestown a 3-2 victory and the program's first sectional crown since 2007.

"This feels great, really great," Quakers coach Ali Collins said of ending a three-year losing streak against Wall in the group finals - including one in overtime and one in penalty strokes.

"It's been two evenly matched teams fighting it out, and we were tired of being on the losing end," the coach said.

Paige Macrae, whose tireless work kept the Quakers coming back, knocked in a feed from Cally Dougherty to tie the match 51 seconds into the second half. After Wall regained the lead, Mary Flick set up Alexa Massa's goal that pulled Moorestown even with 10:23 to go in regulation.

"We controlled play in the second half, it was just hard to capitalize on the corners," Collins added. "You never want to go to extra frames, but we proved in overtime that we're in great shape. The girls refused to give up."

Laya Mallela made four saves to earn the win for Moorestown, which was outshot 6-5 but enjoyed a 21-5 advantage in penalty corners.

South Jersey Group 3. Fifth-year Kingsway coach Sara Lewis celebrated her first sectional title when the third-seeded Dragons outlasted No. 1 seed Ocean City, 3-1 in penalty strokes.

Rachel Ippolite of Kingsway and the Red Raiders' Liz Cruz each scored twice in regulation.

Ippolite, Emily Lewis and Alexa McIntyre converted in the shootout for Kingsway, while Dragons netminder Kelsey Dominik stopped three strokes.