Pine-Richland seniors cherish trip to PIAA field hockey semifinals

By: Shawn Annarelli
Sunday, November 29, 2020 | 11:01 AM

Every sports dynasty has a core molded long before its recognized, a foundation rooted in its relationships and, in Pine-Richland’s case, a “secret sauce.”

For the Rams field hockey team, the foundation stems back to the days that seniors Ella Rottinghaus, Elaina Camino, Natalie Loftus and Jordan Landreneau first took the field together in middle school.

Little did they know, their bond would culminate in back-to-back WPIAL championships and three title wins in four consecutive finals appearances.

“It’s all been so much better than I could have ever imagined,” Loftus said. “It’s shaped all my high school years. I had so much fun, made so many friends and so many memories. It’s priceless.”

They each pointed to their relationships with 2017 seniors like Sarah Metzmaier and Ella’s older sister Molly as the example they would follow throughout their high school career.

“That freshman year kind of set the standard for how the team should be, like how there shouldn’t be a boundary between upperclassmen and lowerclassmen,” Landreneau said. “All of us being on varsity since our freshmen year showed us how to succeed.”

And lastly, they just needed to add coach Donna Stephenson’s secret sauce.

“I always tell my seniors they need to have the secret sauce to succeed,” Stephenson said. “They need every player to buy in to their goals just as much as they do.”

Adding players this season to the varsity team like goalie Sadie Baratka, who had eight shutouts, and transfer Rylie Wollerton, who led the team with single-season record 33 goals, was icing to an already sweet recipe.

“We should be especially proud of how we did it as a team,” Landenreau said. “I couldn’t be more grateful for this team and how far we made it, even in our last game.”

The seniors’ run ended in a 5-0 PIAA semifinals loss in a game they said was one of their best after holding off Central Dauphin, a favorite from the powerhouse programs of eastern Pennsylvania, to a scoreless first half.

The Rams held Central Dauphin, which lost in the finals to Emmaus, to 12 shots on goal and nine corners, a significant improvement over their previous state playoff games, in which they allowed an average of 22 corners and 20 shots on goal.

“I thought there was no way we were going to make it (through the season) with everything going on, so I’m really just thankful we got to finish it out and in a very good way by winning WPIAL and us doing well in our state game,” Ella Rottinghaus said. “I wouldn’t trade the memories I’ve made for anything.”

The Rams’ greatest hits in an undefeated WPIAL season included two wins each over rival North Allegheny, Peters Township and Mt. Lebanon.

Ella Rottinghaus, who finished her career with 42 goals and 41 assists, has signed with Boston University where her sister Molly will be a senior next season. Loftus is considering several schools and teams. Camino and Landreneau will not play field hockey in college.

“We’ve become so close, and that’s why I was sad to see the season end,” Camino said. “I’ll never get to play with them again, but we’ll remain close. Every practice we had and every game we had we laughed, and I didn’t take anything for granted, especially this season. It was the best time.”

Tags: Pine-Richland