Lafayette Lancers Reach Midwest Field Hockey Championship Finals

The weather conditions were frightful Thursday. On a dreary, cold, rainy November afternoon, Lancers cashed in four first half goals, and went on to beat host MICDS 4-0 in the semifinals of the 2011 Midwest Field Hockey championships.

Kate O'Connell's Lafayette 21-1 team has won a berth in the championship game, at 2 p.m. Saturday at John Burroughs against either Cor Jesu Academy or Nerinx Hall.

Kate Barber, a Lafayette junior, a human scoring machine drilled the ball past Rams' goal keeper Anna Clarkson three times. Barber has 26 goals and 87 points to lead all St. Louis area scorers.

The first goal came just 1 minutes and 58 seconds into the game. Danielle Biernacki followed with the second goal at 12:06 and then Barber scored goals two and three on the afternoon on corner shots with 1:28 remaining and just two seconds left in the first half.

The two teams played scoreless through the final 30 minutes. Though the game was played on artificial turf, the weather conditions were not conducive to good play or many scoring opportunities.

Reserves huddled under heavy blankets to ward off the rain and the cold.

Barber got good support from her team mates. Biernacki, Kelsey Clayman, Ashton Licvar and Corrine Murphy were constantly buzzing around the goal mouth, looking for more goals.

The game ended in almost total darkness. That didn't deter the Lancers and their closest friends and fans from celebrating on the field at the conclusion of the game.

The only public schools to win the title were Parkway North in 1981 and Lindbergh in 1980.