Knights-Rapids field hockey showdown comes early this year

The Thomas Dale field hockey team's path to three consecutive Central Region championships has gone through James River each season.

The Knights defeated the Rapids in the 2006 and 2007 title games and in last year's semifinals.

Because of pre-determined pairings, Thomas Dale and James River play again this year. It just happens to be in today's quarterfinals.

The Knights (13-1-1) are the Central District champions. They play host to the Rapids (13-5) at 4 p.m. James River is the No. 2 team out of the Dominion District for the first time in ages.

Thomas Dale's loss was to James River, 1-0, on Oct. 1. The tie came against Maggie Walker Governor's School on Oct. 20. The Knights dominated Central District opponents again and needed those nondistrict games.

"Those two certainly showed us the things we have to focus on," said Thomas Dale coach Beth Jaeckle. "After the James River game, the players were the most excited I'd seen them. They wanted to play them again."

Thomas Dale, James River and Maggie Walker have been the public school dynamos for years, but all three were faced with developing younger players this season to fill significant holes created by graduation losses.

Maggie Walker suffered its first loss to a Colonial District team (Douglas Freeman) early in the season. It rebounded to win the district regular-season title and the automatic region berth, but the Green Dragons lost to third-seeded Mills Godwin in the district tournament final.

Each of the three perennial powers is clustered in the lower bracket, which means only one can play for the region title and only one can earn a berth in the state Group AAA tournament.

Today's Dale-James River quarterfinal will eliminate one. The winner will face either Maggie Walker or Lee-Davis in Wednesday's semifinals. Maggie Walker is 15-3-1. Lee-Davis (13-5) is the No. 2 team from the Capital District. It won the Capital tourney title.

"The postseason is when it really hits the seniors that they need to step up," Jaeckle said. "Anna Rollins has really stepped it up defensively for us."

One of the four upper-bracket teams will earn its first region title shot and a bid to the state tournament. The hottest two are Dominion champion Cosby (11 victories in a row) and Mills Godwin. The Titans (17-1) play host to Central runner-up Matoaca (6-8), and Mills Godwin (11-6) travels to Capital champ Atlee (15-2-1). Atlee lost to the Eagles Oct. 1 at Godwin.

The semifinals (Wednesday) and Thursday's final are at Clover Hill.

Contact Arthur Utley at (804) 649-6559 or .