Ruden Sports News

Sofia Fidalgo Schioppa scored two of the most monumental goals in the history of the Staples field hockey program tonight, sparking the Wreckers to their first stand-alone FCIAC championship since 2011 at Fujitani Field.

Fidalgo scored off a penalty corner with 18 seconds left in regulation to force overtime and then found another hole to push the ball into the cage a second time with just over one minute to play in the extra period, giving top-seeded Staples a thrilling 3-2 win over second-seeded Darien.

“I mean, yeah, maybe I got those two final touches, but it was really a team effort throughout,” said Fidalgo, who will take her talents to Princeton upon graduating. “Some of our defenders don’t get that credit because they’re not the ones who put it in the back of the net. They’re not the ones who have that final touch. But from our goalie, our defense, every single player, it’s all a team effort, and so I’m just really proud of every single player. Those last 15 minutes were really high intensity, but we were able to manage our emotions and calm down, especially in overtime, and finish.”

The Staples win also finished Darien’s run of six straight league tournament titles, and gave Coach Ian Tapsall his first outright league championship, as well.

The Wreckers and Blue Wave shared the title in 2019 when the game ended in a tie.

“Seriously, since I’ve been coaching at Staples this is the cherry on the top,” Tapsall said. “It is just wonderful.”

And it was almost snatched away from the Wreckers late in regulation.

That’s when Darien’s Kiley Liddell scored her second goal of the game on a penalty corner with 1:08 to play, giving the Blue Wave a 2-1 lead.

Shannon Bock had inserted the penalty corner to Liddell just outside the top of the circle. Liddell stopped the ball with a short touch that put the ball back into the circle and let loose a blast that deflected off Staples goalie Paige Knesich’s leg and into the cage.

The Wreckers, however, refused to lose and just had one goal in mind over the last 68 seconds of the game: Get the ball in the circle.

“It’s basically like an onside kick in football, right?” Tapsall said. “You’ve got to basically put all the players on one side and hope to get it in the circle, because once you’re in the circle things might happen.”

Sure enough once Staples’ Tyla Ozgen pushed the ball into the circle, the Blue Wave was hit with an infraction, giving the Wreckers a penalty corner with less than 30 seconds to play.

Catherine Cirasuolo inserted the ball on Staples’ 14^th corner of the game, and it found Fildalgo’s stick and suddenly the game was tied with just seconds remaining.

“It was a beautiful insert, and Coach Ian was telling us how we just needed to test the goalie a bit more,” Fidalgo said. “We were kind of passing it around (on earlier corners), but we needed to try and get an actual shot on. So, when I received that, I just thought to shoot it and it ended up going in.”

Blue Wave coach Mo Miniscus said her team never should have been in that situation in the first place.

“We go up 2-1 with one minute to go and they just wheel and deal and we let them draw a corner and get in our circle. That never should happen,” Minicus said. “Then the game would be ours. So, we had a total defensive break with one minute to go, especially after you score, you’re most vulnerable. We needed to be a lot more ready for that and just get a stop on the ball and push it out wide. We didn’t.”

In the extra session, after eight minutes of intense back-and-forth action, Fildalgo picked up a ball near midfield and simply pushed it toward the Darien circle as two Blue Wave players tried desperately to track her down.

Once inside the circle, Fildalgo reared back and threw a reverse stick shot on goal that slid between the legs of Darien goalie Ella Cherenek and into the cage, giving Staples the championship.

“I think as I was dribbling it up, credit to the Darien defenders, I knew that they’re very good players and very composed, so I didn’t want to try and beat them,” Fidalgo said. “I just thought, take the space and test the goalie again, see if I can get that shot off. So, I just kept going straight. They weren’t really giving me the inside, so I just ended up reversing it.”

Earlier in the regular season, Staples bested Darien by a 5-2 score.

While the Wreckers didn’t have such an offensive output this time around it did get on the scoreboard first midway through the second quarter. 

Ozgen went reverse stick on a penalty corner to find the cage, staking Staples to a 1-0 lead that would last into the third quarter.

That’s when Darien found the equalizer. 

Under heavy pressure, a Staples defender stopped the ball from going into the cage with a body part rather than a stick, forcing the official to make a penalty stroke call.

Liddell beat Knesich (5 saves) to tie the game at 1-1 with 9:32 still left to play in the third.

There was plenty of time and action left, however, as the two league powerhouses kept trading blows into overtime.

“I thought it was a helluva game,” Minicus said. “It was a fun game. It was a great game. Again, we go up 2-1 with a minute to go and good for them for answering back, but we never should have let that happen.”

Cherenek finished the night with four saves for Darien.

Tapsall was just happy to see the ball at the end of Fidalgo’s stick at the end.

“There are players on teams in professional sports that you want to get the ball to in times when you need the most,” Tapsall said. “I’ll put her up against anybody. She’s just a wonderful player.”

And thanks to her two goals the Wreckers are once again FCIAC champions.