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Northwest and May romp past Holy Redeemer, 43-7

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Scranton’s Christianson, Crestwood’s DeMarzo claim Cliff Robbins titles

The annals of the most storied field hockey program in the Wyoming Valley Conference, and one of the true giants of Pennsylvania, are overflowing with success stories.A total of 10 trips to the Pennsylvania state finals.Seven PIAA crowns.Three Olympic athletes.One legendary coach.And yet, there is still something missing from Wyoming Seminary&#8217;s illustrious history.The Blue Knights have never played in three straight state title games.That should change this year.&#8220;It&#8217;s kind of in the back of our minds that we can win it again and maybe make history,&#8221; said Sem scoring machine Hannah Maxwell, who&#8217;s ready to open her assault on another 40-goal season when the WVC schedule opens this week. &#8220;It&#8217;s really important to our senior class, especially, since it&#8217;s our last year here. And it&#8217;ll be something the school has never done, playing in a state championship three years in a row. So if we can do it, that would be really awesome.&#8221;USA Field Hockey 2018 Olympians Kelsey Kolojejchick, now coaching at Syracuse, and Cat Sharkey, who is captain of the current USA team, never accomplished that. Neither did Lauren Powley, who started this run of former Seminary stars who played Olympic field hockey when she helped Team USA in the 2008 Beijing Games.All of them won state championships with the Blue Knights. Some other Sem standouts won PIAA titles two years in a row during the 2010 and 2011 seasons. The team&#8217;s current seniors were in the state finals during the last two seasons.Nobody at Sem, or from the Wyoming Valley Conference, has been there back-to-back-to-back.&#8220;Their ultimate goal, all the time, is to win a district championship and go to states,&#8221; Wyoming Seminary coach Karen Klassner said. &#8220;That&#8217;s something that gets more and more difficult every year.&#8221;Yet, Sem seems to make it look easy. Starting with Klassner, the third-winningest coach of all-time in the state. With a deep playoff run, she should celebrate her 700th career victory this season, carrying a 681-171-46 lifetime record through nearly half of a century on Sem&#8217;s sideline.Since the turn of the century, her Blue Knights haven&#8217;t missed more than three consecutive years without playing in a state title game. They lost in 2017, but won the gold again with a gallant performance last year.Then the leaders of that team went to the next level. Classy Kelsey Reznick took her effortless dominance to Duke. Aubrey Mytych is now playhing at Penn State. They battled each other in their collegiate debuts Friday night, leaving the 2019 Blue Knights to do battle without them this season.&#8220;Different,&#8221; high-scoring, hard-shooting Sem senior Alex Wesneski called the void, &#8220;especially on the field &#8212; going from playing with our seniors last year to not having them.&#8221;So the beat may change, because it always does after critical pieces to one season graduate and leave holes to fill for the next.But it always seems to go at Sem, and nothing ever seems to be missing.Wesneski and Maxwell are back, and they&#8217;re bringing freshmen and fellow USA National Team invitees Ella Barbacci and Emma Watchilla with them.&#8220;We don&#8217;t even know what they can do yet,&#8221; Klassner said of her two heavily-hyped newcomers.They sure know what smooth-shooting senior Julia Christian and superb goalie Mia Magnotta &#8212; who allowed only two goals through seven playoff games last season &#8212; can accomplish.When Magnotta and the defense isn&#8217;t snuffing out shots, the Sem&#8217;s offense has an overload of firepower that overwhelms teams at will.&#8220;We plan to,&#8221; Wesneski grinned. &#8220;Obviously that&#8217;s the idea. But it&#8217;s not always going to be easy.&#8221;Oh no?Maxwell scored goal number 40 of her junior year in a 2-0 state championship victory and led the WVC with 22 goals in 13 games. Wesneski was right behind with 21 league goals and piled up 51 points. And Christian showed she&#8217;s capable of rattling off a four-goal game, or two.But it&#8217;s not just that firepower that makes Sem believe it has another state championship shot.&#8220;I think last year, we definitely had a lot of talented players, Maxwell said. &#8220;This year, we have talented players tood. But this year, we have something that was missing in the past, kind of that connection. And I think that&#8217;s more important than even having talent.&#8220;This year, there&#8217;s a gel, sort of, it&#8217;s really helping us.&#8221;As if Wyoming Seminary needed more help.The Blue Knights have an all-star lineup again, a tradition of excellence and a burning desire to remain as the best. It all starts Wednesday, when the WVC season opens with a trip to Abington Heights.As always, where it ends is the main focus for Sem.<div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Paul Sokoloski covers area sports for the Times Leader. You may reach him at 570-991-6392 on Twitter @SokoSports</shirttailMeta></div>

A winning traditionthat just never stops