Shady Side Academy and the Ellis School were meeting in the WPIAL Class AA field hockey championship game for the third consecutive season last night. The Indians won in 2007 and the Tigers last season. Then the two teams split two meetings during this regular season.

The Indians won this ultimate rubber match.

Gina Cunningham scored 1:18 into the first overtime as Shady Side Academy won its fourth WPIAL title in the past five years with a 2-1 win against Ellis School at Fox Chapel's James Burk Memorial Stadium.

"This is a pretty big deal because last year we were all pretty upset about the loss," Indians senior forward Karen Dawson said. "So it's good to get back on the winning side."

Dawson had a first-half goal and sophomore goalie Erin Gorse was stellar for Shady Side Academy, which won its 10th WPIAL field hockey championship.

The Indians needed Gorse because the Tigers dominated the territorial play for much of the game -- particularly in the second half when they had numerous corners and shots on goal, forcing Gorse to make several quality saves until Emily Russell tied it with 5:25 to play.

"There were so many corners -- I was not liking that -- but she made so many saves that I'm sure many other goalies definitely would not be able to stop," Shady Side Academy coach Erin McConnel said.

"We played well," Ellis coach Genny Kozusko said. "We had so many chances to score but their goalie had a magnificent game and we just couldn't score on her. I think she really was the driving force in this game.

"I thought our transition game was good, I thought our corers were set up well. We just couldn't score."

The Indians advance to the PIAA tournament, where they will play the District 6 or District 5 champion Nov. 10 at a site and time to be determined.

Jules Femiani deflected a Julianna Mackrinos shot past Fox Chapel goalie Madison Wagner with one minute to play in overtime to give Peters Township its first WPIAL field hockey championship, 1-0, in the nightcap last night.

The Indians took possession and broke into the Foxes' zone and Kayla Howard found Mackrinos. Femiani redirected it for the game's only goal after 74 minutes of action -- including 14 of the 15 minutes having elapsed during overtime.

"It's a dream come true for the team," Femiani said. "[Mackrinos] put it in the middle and I just deflected it toward the net, just to throw the goalie off."

Rachel Sunday had the shutout in goal for Peters Township, which had numerous chances in overtime but was continually thwarted by Wagner.

"[Peters Township's players] kept pounding, pounding, and I knew eventually they were going to put it in," Indians coach Kristin Slemmer said.

The Indians, who were undefeated in Class AAA Section 2 play this season, advance to the PIAA playoffs. They will open by hosting State College tomorrow night.

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