When the Camden Catholic High School field hockey program won its first state championship in 1985, it had to wait 37 long years until the Irish were back on top. This group only had to wait 12 months.
On Nov. 11, Camden Catholic defeated Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child, 3-1, in the Non-Public state championship at Bordentown High School to win back-to-back state titles for the first time in school history.
“It feels incredible,” senior defender Olivia Stazi said. “It’s a new team this season, but I think everyone has worked so hard, and I think everyone here deserves this.”
It was the third straight trip to the state title game and the third consecutive time seeing Oak Knoll as the final opponent. Oak Knoll won in 2021 before Camden Catholic snagged the win a year later. A familiar opponent did little to settle the nerves before a huge game.
“It was a little nerve-wracking,” senior Erin Houlihan said. “I wanted to go out with the win, obviously. I had faith in my team. I had faith in winning and confidence in us.”
That confidence became a huge factor as Oak Knoll scored first with 10:34 remaining in the second quarter on a goal by Laila Pasic. It took less than six minutes for the confident Irish to find the answer. Junior Isabella Moore took a pass from sophomore Lauren Iaccio and blasted home the equalizer with 4:46 left in the half.
“We talked about it before the game,” said Moore, a University of Virginia commit. “Our coach told us there will be highs and there will be lows, and we knew that would happen. We just knew that even if they scored, we had to keep going and keep pushing and be uplifting as a whole team.”
Camden Catholic wasn’t finished. Just 3:17 later on a penalty corner, Iaccio made another great pass, finding senior Erin Houlihan at the side of the cage for a deflection. It was Houlihan’s third goal of the season and just the fifth of her career. It held up as the game-winner and is now one of the biggest goals in school history.
“I was on post for the corner,” Houlihan said. “I saw the ball coming and I felt the ball hit my stick, and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, the ball went into the net. This is actually happening.’ It felt so incredible as all the practice paid off.”
Riding a momentum swing, the Irish quickly struck again as speedy freshman Sophia Stazi broke loose in the midfield and snapped home her 33rd goal of the season with eight seconds before halftime to double the lead. Despite yielding one goal early, Irish senior goaltender Emily Nicholls, a Rutgers University commit, made eight saves and slammed the door on any comeback attempt.
“After the goal, I was like, ‘That’s not going to happen again,’” Nicholls said with a smile. “Honestly, I was expecting them to score once because they are a very good team, and we weren’t going to go the whole game without them getting at least a few opportunities to score.”
It was obviously a big game, so bigtime pregame traditions kicked in.
“We like to do little presents before big games,” said senior Reagan Stauts, a Temple University commit. “We all throw our sticks in the middle and everyone grabs a random stick. Whoever’s stick you have, you get a present for that teammate and write a nice note. You be … inspiring and positive toward your teammate.”
Those vignettes can be helpful in big moments, especially when the team is down a goal.
In the past four years, Camden Catholic has compiled a 72-8-2 record, which includes a regional championship in a pandemic-shortened 2020 season, three South Jersey titles and a pair of state championships.
“It feels incredible,” said Olivia Stazi, who will join Nicholls at Rutgers next year. “This is the best way to end a great three years here – in the state championship.”
They will be the first senior class to graduate as back-to-back champs in field hockey.
“It’s such a good feeling,” Nicholls said. “There were high expectations and high hopes before the season. I’m really happy and surprised with the way we got it done.”
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