It all ended so quickly for the Pine Bush field hockey team, and all Jennifer Sorrentino could do was walk toward the bench with her stick over her head.

Just like that, her senior season was over, and she flung her stick toward the Pine Bush bench in anger and sadness and escaped the Rondout Valley High School field as fast as she could.

A second half that had started so promisingly with the Bushmen leading by a goal ended in a tie, and Kingston’s Emily Beichert scored with about 3 minutes remaining in overtime to win the Section 9 Class A championship on Thursday afternoon.

The Tigers will host the winner of Tuesday’s game between the Section 11 and 8 champions on Sunday at Rondout Valley High School in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association regional finals. The winner will move on to the state Final Four on November 12 at Centereach high School in Section 11.

It was the second meeting between the two teams and the only one to produce a victor, as the Bushmen and Tigers met on October 6 at Pine Bush Elementary School in a game that ended in a 1-1 tie.

Pine Bush got on the board first, when with about 10:10 remaining in the second quarter, Sorrentino passed the ball forward to Leah O’Donnell, who pushed the ball into the back of the cage giving the Bushmen a 1-0 lead.
But then as the second half started, Kingston’s attack intensified, and the Bushmen spent most of the final 30 minutes of regulation defending their own cage.

Goalkeeper Grace Grant was able to keep the Tigers out of the cage for the entire third quarter, but the Tigers finally managed to break the ice with 8:28 left in regulation on a penalty corner.

After the ball was put back into play, Grant stopped a shot by Kingston’s Abigail Kresser, but the ricochet found Kingston’s Keeley Savona, who redirected it into the cage to tie the game.

Overtime regulations reduced the players on the field to seven per side, and that seemed to open up the Pine Bush offense. The Bushmen’s best chance to score came with about 3:32 remaining in the game, when Meaghan Wishinski’s shot went wide to the right.

Soon after, Beichert ended the season and the Pine Bush high school careers for nine Pine Bush seniors: Marie Cerniglia, Morgan Colby, Isabella Elias, Megan McCarthy, Ashanti Melendez, Anabelle Rodriguez, Sorrentino, Kayla Suleski and Alina Zanetti.