By Ed Piper
One of the best stories in San Diego CIF currently is the drama La Jolla High's field hockey has competing against neighbor school Bishop's and its coach, Paula Conway--the former Athletic Director and field hockey coach at La Jolla High.
Things really came to a peak Wed., Oct. 16, when the Vikings, coached by Amanda Combs Warford, played the Knights to a 2-1 sudden-death overtime loss.
Conway, with her smaller physical presence, stood by the Knights' bench during the game, relatively quietly calling out instructions to her team members. Only a short distance away, in front of the Vikings' bench, stood Combs, whom Conway hand-picked years ago to succeed her as the LJHS coach. Amanda is a little bit louder.
The head referee warned both benches more than once about their comments, Bishop's incurring two instances in which it got points that can add up to a silencing. It's all in the judgment of the referees.
Excitement built to a high pitch during the contest, when the Vikes' Allison Hawthorne scored the first goal with 7:31 left in the first quarter to put La Jolla up, 1-0.
Alex Pfister of Bishop's came right back and scored a goal early in the second quarter--with only 28 seconds transpired--to knot the contest at 1-1.
The two teams, ranked one-two in the county (Bishop's first, La Jolla second), played out the rest of regulation time to a fever pitch under that evened-up count.
Warford was overheard telling her squad at the start of the fourth period, "You are the best seven in San Diego," to her offense. In other words, push one over and we'll win it.
But things went to overtime, which is sudden death, and Lola Conway, the coach's daughter, put in a goal from close range with 1:45 left in the 10-minute overtime period, to end it all.
Bishop's won the earlier Western League game between the two teams, 2-0, at home. So the Knights can claim superiority in the head-to-head matchup.
Warford's squad defeated both traditional San Diego powers, Scripps Ranch and Canyon Hills, the Falcons Sept. 12 and Oct. 2, and the Dons Oct. 11. One more match pits the Vikings against Canyon Hills on the latter's new home digs in the final league and regular season game, before CIF playoffs commence.
Paula Conway did not coach after stepping aside at La Jolla, then during COVID restrictions she took the AD position at Bishop's in 2021, leading to this fall's return to sideline coaching with her daughter entering the ninth grade.
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Conway stepped away from coaching at La Jolla High after the 2014 fall season, according to MaxPreps. In 2015 and 2016, Lisa Griffiths held the head coach position for field hockey.
Conway hired Amanda Combs Warford for the 2017 campaign, seven years ago. This is Warford's eighth season at LJHS.
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