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PERKASIE – Jacquie Burke grew up playing lacrosse with many of the players on this year’s Souderton squad.“I learned to play lacrosse at the Harris Camps with these girls,” said the Pennridge senior, whose mother Sherry Burke was a former Souderton assistant.
On Friday night, Burke came back to haunt the Indians.
It was the senior midfielder’s goal after a takeaway on the offensive end that put Pennridge on top 11-9 with 5:37 remaining in regulation. The Rams held on for a scintillating 11-10 win over their archrivals in a game that came down the wire.
Literally.
A wide open Souderton player took a shot that found the net a millisecond after the final second had ticked off the clock.
“That last shot – I was like, ‘Where’s the buzzer?’” Ram goalie Eileen Applegate said.
The buzzer wasn’t important since time had already expired, but what was important – in the Rams’ case – was the performance of Applegate in goal. The senior goalie turned away 15 shots in a stellar outing – many of them in a second half that saw the Rams outscore the Indians 5-4.
“Eileen has really saved us the last couple of games,” said Burke. “Our defense is still kind of coming together, and Eileen has been really solid. Even on the eight-meter shots, she has really improved.”
Offensively, Burke finished the game with three goals and two assists while teammate Jess Roy had four goals and Roxy Brown, three goals and two assists.Souderton was led by the standout five-goal performance of Julia Kudla, who also had one assist. Lindsay Walbrandt had three goals.
Friday’s win was the third one-goal win of the young season for the Rams, who improved to 6-0. Earlier in the week, they edged Council Rock North by an identical 11-10 score.
“I tell them – I lose five years off my life expectancy every game these days,” Pennridge coach Liz Wallace said. “That was the closest – we haven’t had a last-second shot like that before.
“This was a great win. It’s our first league win. We’re just trying to learn off of every one, and I think the girls really do respond well – not just taking the win and running but really taking the win and reflecting on it and seeing how we can get better as a team. These girls are just committed to lacrosse.”
While the Rams have been winning the close ones, the Indians have lost a pair of tightly-contested contests. Earlier this season, the Indians fell to Central Bucks South 7-5 in a game played in steady rain.
“We started off like this last year as well,” coach Nicole Bauer said. “We struggled at the beginning. We lost games by 10 goals.
“This team just needs time to click. We’re getting there. We haven’t had very much time on the field together practicing because it’s been raining so much. Luckily, we’ve had tough competition. We just need to click.”
While it would have been easy for the Indians to suggest that they only needed one more second, Kudla refused to go down that road.
“It shouldn’t have come down to that last shot,” the senior attack player said. “There were a lot of opportunities we had that we didn’t take advantage of to the fullest.“Don’t get me wrong – we had a lot of great transitions and a lot of runs from defense down to offense, but we shouldn’t have let it come to that last shot.”
From the outset, it was obvious this game was going to be a war.
Brown gave the Rams the early lead, but less than a minute later, Kudla scored on an eight-meter shot. Walbrandt and Brown exchanged free position goals, and the teams were deadlocked 2-2 less than four minutes into the game.
The Rams went on top 4-2 after goals by Burke (Brown assist) and Roy, but the Indians came roaring back, using goals by Kudla, Walbrandt and Melinda Wojt to take a 5-4 lead midway through the half.
Burke found Sam Myers for the equalizer at the 9:51 mark, and then Roy and Dana Paulding exchanged goals, sending the teams into halftime deadlocked 6-6.
Souderton goalie Brianna Mandato (seven saves) came up with a big stop on an eight-meter shot early in the second half, and the Rams went on top by one after a Burke goal.
Then came a stretch that set the tone for the second half as Applegate came up some huge saves.
“I struggled the first half – I was thinking too much,” the Rams’ goalie said. “Then Horan (coach Liz Wallace) told me, ‘Stop thinking and play.’“I was really pumped up, and I didn’t want to let the team down. Especially when it gets close, I get really intense about what I’m doing, and I just want to watch the ball. I was lucky to get as many saves as I did.”
When Burke found Brown for a goal, the Rams led 8-6 with 15 minutes remaining, but once again, the Indians had an answer. First it was Walbrandt connecting on an eight-meter shot and then Kudla – after her initial shot was turned away by Applegate – came back with a goal to knot the score at the 11:29 mark.
Roy connected on a free position, and Kudla answered with a goal. Roy scored off the ensuing draw and then Burke – just seconds after taking a shot that was blocked – came up with a takeaway and goal to put the Rams on top 11-9.
“It was at the point where, if you lose the ball, you’re like, ‘This is not going to be on my conscience,’” Burke said. “As a midfielder, you have to really think about what you have to do next if the ball is turned over. I have to learn how to get back on ‘D’ real fast, especially on this big turf (field).
“Our defense really stepped up this game. We’re really starting to come together. In this game, we really gave it our all towards the end when we needed to.”
Kudla scored to trim the lead to one at the 2:36 mark on a come-around goal, but the Indians would not find the net again – until, that is, the final seconds had ticked off the clock.Despite the outcome, the Indians remained optimistic.
“Oh my gosh, this is no downer whatsoever,” Kudla said. “We’re getting stronger from our last two games. This was our first tough game of the season.
“Even though we had that loss to C.B. South, that shouldn’t have been a loss in my eyes. This was good competition for us and a good realization of our games to come. I think it got a lot of people really fired up.”
“That was a high intensity game,” Bauer said. “We have been struggling coming out hard and playing hard the whole game, and we definitely did that.
“Defensively, we played amazing. We had triple teams inside the eight when we were supposed to. We didn’t get called for shooting space. It was just perfect defense all around, and the transition defense helped too.”
The Indians saw their record drop to 0-2 in league play, 3-2 overall.
PENNRIDGE 11, SOUDERTON 10
Souderton 6 4-10
Pennridge 6 5-11
Goals/Assists: Souderton – Julia Kudla 5-1, Lindsay Walbrandt 3-0, Melinda Vojt 1-0, Dana Paulding 1-0. Pennridge – Jess Roy 4-0, Jacquie Burke 3-2, Roxy Brown 3-2, Sam Myers 1-0.
Shots: P-24, S-21
Saves: Brianna Mandato (SA) 7, Eileen Applegate (P) 15.
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