As the remnants of hurricane Ophelia blanketed the area, the Pennsbury Falcons bundled up and boarded the bus for their battle against Central Bucks East. The two teams had already faced one another during a preseason scrimmage, but there was no doubt that the Falcons and the Patriots would come out as different versions of themselves on this day a little over a month later. "We have come a long way since August," explains head coach, Traci Curtis. "There has been positive growth across all facets of the field in skill, technique, tactics, strategy, and confidence and we are very proud of that growth. Today's game, despite the loss, was one of our best performances all season because we sustained awesome intensity and skill for a full 60 minutes." The Patriots, fueled by the excitement of their senior night celebrations, found the back of the net six minutes into the first quarter and went ahead 1-0. PHS didn't get rattled. That lead stood through the rest of the quarter as the Falcons tough defense held the Patriots off with authority. "One of our focuses after watching film was adjusting some defensive strategies and it paid off tremendously today. The girls truly listened, learned, and applied. In addition, our goalie, Kayla Shaffer, really worked in tandem with our defensive unit to keep us successful." While Pennsbury held the Patriots to one goal, they used their theme of RAISE THE BAR to tie it up with four minutes left in the second quarter. Riley Borgman took control of a free hit opportunity and crossed the ball beautifully into the circle. Riley Askey was in a great spot on the far post for a picture perfect deflection and the Falcons found themselves neck and neck with CBE. The orange and black went into halftime excited and ready to continue fighting with force and they did exactly that until halfway into the third quarter when East got one by the PHS goalie during a scuffle in front of the cage to take the lead again 2-1. "The opportunities were there for us to take the lead and tie it up again after going down, but we were just coming up a tiny bit short. Our girls were passing beautifully, connecting and working so well together, using the outsides, and getting breakaways, but we just couldn't make it happen. Our defense was keeping us in the game - Riley Henderson had an amazing defensive save that perfectly reflected how much heart she was playing with. Gabby Darling had a defensive save as well - they both are senior captains and set the tone for everyone else stepping up for the entire game," Curtis said with a smile. It remained a 2-1 game through the rest of the third quarter and almost through the entire fourth. The Patriots squeaked one final goal in on a beautiful outside shot to the corner with only 27 seconds left in the game. The final score was 3-1, but the game as a whole was a much closer battle for 60 minutes. Pennsbury even earned a penalty corner with a couple minutes left in the game but unfortunately did not execute and lost the opportunity to even the score. CB East earned 14 penalty corners and had 16 shots on goal - the fact that 3 were what made it onto the scoreboard makes us really happy and proud. We walked away from this one with our heads up and our hearts full. So many pieces worked today and many players rose to the occasion and proved to themselves that they are capable of achieving - Abby Iacona, Ryan Burdette, Mia Popovich, Avalee Shumski, Angelina Kenney, Cailyn Reilly - Confidence is the key for us and tonight helped us in so many ways. Congratulations to the CB East seniors on a great night. Pennsbury will move to the other side of the compass rose and host CB West on Thursday.