A Hydra is a many-headed serpent or monster from Greek mythology that was slain by Hercules. However, facing such a creature is not for the faint of heart as it is said to grow 2 heads where one is removed, making the task more difficult with each step. Josh Kaufman's book, How to Fight a Hydra, is an essential handbook for anyone getting ready to face an ambitious challenge and the Pennsbury Falcon's head coach, Traci Curtis, was drawn to this fable at just the right time. She and her coaching staff used the Hydra story with the team to create the perfect metaphor leading into the final five games of their 2023 season. Their serpent had five heads - Hatboro, Truman, Bensalem, CR South, and CR North. Each of those five games was a head of the Hydra and each one had to be faced individually with courage and confidence. After coming off of an eight game losing streak, the Falcons kicked off the challenge by defeating Hatboro-Horsham and Truman. That put some spark in their fight. Two Hydra heads slain. Next came their victory against Bensalem on senior night to knock off the third head of the serpent. The task became more intense, as expected when battling such a monster, but PHS prevailed over Council Rock South on an exciting Friday afternoon, slaying the fourth head of the Hyrdra and really rattling the beast. Continuing to draw inspiration from the most unconventional source, the Pennsbury Falcons began to feel like Hercules in their battle and come together in the most powerful way - using love, unity, sisterhood, believing, and family as their weapons. Their game against Council Rock North would be the last of the regular season and the final serpent head to be slain to complete the task. PHS lost to CR North the first time they met earlier in the season and there is always the historical rivalry to amp things up. Today was high intensity. Both teams came out with something to prove - PHS wanting to move up in the Patriot Division and North protecting a playoff berth. As North notched the first goal six minutes into the first quarter, Curtis knew it was going to be a long rollercoaster ride kind of night. She was right - twenty seconds later, the Falcons tied it up 1-1 with a convincing goal by Chelsea Todd. With the help of Riley Henderson in the middle distributing the ball to the forwards, right wing, Mia Popovich, fed the circle allowing Todd to clean up. The second quarter was a scoreless back and forth with many moments being won by both defenses including a great defensive save by PHS senior, Gabby Darling. Tied at 1-1, the five minute half time was a much needed breather for both teams. The Falcons had possession to start the third quarter. Gabby Darling, whose talents reach beyond being a defender, used her strong aerial to kick off the offensive push and one minute after the starting whistle Mia Popovich collected a rebound off of the pads and scored what would end up being the winning goal. The remainder of the third quarter was full of energy and excitement end-to-end and then the fourth was another scoreless fifteen minutes of high intensity hockey. CR North earned 7 penalty corners to Pennsbury's 2 and the shots on goal and goalie saves were pretty even. "We really worked on possession skills today and focusing on making decisions that would allow us to keep the ball on offense," explains Curtis. "Although we did not capitalize on earning penalty corners like we wanted to, we were very pleased with their passing, stepping up, and defensive strengths. Our attack created many scoring opportunities and finishing on two of them was enough today, but as we move forward as a team, we need to get better at knowing how to score more goals for sure. Our goalie, Kayla Shaffer, has done an absolutely incredible job this season. She made some key saves tonight to keep us in the game. She rose the the challenge from day one, knowing the role she had to play. It has been a joy to watch her work hard and succeed the way she has. We attribute a lot of her growth to our new goalie coach, Michelle Siegle (Coach Siegs) who has guided Shaffer and our JV goalie for the past two months. North is a great team and they always come out ready to play at a super high level. They have been such a force this season and definitely made us earn every moment today. It's always a great game between us and it's a shame there has to be someone who walks away with the loss, but we make each other better and that helps us all in the end. They kept earning penalty corners in the final quarter all the way to the 2 minute mark and made us work harder than ever to put a complete game together." As the clock ticked down with the Falcons still leading 2-1, the orange and black bench toed the sideline ready to run. The final head of the Hydra was slain giving them the ending they worked for - five wins in a row and sending ripples through the league. The dog pile said it all. "The reward for slaying the Hydra is never the treasure you think it is supposed to be. We are most likely not in playoffs and we aren't winning any championship trophies, but that is not the reward we were seeking. The treasure is the journey we took to get to this point and the multitude of lessons we will walk away with to use in our lives. We did it together - Coaches Lori Riley, Lauren Gerth, Michelle Siegle, and I fell in step beautifully and I cannot thank them enough for their dedication, heart, contributions, and friendship. Because of our connection, there are 38 female athletes in our family who are brave souls, prepared for their next battle and can light their torch with confidence and move forward with pride," says Curtis with a smile. Best of luck to all of the teams making a playoff run. Thank you for making us work harder and be better than we were when we started. Go out and represent! We will be rooting for you.