PW captured a share of the SOL American Conference crown. Check out the recaps for all of Monday’s SOL girls’ lacrosse action.
SOL American Conference
PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 13, SOUDERTON 7
Senior Night was not going according to script for the Colonials early in the first half.
PW started with a quick goal but never really seemed to find a comfort zone as visiting Souderton took it right at the hosts and ripped off four straight goals. Down 4-1 and with her team reeling, Colonials coach Ellen Reilly called a timeout and everything changed.
"It was time for us to wind down and get our thoughts together," PW senior Victoria Betterly said. "They won the coin toss and picked to defend the goal we normally defend first as the one they wanted to defend first, so I think it shook us up a lot. We weren't winning the draws to start either, but she collected our thoughts and got us all in the same page in the timeout."
PW's seniors weren't going to lose on their Senior Night, not with a chance to grab at minimum a share of the SOL American title. Sophie Kolkka was up to the task, hustling nonstop and contributing four goals and four assists to go with a clutch performance off draw controls.
Kolkka, a senior midfielder, scored the team's first two goals and assisted the fourth but felt the most crucial goal of the first half was the one Raquel Baskin scored on Betterly's assist with less than 30 seconds to play. It only got Plymouth Whitemarsh within 6-5, but showed the Colonials things were going their way.
"I think it was a momentum-changer going into the second half," Kolkka said. "Once we scored going into half, we were on the right track."
Lexi Petrakis, who also tallied four goals for PW, tied the game at 6-6 early in the second half after Kolkka forced a turnover and kicked off an 8-0 run by the Colonials to open the latter frame. After the first half timeout, the Colonials went on a 12-3 run to close the game and had a streak of nine straight goals spanning the break that turned the game.
Kolkka scored the go-ahead goal off a feed from Mac Leszczynski, then the two switched roles before a Betterly goal and Kolkka's fourth made it 10-6. Plymouth Whitemarsh kept scoring because it kept getting the ball off draw controls, leading to extended time of possession all through the second half.
"We needed to want it more than them and that's exactly what they did," Reilly said. "Possession was key. They were patient, moved the ball around and went up a couple goals. We know how to possess the ball, so it was good offense."
PW did a good job of keeping the ball away from Souderton. The Indians were led by two goals apiece from Anna Anello and Riley McGowan.
"Souderton came at us though," Reilly said. "They have good players, they're tough and they're just as aggressive as us. I knew it was going to be a tough game."
Kolkka didn't score over the final 12 minutes, but she set up two of Petrakis' goals as the attacker scored the final three markers of the game for the Colonials.
"You can't ask for more than that, she leads our team on both ends," Reilly said of the senior midfielder. "Defensively, she's up pressuring the ball, she looks for the back check, gets it and goes. She's everywhere for us and I'm happy for her. Last year, she had a knee injury and was out after the first game so she deserves all this."
Plymouth Whitemarsh has one SOL game left against Springfield and a win, or a loss by Abington this week, would hand the Colonials an outright conference title.
"Last year we had a lot of injuries and we weren't the team I thought we would be, but they're coming through this year as seniors," Reilly said.
Ali Diamond added a goal and an assist for the Colonials.
Also for the Indians, Carlie Doughty, Liz O’Hara and Sarah Goodwin had one goal each. Doughty and Kate Connolly each had an assist. Juliana Borisow and Kayla Moyer both had one caused turnover. Souderton goalie Lauren Scott was credited with eight saves.
Plymouth Whitemarsh (13-3, 8-0 SOL) will host defending state champion Archbishop Carroll on Wednesday while Souderton (11-5, 6-2) will take on Hatboro-Horsham the same day.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 5-8 13
Souderton 6-1 7
ABINGTON 13, HATBORO-HORSHAM 9
The Ghosts opened up a 10-4 halftime lead and went on to earn the win.
“It was not our best effort today,” coach Mary Liz Klepper said. “We did not take care of the little things in order to keep our lead.
“We were not able to find the back of the net in the first 15 minutes of the second half.”
Jamira Mashore’s six-point night (two goals, four assists) led the Ghosts.
“Jamira Mashore has been solid for us,” Klepper said. “She not only can drive to the cage, but with her composure, she is able to find open cutters.
“We really need to clean up our game before playoffs.”
Abby Thomas scored a team-high five goals. Sam Simon and Taheera Rodgers each added a pair of goals. Rodgers also had an assist.
Ella Hughes (three saves) and Claudia Grossi (five saves) shared time in goal for the Ghosts.
Abington (10-6, 6-1 SOL) will host Quakertown on Wednesday, and Hatboro-Horsham (2-12, 2-5) will travel to Souderton on Wednesday.
Abington 10-3 13
Hatboro-Horsham 4-5 9
UPPER MORELAND 16, CHELTENHAM 3
Eleven players contributed goals in the Golden Bears’ Senior Night win, but that was just a part of the story.“Tonight we celebrated our seniors and to say it was memorable would be an understatement,” coach Kim Frantz said. “When our field lost power halfway through the first half, we scrambled to try to get most of the game in before it got too dark.
“The lights came back on with about 10 minutes left, and our seniors will definitely have great memories from this game. All of our seniors were able to score at least one goal except Cheyanne Grumm our goalie and Jess Flanagan who was on the sideline tonight with a sprained ankle. The stats show it was a full team effort with 11 different players scoring goals, and of our 16 goals, 12 of them were assisted. Now we shift our focus to Wednesday against Wissahickon.”
Contributing two goals each for the Golden Bears were Erin Slater, Moira Olexa, Chloe Leiter, Megan O’Donnell and Cassidy Hirsch. Bryanna Gordon, Emma Meakim, AbbyEllen Wood, Maddie Grace Wood, Zoe Wolfenson and Jess White each had one goal. Meakim added three assists while O’Donnell and Maddie Grace Wood had two each. Gordon, Leiter, Hirsch, Wolfenson and Slater added one each.
For the Lady Panthers, Brianna Young and Corrissa Dorley each had one goal.
The Golden Bears held a 30-6 advantage in shots.
Upper Moreland (11-5, 4-4 SOL) will travel to Wissahickon for a 7 p.m. game Wednesday, and Cheltenham (0-13, 0-8) will host Upper Dublin on Wednesday.
SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP 15, WISSAHICKON 8
Lindsey Smith and Emily Walsh scored five goals each to lead the Spartans to the convincing win. Smith also had four draw controls, five ground balls and one caused turnover while Walsh added two assists, seven draw controls, one ground ball and two caused turnovers. Ellie Hamilton added a hat trick to go along with four draw controls and two caused turnovers, and Sophia Perry had two goals, one assist and one ground ball. Charlotte Henry also had a pair of goals, and Ella Marino had one goal, one assist and three ground balls.
Gracie Woron led the defense with four caused turnovers and one ground ball. Maddie Yoder added one caused turnover. Goalie Annie Ryan recorded seven saves.
Springfield Township (10-6, 4-4 SOL) will host Plymouth Whitemarsh on Wednesday, and Wissahickon (4-11, 2-5) will be on the road at Gwynedd Mercy for a non-league game Wednesday.
Wissahickon 5-3 8
Springfield Township 11-4 15
UPPER DUBLIN 14, QUAKERTOWN 0
The Flying Cardinals opened up an 11-0 halftime lead on their way to the win.
Mack Moore led a balanced attack with three goals and two assists. Adding two goals each were Jenn McCarry, Maddie Templeton and Lindsey Schreiber. McCarry also had an assist. Aly Breslin added one goal and three assists, and contributing one goal each were Charlotte Smith, Caroline Wall, Becky Browndorf and Aidan Hopkins. Browndorf also had five draw controls, and Michelle Wright had three draw controls.
Goalie Sarah Herchenroder was forced to make just two saves in the shutout.
Upper Dublin (11-4, 5-2 SOL) will travel to Cheltenham on Wednesday, and Quakertown (1-14, 1-7) will travel to Abington on Wednesday.
Quakertown 0-0 0
Upper Dublin 11-3 14
SOL National Conference
CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 20, COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 5
The Bucks celebrated Senior Night with a convincing win, opening up a 7-3 halftime lead and never looking back. Senior Finley Ueland put an exclamation mark on the celebration with a glittering 12-point night that included seven goals and five assists.
“It was a nice Senior Night, and the team found some good connections again to gain back some confidence after last week,” said coach Tara Schmucker, whose team was coming off of back-to-back losses.
The Bucks’ coach went on to laud the efforts of her seniors.
“All the seniors did a great job,” Schmucker said. “Finley Ueland had a tremendous 12-point game on attack. Lucy Varner was excellent with defensive rebounds. Eva Altadonna had a great caused turnover and did awesome backing up her defense.
“Liv Fitzgerald had some well-placed hard shots. Dani Dundas did great on the draw and re-defend as well as contributing on attack. Chloe Miller Russo had some great cuts and a beautiful free position goal, and Maddie Maio had four caused turnovers and four draw controls.”
Junior Casey Reichwein earned her career 300th draw control in the win .
“That’s an awesome milestone,” Schmucker said.
In addition to Ueland, Maio had four goals while Fitzgerald added a hat trick. Dundas had two goals and one assist while Varner had a goal and two assists. Reichwein added a goal and an assist while Emma Haring and Miller Russo each had one.
For the Golden Hawks, Claudia Steinmetz had a hat trick. Mikayla Van Aken and Faith Turner each added one goal. Carissa Longmore chipped in an assist.
Rock South goalie Sophia Kutsaya recorded seven saves. West goalie Lauren Ring had one.
Central Bucks West (13-3, 6-1 SOL) will be on the road at Neshaminy on Wednesday, and Council Rock South (5-8, 2-5) will host Central Bucks South on Wednesday.
Council Rock South 3-2 5
Central Bucks West 7-13 20
PENNSBURY 15, NESHAMINY 5
(Submitted by Pennsbury lacrosse)
Katie Denis, Lily Nolan and Annie Price were all smiles and hugs after Monday's Neshaminy-Pennsbury girls' lacrosse game, and so what if they weren't teammates. While it was Senior Day for Neshaminy, the bond between the three of them goes back long before they found themselves on opposites sides in high school.
Denis, Nolan and Price have spent a lot of time together on lacrosse fields in their lives. The Neshaminy-Pennsbury game Monday afternoon was the final time, which made it more emotional than even your average Senior Day.
Denis, from Neshaminy, and Nolan and Price, from Pennsbury, combined for 13 of the 20 goals scored in Pennsbury's 15-5 win Monday. Nolan and Price had five each, while Dennis scored three, including the 200th of her career.
The three were barely bigger than the lacrosse sticks they carried onto the field when they were first teammates. That was nearly a decade ago, when the three were teammates in Lower Bucks Lacrosse, on the third/fourth grade level. They would play together through eighth grade and even beyond, first as teammates with LBL and in the summer with Tri-State and later Ultimate.
Now high school seniors, the three have 488 career varsity goals between them. They will go their separate ways next year, when Denis attends Pitt, Nolan goes to Franklin & Marshall and Price goes to Princeton.
Denis reached the 200 mark with a free position goal with 12:20 to go in the first half, giving the Redskins a 4-3 lead and setting off a huge celebration on the field with her current teammates.
Once play resumed, though, the Falcons took over, running off 11 straight goals to build a 14-4 lead late in the second half. Nolan tied it on one of Emelie Curtis' five assists, and then back-to-back Price goals put Pennsbury up for good.
Price added three assists for an eight-point day. Sarah Mac Davis, another Lower Bucks teammate from the early days, had two for the Falcons, while Nell Webber had two goals and an assist and Brooke Weaver had a goal and three assists. Natalie Smith made 13 saves for Pennsbury.
Kelsey Goetz had the other two Neshaminy goals.
Pennsbury (8-6, 3-4 SOL) will host Pennridge on Wednesday, and Neshaminy (5-9, 0-6) will host Central Bucks West on Wednesday.
CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 13, PENNRIDGE 1
Sparked by a suffocating defensive effort, the visiting Patriots opened up an 8-0 halftime lead en route to the impressive win.
“Tremendous defense kept Pennridge bottled up,” East coach David Schlesinger said. “We were very strong on the draw as well, which allowed us to grind out long possessions and keep the ball out of Pennridge’s hands.
“The team is playing very well right now.”
Anchoring the Patriots’ defense were senior captains Bella Ridolfi and Stephanie Ott as well as senior Julia Gleason and junior Ava Lisle.
Seven players contributed goals for the Patriots, who were led by the three-goal, one-assist efforts of sophomores Riley Forman and Quinn Ferry. Sophomore Kieran Fink (two goals, one assist) and senior Erin McGovern (one goal, two assists) both contributed three-point games. Junior Brigitte Bishop had a pair of goals, and adding a goal and assist were sophomore Katie Powell and senior Mackenzie Boyle.
Freshman goalie Fiona Henderson stopped five of six shots she faced for an .833 save percentage.
Central Bucks East (11-5, 6-1 SOL) will host North Penn on Wednesday, and Pennridge (7-7, 3-4) will be on the road at Pennsbury on Wednesday.
Central Bucks East 8-5 13
Pennridge 0-1 1
NORTH PENN 14, COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 4
The Knights celebrated Senior Night with a convincing win over the visiting Indians.
“It was a nice team effort from one end of the field to the other,” coach Heather Mellow said.
Kelly Macnamara and Heather Shannon both had hat tricks to lead a balanced Knight attack. Macnamara also had one assist. Adding two goals and one assist each were Bri O’Donnell, Mikayla Barrow and Grace Sacchetti. Kristin Varilla and Brooke Millevoi each had one goal. Contributing one assist each were Lily Szilagyi, Casey Cavanaugh and Emily Crawford.
Jillian Barr recorded five saves in goal in the win for the Knights.
North Penn (9-6, 6-1 SOL) will travel to Central Bucks East on Wednesday, and Council Rock North (0-11, 0-7) will be on the road at Gwynedd Mercy on Wednesday for a non-league game.
Council Rock North 1-3 4
North Penn 8-6 14
Non-league
CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 16, WEST CHESTER EAST 10
Anna Green turned in another torrid offensive performance, scoring seven goals and assisting on two others. Kasey Dietzel played the role of distributor, dishing off six assists and scoring four goals in a glittering 10-point game. Francine Richick added five goals to the Titans’ potent attack.
Laura Robinson was credited with 10 saves in goal for the Titans.
Central Bucks South (13-4, 5-2 SOL) will travel to Council Rock South on Wednesday.
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