Wissahickon edged Neshaminy in a battle of SOL teams heading to the District One 3A Tournament.
Non-league
WISSAHICKON 2, NESHAMINY 1
When Lucy Gil tacked three non-league games onto her team’s schedule – all three against district-bound teams, the Wissahickon coach said that, more than anything, she wanted her players to have fun.
So far, the Trojans are having a whole lot of fun. Twenty-four hours after edging Souderton 1-0 in overtime, Wissahickon used a pair of Aiden Drabick goals to defeat visiting Neshaminy.
“I’m happy that we’re progressing,” Gil said. “Every game it seems we’re playing a little bit better and more and more like a team, so I’m glad we have these extra games. I think it’s good for us.
“Both defensively and putting it in the net – both ways they’re really coming up strong. They should be super proud of themselves – I am. Now we have North Penn tomorrow, and that’s going to be tough, but any good game is better than practice and doing drills.”
The loss was the first of the season for the Redskins, but according to coach Jamie Pinto, that is not necessarily a bad thing.
“We needed to play a team like Wissahickon to prepare for districts,” the Redskins’ coach said. “We’ve had our moments. Every team we’ve played has played hard against us, but being on the turf, playing a faster paced team, a little more skilled team – this is what we needed to prepare for districts.
“All the teams that are going to make it (to districts) are very similar in that aspect. Even though we lost – and we don’t like to lose, we played hard, we’re going to learn from it, and we’re going to work hard to be prepared for Monday from it. This really showed the girls what it’s going to be like – this is playoff hockey.”
The Trojans got on the scoreboard early, finding the cage less than two minutes into the game on a goal by Aiden Drabick with an assist from Ella Hummel. A day earlier, Drabick set up Hummel’s game-winner. On Tuesday, Hummel returned the favor.
The Redskins answered with a goal in the second quarter. Sophomore Aralyn Hackney – on the heels of Monday’s hat trick – scored with an assist from Kaelen Davies, knotting the score 1-1.
“It was a battle – we kept going back and forth, back and forth,” Gil said. “They play that long ball, so we kept having to go all the way back and bringing it all the way forward, and they had to do the same.
Drabick scored the game-winner with 2:06 remaining in regulation.
“Caroline Kirkpatrick, my left midfielder, passed the ball to Aiden deep, and she just dribbled it to the top of the circle and hit a ball so hard that it actually ricocheted off the goalie into the goal cage,” Gil said. “It was a pretty nice goal.
“They pushed and pushed and pushed, and it was all trying to stay in front of the ball.”
The Trojans’ coach lauded the efforts of several players in the win, including sweeper Julia Schools.
“If you just saw that Alli (Wood) had five saves, you would say, ‘Oh, they really didn’t get down there very much,’ but they had 10 corners, and it really was Julia stopping everything before it got to Alli,” Gil said. “She did a marvelous job.
“And, of course, Aiden, who is everywhere on the field. She does a remarkable job of keeping us in every single game. She’s always putting pressure on the ball, she’s always coming back on defense, she’s always poking and making trouble for people and not letting the really good players on the other team have a really good game. She has a ton of stamina – she goes all the way up and all the way back. I know center mids are supposed to do that, but a lot of them stop running after a while, but she never does.”
Pinto saw a lot of things she liked in the loss.
“Wissahickon was fast and they were skilled,” the Neshaminy coach said. “This is the first time we were actually down. We came back, and they scored in the last two minutes. I think after the first quarter we kind of figured it out. We picked it up.
“The center of our field played well. From center forward to goalie – Colette Schardt played well, Madi Neiman behind her, Dylan Beegal played well, Megan Hollenbaugh in the back, and our goalie, Riley Wert, played well. The center of the field – after the first quarter – really stepped it up and played well. They were aggressive. We just have to pick it up all around them.”
Wissahickon’s Alli Wood was credited with five saves in the win. Wert recorded six saves for the Redskins.
Wissahickon (11-3, 8-3 SOL) will travel to North Penn for a non-league game Wednesday. Neshaminy (10-1, 8-0) will return to action Monday in the opening round of the District One 3A Tournament.
Neshaminy 0-1-0-0 1
Wissahickon 1-0-0-1 2
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