To view photos of the Wissahickon/Pennsbury contest, visit the photo gallery by clicking on the following link: http://photos.suburbanonesports.com/
Upper Dublin 14, Abington 6
Upper Dublin turned more than a few heads with its convincing 14-6 win over Abington. The Cross sisters – Amy and Kelly – were unstoppable, combining for nine goals and eight assists with Amy scoring five goals while Kelly had four goals and seven assists.
“The two Cross girls are incredible,” Abington coach Julie Martinez said. “And she (Dee Cross) is a great coach.”
Martinez is without her top gun for the season. Lehigh University-bound senior Kate Cooper – a first team all league selection with 83 career goals - went down with a knee injury 10 minutes into her team’s scrimmage against Boyertown.
“Losing Kate Cooper changes the dynamics of the whole entire season,” Martinez said. “She’s such a great kid, and we’re still trying to figure out how to make up for those 80-90 goals.”
Coach Dee Cross lauded the efforts of her players.
“It’s a nice win for us because we have a brand new goalie who is a first-year varsity player,” she said of Wendy Laurent, who turned away eight shots. “Amy and Kelly (Cross) have worked together for two years, and they have practiced all during the off season. They do look for each other.
“Jordan O’Reilly stepped up in the midfield – just helping out in the transition. She did a nice job as a senior, and she definitely helped settle the team down, and we needed that on the field.
“Emily Hitchings had some nice connections, and defensively, Jamie Black and Michele DeVincent are really starting to work together on low ‘D,’ which will really help us.”
Cross acknowledged this was a big win for her squad, which lost several players who opted to not come out for lacrosse this spring.
“I didn’t know what the commitment level of the team was going to be,” she said. “A group of girls worked out all during the offseason together, but there wasn’t a lot.
“For the team to come out in the first game and play together - it shows that they are committed, and they are going to work hard. That was very rewarding to the coaching staff, and that meant a lot. Hopefully, this will get us on the right track, but we don’t take anyone for granted because with a new goalie and with a young defense, every game is going to be a learning experience.”
Despite her team’s big win, Cross is convinced that Abington will be heard from this season.
“There’s no question – by the end of the season, she (Martinez) will have them firing together,” she said. “You can tell they’re still learning, but they never gave up.
“I am never comfortable with any kind of lead knowing Abington and knowing what their teams are capable of. We played to the end.”
Also contributing goals for the Flying Cardinals were O’Reilly, Hitchings, Siobhan Brady, Kathleen Speese and Brooke Callahan. Molly Seefried led the Ghosts with two goals and one assist while Hannah Fitzgerald, Carli Fitzgerald, Courtney Cox and Courtney Enderle each scored single goals.
North Penn 8, Boyertown 7
The Maidens fought off four Boyertown free positions in the final minute of the game to escape with a hard-fought 8-7 win over the visiting Bears. Abbie Hartman scored four goals to lead the Maidens’ attack.
“I think this was huge,” said coach Jami Wilus, whose team trailed 6-5 at the half. “I don’t think we played the perfect game of lacrosse, but just the will and desire of the girls at this point of the season, and to see that and to see them overcome a lot of things that went on the game and continue to fight, I think that says more about the team at this point in the season than catching the ball and putting it in the net.
“We definitely have a lot of things to work on, but they’re fighters, and it showed today. I’m just really proud of the way they played.”
Senior goalie Sarah Prall turned away 16 shots in an impressive varsity debut, but she had plenty of help from her defense in a contest that saw the Bears hold a 25-17 advantage in shots.
“Kaitlin Colbridge had five ground balls,” Wilus said. “She’s so fast that when she turns it on – she was just coming out of the defensive end with a bunch of ground balls, and cohesively as a unit, they all played hard, especially for that last two minutes when the pressure was on and it was really crazy inside the eight-meter.
“There were a lot of young players out there.”
The defense was anchored by returning veterans Colbridge, Hartman and Brittany Hanrahan, but also coming up big were newcomers Tory Brady, Carly Ball, Brenda McDermott and Steph Knauer.
“Just overall, it was the first time you really saw them get together and say, ‘We’re not going to let this game slip away,’” Wilus said.
Danielle Horn and Halie Lear each added a pair of goals for the Maidens while Stacey Pellechia and Rachel Shaw both added an assist.
Council Rock South 10, Central Bucks West 7
Taylor Hurwitz was impenetrable in goal for Rock South, turning away 21 shots in a dazzling effort to lead the Golden Hawks to the 10-7 win.
“She was all over the place,” Rock South coach Kara DiMarco said of her goalie. “She played aggressively in the cage. She was smart on her clears. She just had a great game from start to finish. She didn’t falter once.
“This was a great start. I don’t know how the girls felt about the outlook for the season. We have a lot of new players and a lot of younger and inexperienced players coming together to play on varsity. This was great for the whole team.”
Lea Britton paced the Golden Hawks’ attack with four goals while Leann Hurley contributed the hat trick. Paige Bishop, Christine Besselman and Sarah Brotman each added one goal.
DiMarco acknowledged the standout efforts of Britton and Bessleman, the team’s center and right attack wing.
“I told (Christine Besselman) from the beginning I wanted her to play like a center on defense and attack,” the Golden Hawks’ coach said. “She hustled her butt off the whole game.
“Leann Hurley is a freshman, and she was a key in our transition today. She worked hard on offense as well.”
The Bucks received scoring from six different players. Jane Savard led the way with two goals and one assist while Tori Ueland had one goal and two assists and Steph Cooper, one goal and one assist. Amanda Parker, Jane Marie Campbell and Julie Kopperman each added single goals for the Bucks.
“It was a good game,” West first-year coach Tara Schmucker said. “It was very competitive. Both of us have pretty young teams, and it was close the whole time.
“In the last five minutes, we had a couple of unforced turnovers.”
Schmucker praised the performance of a pair of her midfielders – Cooper and Tara Shugars
“Tara Shugars contributed all over the field, plus she had three assists,” the Bucks’ first-year coach said. “She did a tremendous job.
“Steph Cooper contributed all over the field. Overall, I think we were competitive, and I definitely think it helped that we had people contributing all over the field – not just one or two people.”
West goalie Samantha Hogan turned away seven shots. West held a 28-19 advantage in shots.
Council Rock North 13, Hatboro-Horsham 8
Sophomore Hannah Plappert turned in a stellar five-goal, five-assist effort to lead Council Rock North to a 13-8 win over the Hatters. Lindsay Rheiner added four goals and two assists for the Indians, who also received a pair of goals from Kara Magley and single goals from Liz Cross and Molly Doyle.
“Overall, we have a lot of things to work on, but I was pleased that our defense played much better than they had in our scrimmages,” said Pat Toner, co-coach of the Indians. “They’re coming along.
“Hatboro had some very strong players, and Marie (Schmucker) is a very good coach.”
Lauren Purvis led the Hatters with the hat trick.
Pennridge 13, Perkiomen Valley 6
Pennridge took a 5-3 lead into halftime but blew the game wide open with an 8-3 second-half outburst.
“I liked the way our kids finished the game out,” coach Liz Horan said. “In the first half, we struggled to find our rhythm. The second half we came together. We went out and started playing the way we should have been playing the whole time.”
Julia Colyar led the Rams’ attack with three goals while Jen Moyer, Emily Maher, Jess Roy and Nikki Beck each added two goals. Taylor Dachowski and Dayna Erdman both added single goals.
Horan was pleased with the 10 save effort of senior goalie Jenna Esposito.
“She’s brand new to lacrosse, and she hasn’t had less than a 50-55 percent save percentage in any of our scrimmages,” the Rams’ coach said.
Horan pointed to the performances of Colyar and Moyer as key on offense and Esposito and Erdman as the glue that kept the defense together. Moyer led the team in ground balls.
“We’re hoping to have a good season, and we needed to start out with a win right off the bat,” Horan said.
Wissahickon 16, Pennsbury 4
The Trojans sprinted to an 11-1 halftime lead and never looked back on their way to the big win over the Falcons. Aubrey Bossert led the Trojans with five goals and four assists while twin sister Ashley had four assists and two goals.
“Overall, they were so aggressive and played so well,” coach Jamie Donahue said. “I was so proud of them.”
Interestingly, it was the Falcons that opened up an early 1-0 lead.
“That was a red flag for my team to get clicking,” Donahue said. “They definitely kicked it up. They won the next couple of draws, and they were fighting for ground balls. There was lots of good communication.”
Donahue credited the standout efforts of several players.
“Aubrey Bossert was everywhere,” the Trojans’ coach said. “My assistant coach who was doing the stat sheet said she ran out of space trying to write down all of Aubrey’s stats. We had to start a new chart for her, and you can’t complain about that.
“Jess Scannapieco was awesome in cage, and she has been an inspiration to the defense. Sam Stutman did a good job leading on attack. Angelena Fiorita did a great job on defense, just talking and being at the right place at the right time. Alex Smith stepped up to take the draw, and she hasn’t done that in years, so that was nice to see.
“There’s not one player out on the field who did not get the job done. That energy travels from one player to another, and for that to last a whole game is really nice.”
Scannapieco was credited with 15 saves in goal. In addition to the Bosserts, Sam Stutman (two goals, two assists), Alana Stutman (two goals), Laura Frankenfield (three goals), Alex Smith (one goal), Jackie Hibbs (one goal) and Sam Marino (one assist) also had important contributions.
Jennalise Taylor and Jenna Allen each scored a pair of goals for the Falcons. Katie Hern added a single goal.
Upper Merion 15, Academy of the New Church 12
Kellie Manoppello contributed six goals and two assists and teammate Michelle Bowes added five goals and one assist to lead the Vikings to the hard-fought win. Mel Ryan (3 goals, 2 assists) and Amanda McAteer (one goal) also contributed to the attack.
Downingtown East 16, Central Bucks South 5
The Cougars showed why they are the state’s seventh ranked team in Friday’s 16-5 win over the Titans. The Titans hung with Downingtown East for one half, trailing 4-1 at the intermission.
“We played great the first half,” coach Janique Craig said. “If we can play the entire game like we did the first half, we should do very well this season.”
Casey Haegele led the Titans with two goals and two assists. Kelly Hamilton added a goal and two assists while Maddie Dibrino and Kayla Kenney each added a single goal. Taylor Michener contributed an assist. Goalie Jessica Adcock was credited with 13 saves.
- Log in to post comments
0
