Central Bucks West & Souderton were winners, advancing to the quarterfinals of the District 1 3A Tournament. Souderton/PW photos provided courtesy of Keith Clemens Photography. CLICK HERE to view Suburban One Sports’ FIELD HOCKEY GALLERIES. (CB West photos courtesy of http://www.margebullock.com)
Class 3A second round
#2 CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 2, #18 OWEN J ROBERTS 1
The Bucks advanced to the district quarterfinals with a hard-fought win over the visiting Wildcats. And although the Bucks led for the better part of the contest, the Wildcats made things interesting when they scored early in the fourth quarter to make it a one-goal game.
“It was definitely tense,” West coach Lori Ierubino said. “They did not back down. Luckily, we’ve had games like this -Souderton the first time we played them, and they came back and tied it. North Penn doesn’t ever go away.
“Kudos to them – they were not going down easy.”
Just over three minutes into the opening quarter, Aida Ierubino put the Bucks on the scoreboard, but they did not score again until late in the second quarter when – during corner play – Zola Morelli followed up a shot by Ierubino, deflecting it into the cage for a goal that turned out to be the game-winner.
The Bucks were once again without Wake Forest commit Calista Boos.
“I hate losing Calista obviously, but I think it’s forced kids to grow – looking for the silver lining,” Ierubino said. “I’m so thankful we got past this game, so we have the opportunity to have her back (next week) and get back to where we were and to see the kids that grew while she was helping us on the sidelines.
“I loved having her on the sidelines, but I like her better on the field. Having their growth and having her back – I’m excited for that.”
The loss of Boos impacted the Bucks’ bench.
“One of the differences between our two teams was – they have a really deep bench, and we don’t,” Ierubino said. “When you get the pressure of a must-win game, sometimes that fatigues you a little bit – just that pressure you put on yourself.
“We have a lot of young kids that are playing more than they were at the beginning of the season. I’m asking people to play in different positions because we don’t have subs, and I put them in positions where they’re maybe not running as much or get a little break positionally. I think my team managed it pretty well.”
The Bucks dominated the game statistically, although that wasn’t reflected in the final score.
Scoring Summary
First quarter
Aida Ierubino (CBW) from Lucy Smith 11:54
Second quarter
Zola Morelli (CBW) 2:20
Third quarter – No score
Fourth quarter
OJR goal 9:53
By the numbers:
Shots: CBW 14, OJR 3, Penalty corners: CBW 5, OJR 2.
Central Bucks West coach Lori Ierubino on the game: “It was a great win. They were a team that was tough, wanting to win and not backing down. We scored early and held that lead. We had opportunities, they had opportunities. It was a great game. You like them, and you like them even better when you win.
“Everybody played together as a team. The communication was positive – urgent but not frantic. It was good for us. We ended with a win, but I think they grew as a team together, winning that together. Sometimes you never know what’s going to happen when the other team has the momentum, but we forged together and we stopped them, which I’m very proud of.”
–Props: “Eve Damsker was a rock star for us. She’s normally a midfielder. I even had her at forward at the start of the year. She’s such an awesome athlete. She’s so grounded and good at organizing and smart. She had an awesome game. She was organizing things, keeping people honest with staying on your marks, cleaning up play by directing people to stop it early.
“Lucy Smith, one of our freshmen – I didn’t know what to expect coming into this must-win game. She had ice in her veins. Of everybody, she seemed the least fazed by the pressure, and I had her everywhere – ‘Luce, I need you here.’ ‘Yes.’ ‘I need you here. ‘Yes.’ She had an awesome game, and she really stepped up when we needed her too.”
Up next: Central Bucks West (17-2, 10-0 SOL) will host #7 Boyertown in a quarterfinal contest Friday at a time to be determined. The winner will earn a state berth while the losing team will remain alive, one of four teams battling for three state berths.
Boyertown handed the Bucks one of their two losses in an early season matchup, earning a 1-0 win.
“I just think we’re a much different team than our very first game of the season,” Ierubino said. “I like that we have the opportunity to play them again. I’m excited for it.”
Owen J Roberts 0-0-0-1 1
Central Bucks West 1-1-0-0 2
#8 SOUDERTON 1, #9 PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 0
In a game where goals were all but impossible to come by for both squads, it came down to a hustle play by senior Gianna Radcliffe. The senior captain intercepted a pass across goal and scored the game’s only goal late in the first half.
“Throughout the night, we’ve kind of been pressuring that (pass across goal),” Radcliffe said. “Normally, they were staying at the top of the circle, and I saw them going deep in their circle, and I just sprinted. I saw my opportunity, and I was like, ‘I know this isn’t going to be easy, and we’re not going to get an easy shot off them.’
“I saw the opportunity, and I took it. I saw that she took a little bit to get the ball and go to the side. It took me a few tries because their goalie went down right away. She’s a really talented goalie. Coach has been telling me all year, ‘Pull back and shoot, pull back and shoot,’ and it just came to me to pull back and shoot.”
It was exactly the kind of play coach Sue Casciato knew her team would need if it wanted to score and keep its season alive.
“That was just hard work,” the Indians’ coach said. “She’s definitely our hardest worker on the forward line, and I said, ‘We need to get easy goals’ because we struggled to score.
“So, I said, ‘We need to steal the ball on their end and just get a cheap goal every now and then,’ and we did.”
The Indians controlled play in the second half but could not capitalize, thanks in no small part to the effort of PW goalie Carly Spinner and the Colonials’ defense, which negated a Souderton advantage in shots (15-1) and corners (12-3).
Scoring Summary
Second quarter
Gianna Radcliffe (S) 1:41
Souderton coach Sue Casciato:
–On getting defensive: “Our defense is really good. Hannah Cornes had a great game. She plays left back, but every time (anybody) got beat, Hannah got back there. Hannah Fuente also played really well on our defense. She’s really tiny, really fast. She was playing right mid, and she was getting balls in the middle of the field, she was getting back on defense. Our strength has always been our defense and our hustle.”
Senior Gianna Raadcliffe on the win and moving on: “Oh my gosh, it was amazing, especially because I’m not continuing my field hockey career, and this is my last time playing with all my best friends, so I was telling myself, ‘This is it. Every effort you’ve got, everything in you to get the ball.’”
–On the Indians’ defense: “Our defense has stepped up for us every single game, especially this game. They rarely let them in our circle. Especially Hannah Cornes sprinting her butt off to come and attack those balls. She was coming out of nowhere to get those balls. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ She did amazing, and the same thing with Ava (Jones) and Charlotte (McNeill). They’ve always been there for us and defended our circle.”
Souderton junior Hannah Cornes on the win: “It’s so exciting. Coming into this game, we had a good mindset, and we knew they were going to be a tough team because we were ranked eighth and they were ranked ninth. We got ready in the locker room, we came in and we were ready to fight because we wanted to play more games. We know even if we lose on Friday – we’re still going, and we still have a chance for states, which is really exciting.”
–On playing defense: “We all try to step to the ball because the more people step to the ball – the less chance they have of keeping it. We realized if we wanted to win this game, we had to step it up. Our passes were a little weak, and we realized if we really wanted to keep it 1-0 or get more goals, we had to work harder.”
PW coach Charise Halteman on the game: “It’s unfortunate. We made one mistake that killed us (on the game’s only goal). I think that gave them a little more confidence to press us harder, so that made our job harder coming out of the backfield.
“I also felt like we lost some opportunities because I felt like our advantage was taken away from us – I felt like our breakaways were kind of stopped, and we lost some of our momentum in some of those moments that could have given us a little more there, but that’s how it goes sometimes.”
–The Indians’ defense: “I think one of the things we haven’t really seen this season is – once we get the ball out to the sideline, they kind of swarm with a group of three or four. It makes it hard for that player to get out. Their head has to go down to protect the ball, and it makes it hard to find an outlet pass out of that. That’s part of their defense that’s advantageous to them.
“I thought the first half they were planting defensively, and we were earning calls and getting around them. They kind of figured out how they were going to play us in the second half, and obviously, they had the one-goal buffer for them to press like that.”
–Carly Spinner: A rock in goal: “She was under a lot of pressure. It got hectic in there in the second half, but she remained composed and kept us in the game. A 1-0 game is always surmountable, and she kept us in there in the second half, which was good.”
–A bright future: “They’re just a really great group to coach and work with. We have no issues off the field, so we really get to come onto the field and just focus on playing the game. They love being together, they love to be coached. Especially we have a group coming back – they want to get better, they want to be coached, and they want to be coached hard, so that’s fun as a coach to see that.”
–Senior tribute: “Of course, my seniors were a great group of leaders. We had eight, and not all of them saw a ton of time on the field, but they just had positive attitudes throughout the season. They set an example of what it means to work through a whole season and take care of all the little responsibilities, so I’m really grateful to that group for setting the tone and being good role models.”
Up next: Souderton (15-4, 7-3 SOL)) will travel to top-seeded Villa Maria Academy for a District 1 3A quarterfinal game Friday. The defending 2A state champions defeated North Penn 10-0 in a second round game Wednesday.
“We’re not expected to win, and I told them – ‘We have nothing to lose, just go have fun,’” Casciato said.
Plymouth Whitemarsh closed out its successful season with a share of the SOL Liberty Division title with a record of 8-2. The Colonials were 14-5 overall.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 0-0-0-0 0
Souderton 0-1-0-0 1
#7 BOYERTOWN 5, #10 NESHAMINY 1
The Bears opened up a 2-0 halftime lead and led 3-0 when Ava Arbakov scored the Redskins’ lone goal in the third quarter. The Bears – led by the four-goal effort of Emily Ulrich – answered with a pair of goals and took a 5-1 lead after three quarters on their way to the win by that score.
Neshaminy closed out its season with another SOL Patriot Division title with a perfect 10-0 record. The Redskins were 15-5 overall.
Neshaminy 0-0-1-0 1
Boyertown 1-1-3-0 5
#6 AVON GROVE 1, #11 QUAKERTOWN 0
The Panthers lost a heartbreaker, battling the sixth-seeded Red Devils to a scoreless tie until just over a minute remained in regulation.
“This game, by far, was the best game we have played all season,” Quakertown coach MacKenzie Moser said. “Connection, passing, pressuring, marking, stepping to (the ball)… everything was there tonight.
“We were neck and neck the entire game, giving for lots of offensive and defensive plays. We stopped 14 corners, making me give the shoutout to Sunday Draper, Katelyn Landis, Ember Retter, Penny Longacre and goalie Darcy Baxter for being a powerful force back there and getting that ball out.
“This whole team deserves so much credit as they worked incredibly hard and have nothing to hang their heads about. The game-winning goal went in with a little over a minute left on the clock. Even with that goal, we continued to play our hearts out. I want to applaud each and every one of my players for showing grit and hard work this game, as this was displayed every minute of the game.”
Quakertown closed out its season with a share of the SOL Liberty Division title with an 8-2 record and a 16-4 record overall.
Quakertown 0-0-0-0 0
Avon Grove 0-0-0-1 1
#1 VILLA MARIA ACADEMY 10, NORTH PENN 0
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