Souderton & CB West were winners in Wednesday’s second round of the District One 3A Tournament. Wissahickon/Spring-Ford photos courtesy of Kim Supko. Check back for a gallery of photos. All SOS photo galleries for FIELD HOCKEY can be viewed by clicking HERE.
#6 SOUDERTON 3, #11 DOWNINGTOWN EAST 0
Ang Borisow doesn’t put a whole lot of stock in comparisons, so when the Souderton senior heard that Downingtown East jumped out to a 7-0 lead over Colonial Division foe North Penn in a 7-2 win in Monday’s district opener, she was unfazed.
“I know it affects other people when they see stats and stuff,” the senior midfielder said. “I try not to let it get in my head because in the past I’ve seen my teammates or teams that my mom has coached, and they’ll play down to a team if they see they’re really good or they’re not going to win, so I always go in with a clean mind and think we have a chance.
“There’s always a 50-50 chance, no matter what. They could have a bad game, you could have a good game. There’s always a chance you can win, so you go in and take that chance, and you play as hard as you can.”
Borisow certainly did that in Wednesday’s second round contest, scoring a pair of goals and leading the Indians to a win that brought an end to the Cougars’ season.
“We understand that anyone can score,” Borisow said. “Most of the time, it’s not the person that scores on the initial shot. It’s a lot of the tips – it’s just being in the right place at the right time. Realizing that we can trust anyone to be there and tip the ball into the goal is really important to the person taking the shot.”
The Cougars came into Wednesday’s game riding the high of Monday’s rout of North Penn with their sights set on a rematch with archrival Downingtown West in Friday’s quarterfinal round.
“I think they kind of looked past us,” said Souderton coach Sue Casciato, going on to credit her team for its strong showing. “For the first time, I had 11 players on the field who were all working their hardest. I never felt like we got to our potential.
“We always take the field, and the first couple of minutes we gauge – well, how hard do we have to try? I have to give credit to every one of them because they all worked really hard.”
A new twist in Wednesday’s second round contest paid big dividends with a new face in the lineup – sophomore Gianna Radcliffe – playing a key role in the win.
“I took a jayvee player and had her chase Rylee Dennis – their offensive center mid – all over the field,” Casciato said of the Cougars’ standout sophomore who – along with Souderton sophomore Ava Jones – is a member of the Junior US National Indoor Team. “I had an injury on the forward line, and we’re not super deep, so I was like – how do we hurt ourselves by going from four to three forwards?
“I have a girl who’s a real runner – she’s probably the fastest girl on the team. She just started field hockey last year, so her stick skills aren’t quite there yet, but I’m like – how could we take advantage of her aggression and speed, and she had a great game. She occasionally stole the ball, and she actually got involved in our offense a couple of times. I think that did make a difference.”
“She played awesome tonight,” Borisow said of Radcliffe. “She knew how to play that role correctly. She was one of our key players tonight, I think.”
After a quarter and a half of what Casciato called a “transitional game up and down the field,” Borisow scored an unassisted goal midway through the second quarter during play after a corner broke down to put the Indians on top 1-0. They took that lead into halftime.
“I will say that Ang played one of the best games I’ve ever seen her play in her career,” Casciato said.
“We didn’t want the season to end yet, so we came out with a lot of energy,” Borisow said. “We had a discussion beforehand, and we didn’t want to end the season with this team, so we were like, ‘We’re going to win, we want to keep going, we want to keep winning.’ I think that was our mentality for tonight, and it showed on the field.”
With 8:47 remaining in the third period, the Indians tacked on an insurance goal by sophomore Tatum Andrews that was set up by sophomore Ava Jones.
“Tatum scored on a beautiful pass from Ava Jones – she pulled the goalie, and the cage was wide open,” Casciato said. “Tatum – who was on the left post – didn’t miss.”
Borisow scored her second goal with 8:45 remaining in the fourth quarter to put the finishing touches on the win.
“That was also off a corner, but there was a lot of things that happened – there were probably five shots before she put it in,” Casciato said. “She was left of the cage and just had a nice high lift into the corner.
“We had a couple of new corners we worked on yesterday that we put into play today. Even though we didn’t score off of them, we got some nice shots off them, so that was encouraging. This was a team win. Our mantra the last several weeks has been ‘perfect effort,’ and tonight everyone bought into that for the first time.”
The Indians held a decided advantage in shots (13-3) and penalty corners (12-4).
“I’m looking at the stats, and I didn’t realize how dominant we were,” Casciato said. “The first half was fairly close. We were up 1-0 at the end of the half, but the second half we were all around their goal cage. We kept the ball on our right half the whole second half, so that really stopped their offense.”
Despite the outcome, Borisow wasn’t satisfied.
“There’s still areas we can improve on,” the senior midfielder said. “Obviously, in the long run, we would have wanted a few more goals, but I think everyone gave their perfect effort.
“We tried to run after balls even though they might have gone out – we still were able to run for them. Sometimes we even saved them from going out, which – in the end, those are the things that matter. Those are the things that change the game up.
“It was so fun. They were such a good team – it was very controlled, it was a very controlled game, so it was fun hockey, it was good hockey, and I like playing good hockey.”
Souderton (17-2, 15-1 SOL) isn’t through with Downingtown just yet and will face an even bigger challenge in Friday’s quarterfinal round when the Indians travel to third-seeded Downingtown East for a 3 p.m. contest.
“We’re going to have to up the ante a little bit more,” Casciato said.
Downingtown East 0-0-0-0 0
Souderton 0-1-1-1 3
#7 CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 6, #10 NESHAMINY 1
The Bucks had a not-so-little score to settle when they hosted the Redskins in a second round district contest Wednesday.
In the regular season finale for both teams, Neshaminy forced CB West to settle for a 1-1 tie, which meant the Bucks lost out on a chance to share the SOL Colonial crown with a Souderton team they had beaten two days earlier.
“It was a tie, but it felt to all of us like a loss,” West coach David DeAngelis said. “Similar to the match against Souderton earlier in the season (a 4-3 loss), this group of athletes just can’t wait to get out and compete again.
“Neshaminy’s field is grass, and we felt that really neutralized a lot of our skill, so having the ability to be here – all credit to Neshaminy. They’re always tough, but we felt if we played our brand of hockey, which we did tonight, that the outcome would be as it was.”
Memories of that tie were front and center when the Bucks took the field on Wednesday.
“It was upsetting – we were all upset,” West senior captain Kendal Siegle said. “It gave us a reality check that we really have to make sure we’re on our game every game. I’m glad it happened before playoffs. It made us want this more.
“This is our home turf – we weren’t going to let that happen again, so we came out strong and made sure to finish through and not lose the lead this time.”
The Bucks were never in danger of losing the lead, opening up a 2-0 advantage less than five minutes into the contest.
“That really gave us motivation,” said Siegle of scoring a pair early. “But they came back the first game.”
Mimi Duffy scored the game’s first goal with an assist from Aida Ierubino. Then it was Eve Damsker scoring with a Duffy assist, and the Bucks upped their lead to 3-0 when Ierubino scored with an assist from Calista Boos.
The Bucks – who put on a penalty corner clinic in Wednesday’s win – scored their fourth goal midway through the second period after a relentless effort on a corner that featured several shots and was capped with Damsker finding the cage.
“Early in the year, we’ve had a lot of corners with not as much success, but as everyone is, we’re working on them continuously and besides the initial shot, trying to get everybody as active as they can within the circle,” DeAngelis said.
Neshaminy broke West’s four-goal run when Olivia Roscoe scored with an assist from Maddy Shinto, but the Bucks weren’t finished yet, capping sequence of three straight corners with time expired when Siegle scored with a Boos assist on the third for a 5-1 halftime lead.
“We work a lot on corners – they’re not always pretty at practice, but we do pull it together for the games,” Siegle said. “It comes down to everyone – the insert needs to be on, the reception needs to be on, and we have to have people crashing for the tips. Everyone’s doing their job, and it’s working out very well.”
Nina Mayro turned a Siegle pass into the game’s final goal with 11 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
Asked what he was most pleased with in an impressive outing by his squad – DeAngelis didn’t hesitate.
“I’m going to say the tough mental approach that we had, and we stayed very locked in,” the Bucks coach said. “Regardless of how fast it was going up and down or how physical it was getting, they stayed true to our style of play.”
Wednesday’s loss brought an end to a successful season that saw Neshaminy capture its fifth straight division title.
“Tonight’s game didn’t reflect our whole season,” Neshaminy coach Jamie Pinto said. “It wasn’t our best game – the girls were upset with how they played. It’s not the way they wanted to end their season, but it doesn’t take away all the good things they’ve done throughout the season – the good wins they’ve had and the hard work they put into this season.
“I’m proud of way the girls played throughout the season and played together as a team. Tonight just didn’t go the way we wanted it to go, but this doesn’t define us.”
Just one win separates the Bucks from a trip to the state tournament.
“It’s pretty surreal – I’ve never been here before,” Siegle said. “We’re close, we’re working hard – we worked hard all season. I think we deserve it – we just have to make sure we seal it, hopefully on Friday.
“We get another home game. We have a lot of support that comes to these games. We really haven’t in the past, so it’s nice to see everyone come out”
Central Bucks West (17-1-1, 14-1-1 SOL) will host #18 Spring-Ford in a quarterfinal contest Friday. The Rams upset #2 Wissahickon 4-1 in second round action. Neshaminy closed its season with a 15-3-2 record, 13-1-2 SOL.
Neshaminy 0-1-0-0 1
Central Bucks West 3-2-1-0 6
#1 CONESTOGA 6 #17 COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 0
The Golden Hawks saw their season come to an end at the hands of the defending district champions, and the Pioneers looked every bit the part of their top seed, opening up an early lead and earning a convincing win over the visiting Golden Hawks.
“I don’t want this game to define our season,” Rock South Kelly Mason said. “They were a really good team and passed the ball beautifully down the field. They scored early and we weren’t able to recover after that. Regardless of the outcome, our team played a hard game, and it was our first loss in October.
“As a first-year head coach, I couldn’t ask for anything more. We worked hard, we overcame many obstacles and we made it to the second round of playoffs. I’m proud of their progress and the success that we had this season.”
Council Rock South closed out its season with a 12-7-1 (10-5-1 SOL).
#18 SPRING-FORD 4, #2 WISSAHICKON 1
The visiting Rams stunned the second-seeded Trojans, reeling off four unanswered goals after Wissahickon took a 1-0 lead early in the third quarter.
Kayla Pak turned an Ella Hummel pass into a goal just over three minutes into the second half. That goal loomed large after a scoreless first half, but the Rams’ Julia Corropolese (Nina Scott assist) evened the score with 7:12 remaining in the frame. The two teams went into the final quarter deadlocked 1-1.
Maddie Friend scored the go-ahead goal three-and-a-half minutes into the fourth quarter, and it marked the beginning of a 3-0 fourth-quarter tear to close out the game. Friend added a second goal with 6:52 remaining, and Nina Scott’s goal in the final minutes closed out the scoring.
The Trojans held a 9-8 edge in penalty corners.
Wissahickon closed out its season with an 18-1 record (16-0 SOL).
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