Council Rock North & Plymouth Whitemarsh were winners in overtime in SOL field hockey action Saturday.
COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 2, SPRING-FORD 1 (OT)
The Indians were looking to add a big win to their resume. They got just that on Saturday, edging a Rams’ squad that is in the top 10 in the District One 6A power rankings. The loss was just the second of the season for the Rams, who entered the game with a 7-1 record.
Saturday’s win came on the heels of a spirited 3-1 loss to sister school CR South on Friday.
“I think yesterday lit a fire in us,” coach Heather Whalin said of the South loss. “We needed one of those big wins to kind of set us on the right path.”
The Indians won it at the 10:18 mark of overtime when sophomore Riley Clark turned a Rebecca Ripans pass into the dramatic game-winner.
“We went into overtime and said, ‘Let’s try and shut it down quickly,’” Whalin said. “Rebecca Ripans had a great overtime. She took the ball down on the right, dumped it in, and Riley Clark is so tall and lanky and she just sort of dove over the goalie and put it in.”
Earlier, Skyler Bayard spotted the Indians a 1-0 lead with a goal midway through the first half. The Rams answered with a goal to knot the score 1-1 at halftime. That tie stood until Clark’s game-winner.
“We played as a complete team,” Whalin said. “We were always looking for Scotty (Sarah Scott) to carry us, and today it was a whole team effort from the back to the front.”
Kyra Deehr-Lewis turned in a glittering 13-save effort in goal for the Indians.
“Kyra had an outstanding game,” Whalen said. “She had 13 saves, and we did really well on corners today. They had 15 corners, and they only scored one goal on a corner.”
Defending on those corners were Scott, Bella Carpentier, Lindsey O’Brien and Sarah Everett.
“Sarah Everett was huge today, she was a monster,” Whalin said. “A lot of our midfield breakdowns – she stopped a couple of free girls coming down, especially Katelyn Crist, who’s fantastic.”
Council Rock North (6-4, 3-3 SOL) will host Pennsbury on Monday.
Council Rock North 1-0-1 2
Spring-Ford 1-0-0 1
PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 4, HAVERFORD 3 (OT)
Kaleigh Missimer scored early in overtime, propelling the Colonials to the dramatic win.
For a Colonial squad that hadn’t been tested this season, Saturday’s non-league game may have been exactly what they needed.
“I feel like I was saying a lot of the same things I always say on the sidelines, but I think it becomes more real to them when there’s consequences for their mistakes or recognizing – passing it right was a better decision even though you got away with doing other things in the past,” coach Charise Young said. “I think it was a great learning opportunity between playing down a player, getting some overtime in today, being able to respond when the other team gains control of the game for a while – all of those things were really necessary and learning steps for us to move forward.”
The Colonials took a 1-0 lead early in the first half off an unassisted goal by Ava Borkowski. Missimer scored 30 seconds into the second half to put the Colonials on top 2-0 only to watch the Fords reel off three unanswered goals to take the lead.
“We tied the game with 2:38 left off a beautiful cross by Livia Truong and tipped in off the back post by Alexis Minor,” Halteman said.
That set the stage for overtime and Missimer’s game-winner.
“PW was able to control the start of the overtime period, and Kaleigh Missimer scored the game-winner after dribbling into the circle and scoring on a strong shot,” Halteman said. “Honestly, I don’t think today was necessarily our best game, but I do think this was the toughest competition we’ve seen so far this season.
“We got carded a couple of times, so in the second half, we played down a man for 10 minutes for two different five-minute cards, so I thought we faced a little bit of adversity. Obviously, having Haverford score three unanswered goals in the second half may have had a lot to do with it. I thought the team really worked together to figure out how they were going to win the game as a group.”
Although Haverford – 3-6 on the season – may not have been as strong as it had been in the past, the Fords still posed a challenge.
“They’re still a very skilled and very good team,” Halteman said. “I thought their defenders did a really nice job today. They’re probably been the best defenders dealing with Ava (Borkowski’s) goal-scoring ability that we’ve seen this year so far.
“A lot of games we’ve been playing recently, our forwards really just had to dribble themselves in the circle and create 1v1 opportunities. I thought Haverford did a nice job of trying to tackle just outside the circle. They would double team at the top of the circle, and they made it a lot harder for us to get shots off and get into the circle. Especially in the second half, they really were shutting our attack down just outside the circle.”
Plymouth Whitemarsh (9-0, 7-0 SOL) will host Wissahickon in a key conference battle Tuesday.
“Next week is a big week for us with Wissahickon, and Springfield gave us a decent game the last time and then we go up to Owen J Roberts Saturday,” Halteman said. “I think today was a great way to get us prepped for a week of good competition.
Haverford 0-3-0 3
Plymouth Whitemarsh 2-1-1 4
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