Check out the results for SOL field hockey teams in action.
National Conference
COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 2, PENNSBURY 1
The Golden Hawks capped a tough week with a hard fought 2-1 win over the visiting Falcons.
Shannon Lind put the Hawks on the board with an early goal, using a Paige Schmid assist. They took that 1-0 lead into halftime.
A Caroline McGovern goal midway through the second half made it a 2-0 game. Nell Webber cut that lead in half with a late goal for the 2-1 final.
The Falcons held a 7-5 advantage in shots.
Rock South goalie Julia Pero was credited with five saves in the win.
Council Rock South (7-2, 6-0 SOL) will travel to Neshaminy Tuesday for a showdown between the conference’s lone unbeaten teams. Pennsbury (4-4, 3-3) will host Central Bucks West on Saturday in a non-league contest and then will be on the road at Hatboro-Horsham on Monday before returning to league play on Tuesday at home against William Tennent.
Pennsbury 0-1 1
Council Rock South 1-1 2
NESHAMINY 9, HARRY S TRUMAN 0
The Redskins opened up a 4-0 halftime lead on their way to the shutout win.
Christen Pennington (Mia Sexton assist) put the ‘Skins on the scoreboard just over two minutes into the game, and Amanda Blum (Pennington assist) upped that lead to 2-0 before five minutes had elapsed.
Goals by Sexton (Emily Curran assist) and Abby Bedesem (Pennington assist) sent the Redskins into halftime with a four-goal advantage.
Sexton (Emily Alexis assist), Pennington (Elayna Curtin assist) and Maria Palmieri scored goals within a four-minute span early in the second half to make it a 7-0 game. Goals by Pennington (Amanda Blum assist) and Taylor Benton (Marlena Koellner assist) closed out the scoring.
Pennington finished a productive day with three goals and two assists.
The win capped a stretch of three games in three days for Neshaminy that included an impressive 2-1 win over Mount St. Joseph and a 3-0 shutout of Perkiomen Valley. In the win over, the Mount, Maria Palmieri scored the game winner midway through the second half. She also assisted on the game's first goal by Marlena Koellner.
Neshaminy (9-0, 6-0 SOL) will host Council Rock South in a showdown for National Conference supremacy on Tuesday. Truman (0-7, 0-5) will host Academy Park in a non-league game Monday before travelling to Abington on Tuesday.
Neshaminy 4-5 9
Harry S Truman 0-0 0
Continental Conference
CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 3, QUAKERTOWN 2 (OT)
The Titans needed some late-game heroics to knot the score, and they won it in overtime on a Steph Litzenberger goal.
“It was amazing,” South coach Lindsay Walbrandt said. “It was just what this team needed.
“We’ve played so many close games – a tie, losing by one goal. It was exactly what they needed. I’m thoroughly impressed how deep they dug because we did play 75 minutes on Monday (in a 1-1 tie with Souderton). To play like that and then go into overtime and play the best that they’ve played when they were dog tired was phenomenal.”
The Panthers took a 1-0 lead into halftime, thanks to a goal by Hillary Scott (Emma McLaughlin assist) just over seven minutes into the game. Litzenberger (Ally McDonald assist) tied it up with her first of two goals 10 minutes into the second half.
With 12 minutes remaining in regulation, Quakertown went back on top on a goal by Julia Ely only to watch Megan Gillard turn an Alexa Milanesi pass into a goal with five minutes remaining to knot the score 2-2.
“Megan Gillard plays our right back, but I just needed fresh legs, so I subbed her out and put her back in in the midfield,” Walbrandt said. “She played it perfectly.
“For not usually playing midfield, she was right on post and just tipped it right in. It was a gorgeous, picture-perfect play.”
Neither team scored the rest of the way, and the Titans found themselves in an overtime game for the second time this week.
“I said, ‘Ladies, we played 15 minutes of overtime on Monday – we can’t play 15 minutes again, so score quick,’” said Walbrandt. “I don’t know which is worse – tying or losing because we played 75 minutes and walked away with a tie (against Souderton).”
It took the Titans all of 5:36 to bring an end to the contest when Litzenberger connected on a corner shot, using a Lauren Dougherty assist.
“My assistant and I both said that was the best six minutes of hockey we’ve seen them play,” Walbrandt said. “It was beautiful.
“Steph scored on a picture-perfect corner. She nailed the ball right into the corner. She had a great game – she’s always hustling and making things happen.”
Walbrandt also credited the performance of right mid Casey Dietzel.
“Casey was like the glue that kept us together,” the Titans’ coach said. “She was there for support for everything.
“Every game this season she has played consistent. She does not do anything flashy, but that’s not what we need her to do. She is always there, she is always positive, she’s always that person you can depend on to play consistent. I thought she was the game changer.”
Also coming up big was South goalie Sarah Zeszotarski, who was credited with 11 clutch saves and effectively negated the Panthers’ 14-7 advantage in shots.
“Sarah always plays phenomenal in goal,” Walbrandt said. “If it was any other goalie, some of the shots they took would have gone in, but she played out of her mind.”
Central Bucks South (3-3-1, 3-2-1 SOL) will travel to Conestoga Monday for a non-league game (7 p.m.) and then will host Central Bucks West at War Memorial Field on Tuesday. Quakertown (3-6, 1-5) will travel to Pennridge on Tuesday.
Central Bucks South 0-2-1 3
Quakertown 1-1-0 2
NORTH PENN 2, SOUDERTON 1
In a game that was defined by its intensity, it was the Maidens eking out the dramatic win.
“The thing I was most pleased with tonight was that we came out from the start of the game and played a hard 60 minutes,” NP coach Shannon McCracken said. “We talked about that, and sometimes we’ve been back on our heels at the start of a game.
“We really came out hard tonight and played hard the entire 60 minutes. It was a well-played game. Souderton is a great team. There was a lot of intensity, a lot of back and forth play, a lot of corners on both sides.”
The action was end to end from start to finish, and it was the Maidens getting on the scoreboard first when – on their third corner of the game – Jennifer DeLongis deposited the rebound of a goalie save into the cage, spotting the Maidens a 1-0 lead at the 22:27 mark.
The Indians evened the scored midway through the half. Sophomore Jessica Gabriel sent a crossing pass into the circle, and Nina Disco redirected the pass to Liz O’Hara for the score and the 1-1 tie.
A marvelous individual effort by Brianna O’Donnell, who received a lead pass from Emma Herb, culminated in a goal that put the Maidens on top 2-1 with 4:43 remaining in the half.
“She just has a nose for the ball, and she just refuses to lose,” McCracken said of O’Donnell. “Those athletes only come along every so often.”
That one-goal lead appeared to be in serious jeopardy when the Indians drew seven corners in a seven-minute span midway through the second half.
Maiden goalie Brynne Schoppe worked her magic to keep the Indians off the board, stopping a lift shot, making a diving save on another. Six of her 13 saves came during that span, and if there was a defining stretch in Friday’s game, this was it.
“The big key is communication,” Schoppe said. “We all were communicating, we all were calling marks, and I think we did a really good job of maintaining that.
“It was a very intense moment, but I kept my head in the game, and I stayed focused.”
Souderton senior captain Courtney Kwiatowski acknowledged it was frustrating to come up empty.
“Obviously, we want to capitalize on our goals, but at the same time, we could tell North Penn was getting frustrated,” she said “We wanted to take advantage of that, but unfortunately, we couldn’t today, but hopefully, we can in the future.”
The Maidens drew four consecutive corners of their own late in the game, but the Indians’ defense held. Souderton made one last charge in the final minute, but the Maidens simply refused to give up a corner or allow the Indians to generate any serious threats.
“We just had to keep our cool,” Schoppe said. “I would have to give props to our defense. They were very focused, they got their sticks down, they were very talkative, they knew what they had to do, and they were not letting that ball in for a corner.”
“Most of the corners were because we weren’t five yards,” O’Donnell added. “We just kept yelling that to our team.
“Souderton played a really great game, but we had to push through it.”
The win was the third in a row for the Maidens after four straight losses to open the season.
“They’re on a mission because they had a slow start, and we’re really starting to gel as a team,” McCracken said.
Souderton coach Lauren Whiteside saw plenty of positives in the loss.
“There are only so many opportunities you get when the ball is right in front of the cage, and unfortunately, the ball didn’t go in the net for us today,” the Indians’ coach said.. “But we did have a lot of really good opportunities, and that’s way more than we’ve had in previous games.
“The fact that we continue to improve makes us and our teammates proud.”
North Penn (3-4, 3-3 SOL) will host Hatboro-Horsham on Tuesday, and Souderton (3-4-1, 1-4-1) will travel to Central Bucks East Tuesday for a 5 p.m. contest.
North Penn 2-0 2
Souderton 1-0 1
American Conference
WISSAHICKON 2, UPPER DUBLIN 0
Emily Purnell scored a pair of second half goals to propel the Trojans to the win. Sammi Pak assisted on both. Purnell’s first goal came with 10:50 remaining and the second with less than two minutes to play.
Trojan goalie Claire Tarzia was credited with nine saves in the shutout win while Upper Dublin’s Marlowe Gardner had eight.
Wissahickon (6-2, 6-0 SOL)will travel to Cheltenham on Tuesday, and Upper Dublin (2-5, 2-4) will host Springfield.
Upper Dublin 0-0 0
Wissahickon 0-2 2
PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 8, CHELTENHAM 1
Frankie O’Brien turned in a glittering four-goal, one-assist performance to lead the Colonials to the no-doubt-about-it win.
“Frankie O’Brien was on fire today, controlling the play in the middle of the field and creating many scoring opportunities,” coach Marianne Paparone said. “(We) also got scoring contributions from three other players who were able to play offense for much of the game.”
Kennedy Reardon added two goals and an assist while Paige Totten and Sam Spera each contributed one goal. Jess Davis chipped in an assist.
“Aurora Mills was also relentless on both offense and defense today and played one of her best games of the season,” Paparone said. “The team is continuing to improve, and all team members gave a solid effort for 60 minutes today and contributed to their success.”
For the Lady Panthers, Madison Gianelle accounted for the one goal.
The Colonials’ dominance was underscored by their advantage in shots (33-4) and corners (18-1).
Plymouth Whitemarsh (5-2, 5-1 SOL) will travel to Norristown on Tuesday, and Cheltenham (3-5, 3-3) will host Wissahickon.
Cheltenham 1-0 1
Plymouth Whitemarsh 5-3 8
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