Council Rock North defeated Abington in a key SOL contest on Tuesday.
ABINGTON – It’s always a thrill to dent the twine, but there’s something extra-special about making a big stop on the defensive end.
Even if it’s not always noticed.
“I love playing defense,” said Council Rock North midfielder Natalie Maher. “I’m mainly a defensive player in club, so when I get to play defense I get really excited.
“The thing about defense is you don’t get any credit, so it’s almost that self-satisfaction you get that you can’t get anywhere else. I love getting big stops on D, it’s my favorite thing in the world.”
Fortunately for the Indians’ junior, she has the best of both worlds in her position in the midfield. And she made a difference on both sides of the field in Tuesday’s National Conference tilt against Abington, providing strong defense and netting a team-high four goals as the Indians put themselves into the driver’s seat with a 13-9 victory in a showdown of the top two teams in the conference.
“They’re always good competition,” Maher said of the Ghosts. “I love these kind of games. I love the back-and-forth games where I can play defense and also get down the field and try to score, which I never get a chance to do in club.”
And she makes the most of her chances. Maher scored her first goal of the game midway through the first half, answering Abington’s first tally of the afternoon. Two minutes later, Maher scored on an indirect free position to put the Indians up, 5-1.
Her third goal of the game helped North answer an Abington run early in the second half and she buried a free position shot.
“We practiced free positions yesterday at practice,” Maher said. “So I was standing on the line and in the back of my head, ‘You can’t miss this.’”
Maher added her fourth goal 45 seconds later, curling out from behind the cage and firing into the net to make the score 11-6.
“Once I get my momentum going, I start feeling it,” Maher said. “I start to see where I can place the ball. Confidence is the biggest thing in this sport.”
And the Indians have plenty of confidence. Confidence to burst out to an 8-2 lead over their hosts. Confidence to weather a feisty Abington squad’s comeback attempts. Confidence to battle through Abington’s face guard defense.
“Their offensive plays threw us off a little bit,” said North defender Kara Le, who netted an early second-half goal. “They decided to faceguard three of our players at one point and that threw us off a little bit as well, but we were able to get back into it. We took of it no matter what they gave us and we were able to overcome what they did to us.”
North dominated early, with Kara Magley setting the tone by gaining ball possession off the opening draw and taking it to goal to score just 10 seconds into the game. Goals from Molly Doyle, a second from Magley, a pair from Maher and one from Erica Green made it 6-1 in favor of the visitors before 15 minutes had ticked off the game clock. Sophomore Taylor Campbell added a pair of goals sandwiched around Abington’s second, with Campbell’s second tally coming on an impressive play in which she gathered the rebound of her own shot and put it in.
“We have five unbelievable seniors, and when they’re driving the cage it leaves spots for other girls to get open,” Maher said. “We had some underclassmen stepping up and scoring goals today. It shows we have depth to our team.”
But the Ghosts were not about to let the Indians run away with the game. Elisa MacColl scored on a free position with less than a minute remaining in the first half, then Meredith Cox scored her third of the game with just 20 seconds left to trim the North lead to 8-4.
Abington began the second half right where it left off, with Hanna Sjoholm and Jeannie Van Buren scoring in the first two minutes to make it an 8-6 game.
“We weren’t going to run away with this game,” said North co-coach Pat Toner. “I knew that wasn’t going to be the case. I knew it was coming any minute.
“I don’t care what anybody’s record is, it’s always a good game against Abington. (Coach Chris Aquilino) has his girls well-prepared, they go hard after the ball and they play hard. There’s never going to be a time where you don’t have a good game with them.”
North scored the next three goals, but the Ghosts responded with three of their own (from Sjoholm, Cox and Kelsey Fitzgerald) to pull back to within two at 11-9. But Doyle scored her second of the game and Magley’s third gave the Indians a four-goal cushion as the game wound down.
“(Abington has) a more compact field, so it’s a little harder to get open,” Toner said. “But I’m really proud of our kids, they managed the game well. They face guarded three girls, and we still managed to get goals. Molly played a great game, Kara Le came up big on defense. It was a good effort all-around.”
Aquilino was pleased with the young Ghosts’ efforts as well. They battled back from an early hole and made the Indians work for the victory.
“We had a defensive scheme and the girls followed it well and I think that kept us in the game,” Aquilino said. “Offensively, we just didn’t take advantage of opportunities.
“We’re young. These girls have lost the majority of their games by two goals. They’re always in it, they’re constantly fighting back, they just have to get over the hump. Once that snowball starts rolling downhill, things will clear up.”
Abington goalkeeper Kate Margolis recorded 10 saves, including numerous key saves in the second half to keep the Ghosts within striking distance. Her North counterpart, Taylor Beck, denied seven Abington shots.
“They’ve got some good players,” Aquilino said. “I have a freshman (Emma Gross) taking the draw against Kara Magley, and she held her own.
“We didn’t have a lot of turnovers, but they’re a very good defensive team, and we couldn’t get it going offensively.”
Council Rock North sits atop the National Conference at 3-0 (7-2 overall). Abington drops to 2-1, 2-7.
For additional game coverage, click on the following link to read beat writer Karen Sangillo’s game story on PhillyBurbs.com: http://www.phillyburbs.com/sports/high_school/varsityrap/cr-north-wins-first-place-showdown/article_afa6d17c-2663-504a-a792-2a5dac136055.html
COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 19, NESHAMINY 9
The Golden Hawks raced to an 11-4 halftime lead on their way to the big win. Jamie Damirgian led the Hawks with a five-goal effort. Leann Hurley, Christine Besselman and Gabi Rosenfeld each connected for hat tricks with Besselman also contributing a pair of assists. Mollie Sheehy had two goals and one assists while Meg Sheehy and Maddalena Buonomo both added one goal and one assist. Taylor Hunt added one goal to round out the Rock South scoring.
Fran Donato's five-goal effort led the Redskins.
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