Check out the results for SOL girls' soccer teams in action Monday.
Continental Conference
PENNRIDGE 3, CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 2
The rematch of the Rams and Patriots was much anticipated for two reasons – one, they were the top two teams in the conference with identical records, and two, the two teams battled to a 0-0 double overtime tie the first time they met. In their second matchup, the Rams were victorious, handing the Patriots (9-1-3) their first conference loss while the Rams improved to 10-0-3 to regain sole possession of the number one spot in the conference.
The Patriots got on the board when Emma Loving converted a pass from Kristen Murphy into a goal to take an early lead in the fourth minute.
“After they scored, we made a couple of fixes that changed the way we played our game,” said Rams coach Audrey Anderson. “We were able to hold onto the ball, go forward, and be aggressive going forward. We knew there was a ton of time left, and we knew we weren’t going to quit and give up.”
The Rams’ persistence paid off when 15 minutes later they were able to answer Loving’s goal when Jackie Stevens scored off a Katie Fisher assist. Just before halftime, the Rams went up 2-1 when Julia Rufe sent a corner kick to Andrea Caya, who headed it over the goal line. The Rams added a goal in the 59th minute when Jackie Stevens took a cross from Erin Stevenson, side stepped her defender, and buried the ball into the corner of the goal to up the lead to 3-1. However, Loving put the Patriots back in the game when she narrowed the deficit after racing down the field and finding an open net after a Rams defender collided with keeper Amanda O’Hara (5 saves) and a Patriot attacker.
“That was a momentum changer,” said Anderson. “There was five minutes left, and all they needed to do was get another goal and send it into OT. They pressured us a lot, but our three captains kept everyone calm even though East did have a couple good opportunities to tie it up.”
The Patriots made it an exciting last few minutes, but the Rams were able to maintain possession and prevent East from tying the game.
“We know things aren’t always going go our way,” said Anderson. “But our motto is to enjoy it and have fun, and they did.”
The Rams have only one league game left when they visit North Penn on Wednesday in hopes of claiming the conference championship before hosting Upper Perk to close out the regular season for their Senior Night on Thursday.
“We’ve had so many obstacles to overcome as a team and so many times we could’ve quit or given up, but we said that’s not our style, that’s not Pennridge,” said Anderson. “It will be nice to finish the season with our Senior Night and recognize this hardworking group of girls.”
The Patriots face CB South at War Memorial Field on Wednesday night to finish out their league play. If both the Rams and the Patriots win on Wednesday, the Patriots will finish in second place.
PENNRIDGE 2-1 3
CB EAST 1-1 2
HAVERFORD 3, SOUDERTON 0
The Fords took a 2-0 lead into halftime and then added a second half goal by Adelaide Feigenbaum, who had a pair of goals. Souderton keeper Jackie Parry was credited with six saves while her counterpart, Kelly Rogers, had four saves. The Fords held a 9-4 edge in shots over the Indians (3-10-2).
Souderton 0-0 0
Haverford 2-1 3
American Conference
UPPER DUBLIN 1, CHELTENHAM 0
The Flying Cardinals officially clinched the title in the American Conference with a 1-0 victory over the Panthers on Monday. The Cards eked out a win, but they might have been little rusty coming off a five-day break due to last week’s rain.
“We came out a little flat,” said Cardinal coach John Topper. “We had the ball in their end for a good amount of time, but we were missing on that last pass that would set us up, and it was frustrating for girls early on.”
Luckily, Anna Petrucci was not going to go down without a fight, and she put a ball in the net out of the air from a Kendall Couch corner for the game-winner midway through the second half.
“We pulled a few things together in the second half,” said Topper. “Anna just wanted it more.”
Topper admits that while it wasn’t his team’s best performance, the Lady Panthers are not to be taken lightly,
“They (Cheltenham) played well,” said Topper. “They have had a rough season but they never give up and they are not easy to score against.”
However, the Cardinals will not be able to bask in the glory of their title this week as they play four games in a row to finish out the regular season, facing Springfield, Upper Merion and - on Thursday - Central Bucks West in an important non-league game.
“I think the atmosphere on the team is good,” said Topper. “They weren’t thrilled with the way they played today, but the chemistry is good and a lot of girls stepped into roles we needed filled this season.”
One of those key players is Kendall Couch, who leads the team with 12 goals.
“Couch has really stepped up for us,” said Topper. “She has had some pretty timely goals, like a hat trick against PW and two goals against Wissahickon (2-1 win).”
In the back, the Cardinals rely on Lexi Rama in goal and defender Dominique Greene-Coleman.
“Rama has been phenomenal, she organizes our defense,” said Topper. “Dominique is more vocal, and she is giving girls a lot of confidence back there.”
The Cardinals are thrilled to finish the season at the top of the league with an 11-0-1 record (11-3-1 overall) but know there is more work to be done.
“We take it one game at a time,” said Topper. “We have to keep our record strong for playoff considerations, and we have a deep team so that should play to our advantage. We will just try to do what we have been doing and get ready for the playoffs.”
The Panthers saw their record drop to 0-10-1 (1-14-1) and travel to Upper Merion on Tuesday.
UPPER DUBLIN 0-1 1
CHELTENHAM 0-0 0
WISSAHICKON 2, NORRISTOWN 0
The Trojans spoiled the Eagles’ senior night, shutting them out 2-0 on Monday. Eight minutes into play, Alyssa Ryan passed the ball off to Brittany Gelman who powered in a close range shot. Three minutes later, the Trojans would strike again when roles were reversed and Gelman set Ryan up to put one in the back of the net. The remaining 69 minutes of the game were scoreless, and Trojans’ keepers Jen Bondarchuk and Kara Ciaccio were credited with the shutout while Eagles keeper Hanna Kqira turned away an impressive 17 shots. The Trojans (8-2-2 SOL, 8-4-2 overall) will host Upper Moreland on Tuesday for their own senior recognition while the Eagles (0-10-1 SOL, 0-14-1 overall) square off against Plymouth Whitemarsh.
WISSAHICKON 2-0 2
NORRISTOWN 0-0 0
UPPER MORELAND 2, SPRINGFIELD 1
Veronica Baez converted a Madison Pisut assist into a goal only three minutes into the game in the Golden Bears 2-1 victory over the Spartans. Ashley Kleinert found Taylor Valera for the second goal four and a half minutes before halftime. According to Spartans coach Suzette Wolf, Springfield had the better of the possession the second half, allowing the Spartans to cut the deficit to one when Molly Fitzpatrick scored off a corner, but they were unable to even the score. Wolf credited Yulia Conway and Emily Giampetro with solid performances while Bears’ coach Lisa Benvenuto was impressed with midfielder Pisut’s contributions. The Golden Bears evened out their SOL mark at 5-5-1 while the Spartans fell to 4-6-1. Upper Moreland will travel to Wissahickon for a game under the lights on Tuesday, and Springfield will host the American Conference Champions Upper Dublin before traveling to Wissahickon on Wednesday.
UPPER MORELAND 2-0 2
SPRINGFIELD 0-1 1
NATIONAL CONFERENCE
BENSALEM 3, TRUMAN 2
The Owls are hoping to make a strong push in the last week of the regular season and they are on the right track after edging the Tigers in a close matchup.
“Truman really played well,” said Owls’ coach Lew Mladjen. “Especially in first half, Truman had the better of the play the first 10 or 15 minutes and I could see there was frustration on my players’ side.”
The two teams were deadlocked at halftime after an evenly played first half, but the Owls came to life in the second half. Christine Cueto scored the first goal for the Owls ten minutes into the second half off a Sid Doherty assist. Four minutes later the Owls added to their lead when Bree Rock sent a ball to Doherty who upped the lead to 2-0.
“The game shifted a little bit,” said Mladjen. “Our players started to sit back and Truman really got after it. They moved Sam Ricciardi from the back to the top and she made a difference.”
Ricciardi was able to get the Tigers on the board with a breakaway goal. The Tigers scored the equalizer a few minutes later. Two minutes after the Tigers evened the score 2-2, the Owls were able to string a couple of passes together, and Rock was able to get a few touches on the ball before she set up Doherty for the game-winner.
“Rock was getting a ton of space,” said Mladjen. “She slotted a real nice ball through the back line to Doherty who ran onto it. The goalie (Brittany Cottrell) came out and played her angle well, but Doherty played a nice toe touch to the far corner.”
Mladjen admits the Tigers didn’t make it easy for the Owls to hold onto the lead for the remaining ten minutes.
“Seeing them (Truman) the second time around, they seem to be playing better soccer,” said Mladjen. “Cottrell had a great game and made some real good saves, and they played a real tight well organized game.”
Mladjen applauded the performance of one of his center backs, Julia Rymarczuk.
“She has been our rock back there, and she had a really good game. She held it all together for us,” said Mladjen, whose team ends the season looking for two more wins.
“It’s been an up and down season for us,” said Mladjen. “Outside of the two games against Neshaminy, we competed well with everybody, but at the same time, we have had a number of injuries. We want to finish strong, we want to get three wins this week and it won't be easy, but then we can finish in the middle of the league in the 5th spot. We’ve worked hard enough to fall there.”
Being in the fifth spot will likely not be enough to get the Owls into the postseason unless there are some shakeups in the league, but Mladjen is happy to close out the season playing with the momentum they exhibited tonight and to start looking ahead to improving next season.
The Owls, now 3-7-2 in the league, will look for their second win of the week when they travel to Abington on Wednesday for a 7pm game. The Tigers’ record fell to 1-12, and they host William Tennent on Tuesday.
BENSALEM 0-3 3
TRUMAN 0-2 2
NESHAMINY 2, COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 1
The Redskins are officially the National Conference Champions.
With an impressive 12-0 record (15-0 overall), no one in the league will come close to catching them. The Redskins were also named the #1 team in the Southeast PA Girls’ Soccer Coaches Poll for the second week in a row.
However, the Indians were able to do two things very few teams have done this year – they not only scores on the Redskins, they held a lead over them. The Indians scored in the 29th minute when Michaela Finneyfrock found the net, scoring just the third goal the ‘Skins have allowed all season. The Indians held that 1-0 lead for just over 23 minutes.
The Redskins regrouped, and Gabby Farrell scored the equalizer in the 53rd minute off a Katie Suchodolski assist. Then, with less than four minutes in regulation, the ‘Skins top offensive weapon Megan Schafer saved the day, scoring the game-winner (Fran Donato assist) to keep the Redsins’ record perfect.
The Indians, who saw their record fall to 6-4-3, will play their crosstown rivals Council Rock South on Wednesday at 4 pm for their senior night while the ‘Skins host CR South in a makeup game on Tuesday afternoon.
NESHAMINY 0-2 2
COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 1-0 1
PENNSBURY 1, ABINGTON 0 (OT)
The Falcons and Ghosts battled through 80 scoreless minutes of regulation, setting the stage for overtime where the Falcons finally prevailed. Although the Falcons held a 12-2 advantage in shots, they were unable to score until the 89th minute when sophomore Jadyn Peto scored the game-winner.
“Abington played really hard, they played with a ton of heart,” said Falcons’ coach Kim Voorhees. “But despite missing a couple of opportunities early, we never stopped believing that we could score.”
The Falcons had yet to be victorious in an overtime game before Monday night, and they were able to get the victory in front of their home crowd during their senior night and “Kick Out Cancer” event.
“I was really proud of how our girls battled,” said Voorhees, whose team upped its record to 7-2-4.
The Falcons have taken sole possession of third place as they jump ahead of Council Rock North. They have yet to face Neshaminy for the second time and play them under the lights on Wednesday night. The Ghosts, who fell to 2-8-2, host Bensalem to close out league play on Wednesday evening.
PENNSBURY 0-0-1 1
ABINGTON 0-0-0 0
COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 2, WILLIAM TENNENT 1
The Golden Hawks held onto the number two spot in the conference with a 2-1 win over the Panthers. Gabi Rosenfeld scored a first half goal for the Hawks, giving them a 1-0 lead at halftime. Kasey Schlupp found the net in the second half to put the Hawks on top 2-0 before the Panthers scored a late goal. The Hawks, whose record improved to 9-1-2 (10-3-2 overall), travel to Council Rock North for a 4 pm game on Wednesday. The Panthers, whose record fell to 2-8-1(4-9-1 overall), square off with Truman for a 7 pm game on Tuesday.
COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 2-0 2
WILLIAM TENNENT 0-1 1
- Log in to post comments
