Check out the recaps of SOL girls’ soccer teams in action Thursday. Tennent/New Hope-Solebury photos provided courtesy of John Gleeson. Check back for a gallery of photos. CLICK HERE to go directly to Suburban One Sports GIRLS’ SOCCER galleries.
SOL Freedom
Lower Moreland 2, Upper Moreland 0
At the midpoint of SOL play, absolutely nothing has been settled in the Freedom Division.
The Lions helped with that Thursday, rebounding from their first loss in division play with a strong second half to down the Golden Bears. LM’s efforts, plus those from William Tennent and Springfield Twp, have left a three-team tie at the top of the table with all three sides sharing 4-1 SOL records.
As the league moves into crossover play for the next three fixtures, that logjam will stay there for the time being.
As far as Thursday’s efforts, Upper Moreland made Lower Moreland work for its goals led by a standout effort from keeper Gracie Costello who made seven stops including turning away a PK.
It was Lower Moreland’s front line, specifically the duo of Emma Leibert and Shannon Mahon, that unlocked the defense long enough in the second half to keep the Lions in the complicated title picture.
Scoring Summary
1st Half
No scoring
2nd Half
LM – Emma Leibert (Shannon Mahon) 44th
LM – Shannon Mahon (Emma Leibert) 47th
Lower Moreland coach Todd Hill on the win: “We had a hard fought win today against Upper Moreland. We went into half 0-0, made some adjustments and the girls really came out and played a strong second half. I was pleased with their creativity and flexibility today. We threw some challenges at them today and they responded and worked hard to execute.”
–Second half offense: “Our attackers Emma Leibert, Shannon Mahon, and Evie O’Brien really put a lot of pressure on them as we came out in the second half. Fourteen minutes into the half Shannon served the ball to Emma who had a really nice finish to start the scoring. Less than three minutes later Emma returned the favor by setting up Shannon for a goal of her own.”
–Props: “A shout out to Jordyn Fox who I have used all over the field this season. She has adjusted to each new challenge -and today helped create out of the back and put pressure on the goal in the front. Gabby Sellecchia also played a strong game. She worked really hard to be a physical presence today and was very effective.”
Upper Moreland coach Lisa Benvenuto: “Whenever we play Lower Moreland, we know we’re in for a competitive match. Defensively, we applied strong pressure on their attack and forced them into taking shots from outside the 18. In the first half, we struggled to generate consistent offense, but in the second half, we created several dangerous opportunities. Unfortunately, a few mistouches and poor clearances led to Lower Moreland’s goals, putting us down by two with plenty of time still on the clock”
–UM standouts: “Gracie Costello had a standout performance in goal with seven saves, including a penalty kick. We continued to push forward and create chances but weren’t able to capitalize. Strong contributions also came from Emma Kramer, Hailey Kramer, Jayda Rivera, Kiera Hess, and Madeline Cox.”
Up next: Upper Moreland visits Hatboro-Horsham on Tuesday. Lower Moreland travels to Wissahickon on Tuesday.
LOWER MORELAND 0 2 – 2
UPPER MORELAND 0 0 – 0
William Tennent 3, New Hope-Solebury 0
The Panthers made it a 2-0 week in division games thanks to a clinical first half effort.
Tennent, which picked up a big win over Lower Moreland on Tuesday to stay in the mix atop the division standings, netted three goals from three different players before halftime on Thursday. Junior Bailey Kasner opened the scoring before senior Sofia Jakimoski assisted her sister, junior Olivia Jakimoski, to make it 2-0 and freshman Kaitlyn D’Ambra put a cap on the offensive effort.
Tennent’s defense posted its second straight shutout.
Scoring Summary
1st Half
WT – Bailey Kasner 36:30
WT – Olivia Jakimoski (Sofia Jakimoski) 25:58
WT – Kaitlyn D’Ambra 16:38
Up next: Tennent hosts Council Rock South on Friday. New Hope-Solebury visits Plymouth Whitemarsh on Tuesday.
WILLIAM TENNENT 3 0 – 3
NEW HOPE-SOLEBURY 0 0 – 0
Springfield Twp 4, Cheltenham 0
The Spartans continued their upswing, winning their third straight match – all in a six-day span – and stayed in a three-way tie for the division lead heading into the crossover slate.
Scoring Summary
1st Half
Ava Brinch
Karly Hartman
2nd Half
Karter Brady
Rafaella Castillo
Spartans coach Chris Tomarelli: “Good team win where everyone played. Maura Solomon with the shut out in goal.”
Up next: Springfield Twp hosts Hatboro-Horsham on Friday. Cheltenham visits Upper Dublin on Tuesday.
SPRINGFIELD TWP 2 2 – 4
CHELTENHAM 0 0 – 0
SOL Liberty
Plymouth Whitemarsh 3, Upper Dublin 1
It’s become a winning formula. If senior Maddie McGuckien scores, then the Colonials pick up three points in the SOL Liberty standings.
How successful has that formula been?
McGuckien has scored in five straight matches and PW has won five straight division fixtures to take a perfect 5-0 SOL record into the halfway point of divisional play. Thursday, McGuckien’s goal proved doubly beneficial as it stood up as the winner in a showdown with last year’s division champion Cardinals that had first place implications.
There’s still a lot of soccer left in the Liberty standings, and the Colonials won’t be a team looking too far ahead.
Scoring Summary
1st Half
PW – Marleigh Burton (Mia Baron) 10th
PW – Maddie McGuckien (Maddi Lazaroff) 15th
PW – Molly McEvoy (Keria Whalen) 33rd
2nd half
UD – Bridget DiMartile 68th
PW coach TJ DeLucia on the win: “Extremely proud of the team for getting through the league 5-0 first time through. That hasn’t been done since the division (alignment) changes some years back. It wasn’t easy especially with two physical games this week against Abington and Upper Dublin.
“While we’re excited tonight about being 5-0 in the league, that wasn’t our goal. We have a long way to go and a super quick turnaround to take on the defending 3A District Champions, West Chester Rustin, on the road. Really poor scheduling by me, but our team will be up for it.”
–Colonials quick start: “We felt really good about the way we set up after seeing Upper Dublin on film. But, we needed to dictate play from the start. It took us 20 minutes to get into the Abington game. Today, we took control quickly. About 10 minutes into the game, the ball finds Mia Baron’s feet who turns and plays a really nice ball through to Marleigh Burton who had a fantastic finish at a really tough angle, for Marleigh’s second goal of the season.”
–McGuckien delivers again: “Maddi Lazaroff takes a corner and finds Maddie McGuckien’s head. Maddie has scored in five straight, all in league games. She controlled the game from the backline and continues to be lethal in front of net. She has been an absolute force the first time through the league. Maddi Lazaroff has been terrific in her service from corners. That was her team-leading fifth assist of the season.”
–Adding insurance: “With seven minutes remaining in the half, Keira Whelan receives the ball at her feet from a throw, holds it up well, gets to the endline and puts an excellent cross in and freshman Molly McEvoy makes a great near post run to score her second goal of the season.“
–Hanging on after half: “Upper Dublin really responded in the second half. Credit to them for pushing for the final 40 minutes. We held on.”
Up next: PW visits West Chester Rustin, currently the No. 5 team in Class 3A, on Friday. Upper Dublin hosts Cheltenham on Tuesday.
PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 3 0 – 3
UPPER DUBLIN 0 1 – 1
Hatboro-Horsham 3, Wissahickon 2 (OT)
A frenetic second half saw the Hatters and Trojans combine for four goals and set up some extra soccer on Thursday afternoon.
While Hatboro-Horsham couldn’t muster any goals after falling behind to Upper Dublin on Tuesday night, the Hatters fought back not once, but twice to tie the game on Thursday. It was Lily Harvey sparking both comeback efforts, assisting the first equalizer before putting matters on her own foot on the second to help force overtime.
Hatboro-Horsham’s first lead turned out to be the only one it needed, Courtney Rinus giving the Hatters the win and three points in the table.
Scoring Summary
1st Half
No scoring
2nd Half
W – Gianna Brown
HH – Dakota Slye (Lil\ly Harvey)
Wiss goal
HH – Lily Harvey
OT
HH – Courtney Rinus
Hatboro-Horsham coach Chris Artman: “Both teams needed the win to get back on track. Wiss is a well-coached team, and we knew it was going to be a tough game. I thought we controlled the play in the first half and created some opportunities, but we could not finish. We talked at halftime about finishing our chances and that one goal was not going to decide this game.”
–Trojans score first: “Early in the second, Gianna Brown was able to find the back of the net and give Wiss the 1-0 lead. Credit to her as we were able to shut her down in the first half, but she never stopped working and was able to get behind our defense and beat our keeper with a far post finish.”
–Hatters battle back: “Our girls battled right back a few minutes later. We were able to get the ball wide down the left side and Lily Harvey then found Dakota Slye at the top of the box, and she beat the Wiss keeper in the upper corner for her first of the year. Dakota has done a great job all season doing the work that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet, so very happy she was able to get her first goal of the season.”
–Frantic finish: “This was a back-and-forth game. Wiss was able to again take the lead 2-1. Late in the second half Lily Harvey won the ball in the offensive third and with a great individual effort hit a left footed shot into the lower corner from 25 yards out to tie the game.”
–Extra time winner: “We came out in the first overtime pressing as we felt we had them on their heels. Courtney Rinius was able to bury the game winner from the top of the 18 with a well struck left footed shot low into the corner.”
–Standouts: “Very proud of the girls for battling back twice being down a goal. We had some great individual efforts today. Senior Madison Duggan did an outstanding job in the back. Freshman Leah Johnson gave us some quality minutes. She won balls out of the air and was able to put their backs under pressure playing on the right side of the midfield.”
Up next: Hatboro-Horsham visits Springfield Twp on Friday Wissahickon hosts Lower Moreland on Tuesday.
HATBORO-HORSHAM 0 2 1 – 3
WISSAHICKON 0 2 0 – 2
Abington 2, Quakertown 0
The results haven’t been coming, but Abington’s been giving plenty of opponents all they can handle.
Thursday, the Ghosts’ efforts paid off with a win over a Panthers squad that’s no easy out itself. A pair of first half goals – the first coming from freshman Val Zapata for the first of her career and the second from Mia Sarro off a short corner – was enough thanks to the efforts of keeper Addy Hayden and the back line in a scoreless second half.
Scoring Summary
1st half
A – Val Zapata
A – Mia Sarro
2nd Half
No scoring
Up next: Quakertown hosts Springfield Twp on Tuesday. Abington visits Pennridge on Friday.
ABINGTON 2 0 – 2
QUAKERTOWN 0 0 – 0
SOL Colonial
Central Bucks East 3, North Penn 0
While the Patriots had plenty of reasons for a potential drop-off after Tuesday’s narrow win over rival CB West, they didn’t lean into any of them.
The Knights made it challenging, especially in the first 40 minutes, but East’s Mia Forney and Mackenzie Peters provided the required spark in the second half. Peters helped settle East by drawing an early penalty kick, which Forney then put away, before scoring the team’s second goal to finally put some space on the scoreboard. Forney, the recent Maryland recruit, added an assist of her own as Rylie Leedy put her name in the scorebook for the first time as a varsity player.
It was a full 80-minute effort that saw plenty of contributors well beyond those in the scoring or assist column.
Scoring Summary
1st Half
No scoring
2nd Half
CBE – Mia Forney (PK) 31:42
CBE – Mackenzie Peters (Ella Roumy) 13:34
CBE – Rylie Leedy (Mia Forney) 10:02
CB East coach Jake Nesteruk on the win: “Very proud of our group for the effort they put in today collectively. Coming out of a sister-school win, there can be a bit of a dip in energy, especially with the 3:30 kick-off games, but I thought from the jump of this game, our kids put their stamp on it. In the first half, I thought we got into some dangerous positions, won a couple of corners, but were just lacking a bit of execution with our final pass and execution in the final third and North Penn doesn’t give an inch in games.”
–Turning it up after halftime: “The second half I thought we hit another level with our movement and scored three well-earned goals. Mia converted on a PK drawn by Mackenzie Peters and that first one kind of opened the game up a bit.”
–Combination leads to goals: “Our second came with about 15 minutes left and was such a good team goal. After a bit of combination centrally, Ava Mignon played an early ball out to Ella Roumy who served a great ball into the box and Mackenzie Peters just finished calmly out of the air on her first touch.
“Our third came a couple minutes later, with another wide service from Mia in the run of play, with Rylie Leedy staying disciplined on the back post, she had the time to take a touch and hit a really clean ball to earn her first varsity goal, which is always a special moment and she’s incredibly deserving of it.”
–Props: “I thought Brooklyn Planck and Lina Dan came into this game and gave us two really good performances out of the back. I thought Mattie Williams put in such a shift for us and loved how she linked with Ava and Ella today. Quinn Reilley, Rania Kaba, and Liz Mooney gave us such a spark of energy when we needed it down the stretch of this one.”
Up next: North Penn travels to Garnet Valley on Saturday at 10 a.m. CB East visits Council Rock South on Tuesday.
CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 0 3 – 3
NORTH PENN 0 0 – 0
Central Bucks South 4, Souderton 0
The Titans got a much needed return to the win column on Thursday, pairing two goals on either side of halftime to down a Souderton group coming off a big win of its own
CB South has been battling some injuries and a challenging part of its schedule, but a total team effort on Thursday saw the attack buzzing around goal, the midfield control possession and the defensive unit quiet a Souderton offense that has some firepower of its own.
Scoring Summary
1st half
CBS – Kelly Donnelly
CBS – Riley Karpinski
2nd Half
CBS – Tessa Hughes
CBS – Ava Richardson
CB South coach Dana Cole on the win: “Khloe Montini and Charlotte Manley created many of our opportunities by creating chaos up top. It was a hard-fought game and every single player on the bench and on the field played and cheered as one unit. Peyton Karpinski led the defense along with Brooke Carrigan, Peyton Mumm and Kelly Donnelly. Our midfielders, Monika Daly and Maddie Roe, gave no room for the opponent to win 50/50 balls which kept the ball in our offensive third. Morgan Sowash stepped up big time in goal and gave Souderton no room in our 18 to make a comeback. Despite some crucial injuries, South proved that they are fighters and can compete with anyone, anytime.”
Souderton coach Melissa Lollar: “Despite what seemed like a promising start, the Indians were beaten by an organized Titan team to finish the first half of the season. The Indians look to bounce back next week from a tough loss.”
Up next: CB South hosts defending PIAA 3A champion Strath Haven on Monday at 5:30 p.m. Souderton visits Harry S Truman on Tuesday.
CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 2 2 – 4
SOUDERTON 0 0 – 0
Pennridge 1, Central Bucks West 0
There’s a saying that the best defense is a good offense.
Sometimes the best offense is a good defender. Thursday, that was what Pennridge leaned on to find some separation against a CB West team that’s much stronger than its record shows.
Senior Addy Mills has been a mainstay in the Rams’ lineup since her sophomore year, and the Duquesne recruit is one who will clean up a lot of problems along the back line from her center back position. She’s also got a knack for some timely goals and she proved it again Thursday by driving a free kick from a long way out – about 40 yards – for the match’s only goal under the lights.
Scoring summary
1st Half
No scoring
2nd Half
P – Addy Mills
Pennridge coach Lucas Kriner on the match: “Generally felt it was a bit flat tonight – especially slow with our build-up, not to our standard with our communicating. We’re capable of better. The players know that. They’ll adjust, we’ll move forward and play better next time out. That’s what makes this group special: their resilience and responsiveness. Credit to West for putting us under pressure at certain times.
“In the big picture, it’s nice to get maximum points from this stretch of league games. We’ve played some really versatile soccer recently.”
–Standouts: “(Sophomore center back) Harper Posey played a great 80 minutes, and it’s nice to see her and Addy (Mills) work together. Addy has lots of experience, so that partnership is in a good spot. Cece DeMoss commanded her box and collected the ball when the moment required her to get off her line.”
Up next: CB West visits Council Rock North on Tuesday. Pennridge hosts Abington on Friday and travels to Neshaminy on Tuesday.
PENNRIDGE 0 1 – 1
CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 0 0 – 0
SOL Patriot
Neshaminy 5, Bensalem 0
Neshaminy was aggressive and assertive on the attack Thursday, getting plenty of contributions on its five tallies.
Senior Bri Garyah as usual was all over, the forward drawing then converting a penalty kick to open the scoring before adding an assist on the finisher. Left back Emma Harrison got into the attack as well, pocketing a goal then creating the third when her shot was deflected to Grace D’Alfonso.
Cassidy Tweedie hit an aerial volley off a corner kick from Lily Kaczmarek and Leah Kaczmarek’s timely run on Garyah’s pass led to the second half goals for Neshaminy.
Scoring Summary
1st Half
N – Bir Garyah (PK) 36:02
N – Emma Harrison 17:12
N – Grace D’Alfonso (Emma Harrison) 16:12
2nd Half
N – Cassidy Tweedie (Lily Kaczmarek) 23:30
N – Leah Kaczmarek (Bri Garyah) 18:28
Neshaminy coach Josh Van Reed on the win: “Bensalem is always a team that plays hard and is well organized so we wanted to set the tone early today. We got off to a quick start on the attack and were able to take advantage of some good opportunities.”
Props: “We have been working on some different runs and combinations in the run of play, and I was very happy to see some of that going on in today’s game. Midfielders Anna Axenroth, Cassidy Tweedie and Mia Stock all played solid today and credit to goalkeeper Alexis Barnes for helping us keep a clean sheet.”
Up next: Neshaminy hosts Pennridge on Tuesday. Bensalem hosts North Penn on Tuesday.
NESHAMINY 3 2 – 5
BENSALEM 0 0 – 0
Council Rock North 6, Harry S Truman 0
Up next: CR North hosts CB West on Tuesday. Truman hosts MaST Charter on Friday
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