9/28/22

Souderton – 2
Council Rock North – 1

Really strong performance from the team tonight that everyone can be proud of. We’ve struggled a lot this season to maintain the level of intensity and mental toughness needed to get results, but tonight we got it from everyone on the field and the result came with it.

We started the match a bit sluggish, and we felt we were giving North too much space. Eventually, North punished us with a pretty strong run and finish. Luckily, senior goalkeeper Abby Allen was on her game and helped limit North’s talented attack to the one goal. We moved junior Leah Kirkpatrick up top today and I think she helped raise our intensity level with her ability to lead the line and press with intensity up front. From there, everyone else really started to take note and we found a foothold in the match. Julia DeCaro helped us get a good rotation at that spot, putting North’s backline under a lot of pressure and creating chances for herself and our attack. From then on we were able to keep both Leah and Julia fresh to put North’s back line under pressure.

We started to create a bit more and eventually found some space in behind with a nice long ball down the line. Maggie Fisher made a great run and play to keep it in and cross it into the box. Freshman Sienna Stunkard was there to apply some pressure as North tried to play out. Sienna was able to win the ball and let loose a shot that was blocked well, but the rebound fell to her again and she got off a nice left-footed shot into the top corner. From there the momentum really shifted and we got everyone fighting for everything on the field. In the second half, Sienna found her second and the game winner on a great shot from distance. It was great to see her rewarded for all her hard work this year. She’s played a lot of minutes and does a lot of positive things, so it’s nice for her to be rewarded on the stat sheet as well.

Top to a bottom a really great performance. I thought Nicole Schulingkamp played great in multiple positions for us, and Mykaela Ruth had one of her best games in her high school career. She was shutting everything down in the midfield and helping us control the pace there as well. Now our goal is to continue with the same intensity and mentality each game. We play at Council Rock South on Friday.