Pennsbury vs. William Tennent

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Pennsbury Comments
It was the third game of the week for the Pennsbury Falcons who were looking to come back from three consecutive, hard fought losses. The opening ten minutes of play were right on par with it being Friday the 13th - hauntingly slow and scarily sloppy. Neither team could finish a play and the scoreboard stood at zeros until Pennsbury's Abby Iacona decided enough was enough. She entered the circle, dodged, pulled, and had a strong shot to the far post with 5 minutes left in the first to go up 1-0. "Iacona is a play maker for us and she has intensity and skill to be commended. She broke the seal for us and lit a spark, but unfortunately came out of the game not feeling well. She left it up to her teammates to ignite from her light," explained coach, Traci Curtis. That flame was snuffed a bit when five minutes into the second quarter William Tennent found the back of the cage to tie the game 1-1. "We were having a complete breakdown on defense and parts of the midfield and those breakdowns continued as Tennent pushed us on our heels inside the circle," said Curtis. That was the last goal the Panthers would score.The orange and black did not allow that tie to last long as 30 seconds later PHS woke up and had a great passing combination up the right side finishing with Abby Anderer feeding Ryan Burdette to put the Falcon's up 2-1. The game was locked at 2-1 for the rest of the quarter taking the teams into halftime. "It was not our best hockey. The first half was frustrating and hard to watch. We shook up the players in the line up for the third quarter to see if we could fan the flame of our tiny lead. We were looking for heart," explained Curtis. Burdette got them started with 2 minutes left in the third on some great steps to the ball and deceptive passing to feed her teammates. Ella Bray caught one of Burdette's passes and scored to put the Falcons up 3-1. Two minutes later, Allison Goldfarb was in the right place and collected a rebound to tip in giving PHS a 4-1 lead going into the final 15 minutes. The Falcons gained a lot of momentum in the fourth quarter and added 4 goals to their tally. Avalee Shumski assisted two goals - one for Ryan Burdette and one for Mallory Harrison - as she held the center and distributed the ball where it needed to go. Goldfarb assisted Alaina Bird on another rebound play as the clock wound down and Liv Coen, Ava Pinto, and Regan Rodriguez were a triple threat on a great combination for Coen to score the final goal and put the Falcons up 8-1. "This was not a pretty at the start, but it got progressively better as time went on. It was great to see teammates stepping up and picking up the slack for one another - that is how a team needs to operate," said Curtis. "We needed a win to put some air in our sails and this was a nice opportunity to come together and truly rely on each other." "Tennent did not back down and came at us hard to start," complimented Curtis. "They forced our hand and really made us coaches dig and plan and strategize," Curtis said. "Strong consistent play from Cailyn Reilly, Jacqueline Sullivan, and Payton Worth helped us to stay on track as well," said Curtis. The Falcons will travel to CB East on Monday to battle it out in a crossover game with the Patriots.