TOWAMENCIN – Her teammates simply call her ‘Buzz.’
It’s a nickname North Penn sophomore Elizabeth Fedele was given by her father, Steve Fedele, when she was just a toddler. Recently, her coaches and teammates have taken to calling her by that name as well.
By any name, Fedele is a force on the hockey field.
In the Maidens’ 3-1 win over Souderton on Wednesday, Fedele didn’t score a goal. The sophomore midfielder had just one assist, but talk to Souderton coach Mary Ann Harris, and it’s clear she thought the player they call ‘Buzz’ just might have been the most important player on the field.
“She has good game sense,” the Indians’ coach said. “She’s opportunistic, and the girls – by playing with her - work together well.”
Harris would get no argument from Fedele’s teammates.
“Everything goes around Buzz,” senior captain Kerry Senderling said. “And it’s not a bad thing. You just want her to have (the ball), so she can do the right thing to get it to where it needs to be.”
Fedele and senior Jena Hanebury are the lone returning starters on a Maiden squad that lost nine players from last year’s successful squad to graduation.
“It was a little strange,” said Fedele, who advanced to the Junior National Camp this summer. “It was a whole new team.
“We’re definitely jelling. We’re working really well together.”
That ability to work together was apparent in the Maidens’ strong passing game, which kept the Indians scrambling all afternoon.
“Even in the games we lost, our passing game was really good,” Maiden coach Carrie Jankowski said. “I think that’s what will put another team back on their heels.
“If your team is using great passing, there’s not much the other team can do.”
The Maidens’ passing game begins with Fedele at center mid.
“The thing that makes her such a great player is she really is a phenomenal passer,” Jankowski said. “She makes a conscious effort to be a good distributor of the ball.”
From the outset on Wednesday, the Maidens looked confident, and that confidence received a boost when they scored during corner play when Brooke Harrar, who had a pair of goals, turned a pass from Hanebury into a goal at the 18:17 mark of the opening half.
“I think scoring early definitely is a blow to their confidence, and that really helped us,” Fedele said. “If we hadn’t scored, I think it would have been a different game.”
The goal seemed to put the Indians back on their heels, and while the Maidens drew seven first-half corners and took five shots, the Indians managed just one shot.
“They were really playing well,” Harris said of the Maidens. “I thought they had more speed than we did.”
The Maidens added to their lead early in the second half when Fedele took the rebound of a goalie save and found Harrar for the score.
The Indians didn’t show many signs of life until they were awarded their first and only corner of the game and Becca Chylack turned the insert pass from Olivia Shoemaker into a goal with a strong shot from the top of the circle at the 11:58 mark.
If there were any doubts about the outcome, those doubts were put to rest when Maiden senior Patty Squicciarini scored on the rebound of a goalie save with 4:28 remaining, giving the Maidens their final margin of victory, 3-1.
The win came on the heels of Monday’s 2-1 win over Hatboro-Horsham for a Maidens squad that had not only lost its first two games of the season but hadn’t scored a goal in either of those losses.
“We had to find it inside ourselves to want to win,” Senderling said. “After Hatboro, we were on top of the whole world. We felt like we could do anything, and we came out today with the same momentum that we ended that game with. We took it away from them right away.”
Not a bad way to rebound from a tough opening week that culminated with the Maidens on the short end of a 4-0 score in its SOL opener against Central Bucks East last Friday.
“We didn’t play our game,” Jankowski said of her team’s loss to East. “They went into their minds and hearts and came back Monday and were the team I knew – and probably they knew – they could be but hadn’t been yet.
“Our win over Hatboro on Monday was a turning point. They needed to believe how good they are. I’m not saying there’s a state championship in our future, but there could be if they keep moving in the direction they’re moving now. They are a bunch of really good kids. They’re a pleasure to coach.”
With the win, the Maidens improved to 2-1 in SOL play (2-2 overall) while the Indians fell to 1-2 in league action (2-2 overall).
NORTH PENN 3, SOUDERTON 1
Souderton 0 1-1
North Penn 1 2-3
Goals/Assists: Souderton – Becca Chylack 1-0, Olivia Shoemaker 0-1. North Penn – Brooke Harrar 2-0, Patty Squicciarini 1-0, Jena Hanebury 0-1, Elizabeth Fedele 0-1.
Shots: S-5, NP-14.
Corners: S-1, NP-11.
Saves: Ann Jefferis (S) 9, Megan Smink (NP) 3.
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