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ABINGTON – Jen Kelly is a fearless defender, but the Abington senior does not like to get in the way of teammate Kailee Ashby.
“She’s scary in practice,” Kelly said. “She will just shoot it. She doesn’t care who’s there. “Last year she hit me in the kidney, and she’s like, ‘Well, you were in my way.’ I call her a Mack Truck because she just barrels in there. It’s a little scary.”
Ashby – who looks anything but the part of a Mack truck – is a dangerous offensive weapon with an arsenal of shots that are all but impossible to defend.
Upper Dublin will certainly vouch for that.
In the non-league opener for both teams on Friday, Ashby took six shots and found the net on all six, leading the Ghosts to an impressive 14-5 win over the defending American Conference champions. When it was over, it was hard to believe the two teams were actually deadlocked 4-4 late in the first half.
“I wasn’t worried,” Kelly said. “It’s the beginning of the season.”
“Just the confidence we have in each other as a team – we’re so strong,” Ashby said. “We know we’ll pull it out.
“In the second half, we started working together as a team and made better passes. We had some first-game nerves in the first half. We’re still trying to mesh together.”
A play that ignited the Ghosts came with less than two minutes to play in the opening half when – after an Abington turnover in its offensive end – Kelly came up with a takeaway near midfield.
“I just have a lot of fire,” Kelly said. “I don’t like to let other girls score on me. I do whatever I can to get that ball. I don’t want them taking it on me. I’m just intense when I play.”Moments later, Kate Cooper came around goal for the score, and 19 seconds later Devon Affleck found Ashby for a goal that sent the Ghosts into halftime with 6-4 lead.
Talk about a momentum swing – that was it. Kelly’s play ignited a 10-1 Ghost run to close out the game.
“I think we started off a little slow because it’s the beginning of the season, and we’re still getting used to playing with each other,” Kelly said. “I think we will only get better. We really picked it up in the second half.”
Despite the outcome, Upper Dublin coach Dee Cross was thrilled with her young team’s first-half effort.
“We played great,” she said. “It was so much more than we anticipated.
“For them to come out and hang with them in the first half was key. The girls played their hearts out in the first half. We came out and played 100 percent.”
A key to the Flying Cardinals ability to hang with the Ghosts was the fact that they were able to control the draws.“They were placing the draw, and we were able to step up and get the ball,” Cross said.
The Ghosts led 3-1 after a Carly Fitzgerald goal, and it was a 4-2 game after Ashby found the bottom right corner of the net on a free position goal with 10:13 remaining in the half.
Brooke Callahan scored on a breakaway on a strong shot across goal, and when Amy Cross connected on a wicked shot at the 2:56 mark, it was a 4-4 game.
“We came out strong because we knew this was going to be a tough game,” said Cross, who had three of her team’s goals. “We knew we needed to come out fast. We connected really well in the midfield.
“We were making good passes and working the ball down the middle.”
The game began to slip away from the Flying Cardinals in the closing minutes of the half as the Ghosts capitalized on Kelly’s takeaway for a pair of quick goals.
“If a lacrosse game comes down to anything, it is the draw and ground ball possession,” Abington coach Julie Martinez said. “In the first half, they won eight out of 11 draws and possessed the ball probably 17 out of 25 minutes.
“For us to escape with a 6-4 halftime lead – I thought we were outplayed in the first half. Luckily for us, the defense stepped up. We’re trying to find our identify right now, and with Jen Kelly’s caused turnover – we got a few quick goals at the end of the first half and came out to start the second half very strong.”
Strong hardly covers it.Cooper found Ashby for a goal 35 seconds into the half, and then it was Kristen Dunphey connecting with Molly Seefried for the score. Another pretty passing sequence saw Courtney Cox – who was on the left post – turn a Seefried pass into a goal, and the Ghosts led 10-4.
“There were some really awesome things,” Martinez said. “Of our 14 goals, nine were assisted. We used to be a run-and-gun team. Maybe it’s the new face of Abington.”
A goal by Cooper, who contributed a pair of goals and assists, set the stage for a sweet shot by Ashby, who turned a pass from Cox into a goal. Upper Dublin’s Emily Hitchings broke the Ghosts’ run, carrying the ball upfield and scoring with 8:51 remaining to break a scoring drought of close to 12 minutes.
Ashby (Cooper assist) scored on a pretty goal, and back-to-back goals by Fitzgerald, who collected the hat trick, closed out the scoring.
“They are definitely a tough team,” Amy Cross said. “It’s very hard to play two really strong halves. That’s what we’re going to need to work on. We just lost the momentum for a little bit, and it’s hard to pick that back up.”
Extra shots: All but lost in the shuffle of Abington's offensive explosion was the stellar 12-save effort of All-American goalie Alisha Aquilino. Included in those 12 saves were several big saves on free positions. "She was awesome," Martinez said...both teams were missing key players. The Ghosts were without midfielder Maddy Evans, who is in Russia with her soccer team. The Flying Cardinals were minus two starters – Nikki Harchut and Jordan O’Reilly. Danielle Derr was also sidelined.
ABINGTON 14, UPPER DUBLIN 5
Upper Dublin 4 1-5
Abington 6 8-14
Goals/Assists: Upper Dublin – Amy Cross 3-0, Brooke Callahan 1-0, Emily Hitchings 1-0. Abington – Kailee Ashby 6-0, Carly Fitzgerald 3-0, Kate Cooper 2-2, Courtney Cox 1-1, Kristen Dunphy 1-1, Molly Seefried 1-1, Devon Affleck 0-1.
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