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ABINGTON – Taylor Tini is impossible to miss on the soccer field. Her bright orange shoes guarantee that, but the Pennsbury sophomore has not been on the field as much as she would have liked in recent outings.“I actually haven’t played a lot the past two games,” she said. “I haven’t played at all in the second half, so I wanted to go in today and show them I deserved to play.”
Tini’s day got off to a shaky start when the Falcons took on Abington on Saturday afternoon.
Eighteen minutes into the game, Tini was helped off the field after injuring her ankle in a collision and did not return the remainder of the half. It took her just 21 seconds to make her presence felt in the second half.
Tini received a perfect lead pass from teammate Kersten Fermento and found the corner of the net for a goal to finish off a highlight reel breakaway that put the Falcons on top 2-0.
“Actually, I got the ball, I dribbled, but the grass was high, and it slowed me down,” she said. “I hit it with my left foot and scored and was pretty surprised because I’m not left-footed.”
Tini added an insurance goal late in the game as the Falcons went on to earn a 3-1 win over the Ghosts.
“It felt good,” Tini said. “Going out and scoring two goals - I’m hoping it shows him I want to play, and I’m ready to play.”
Coach Chris McCormick was more than a little happy to see Tini delivered a break-out performance, and he was ecstatic to see his team score three goals.
“We have had a lot of trouble finding the back of the net,” the Falcons’ coach said. “The opportunities were great, and I was very pleased that we were actually capitalizing on them.“Obviously, Taylor was a big reason for that. She came out of her shell a little bit today.”
While Tini stole the spotlight, captain Leigh Deininger was the glue that kept the Falcons together as she calmly directed her team from her center mid position. It was a fluke goal by Deininger midway through the first half that propelled the Falcons to a 1-0 halftime lead.
The goal deflected off the post as well as a Ghost defender before somehow finding the net. While it might not have been textbook, no one on the Falcons’ side of the field minded a bit.
“We have had trouble most of the season getting it in the net,” Deininger said. “To put one in is great momentum for us, especially early on in the game.”
When Tini connected to put the Falcons on top 2-0 in the opening seconds of the second half, it looked as though they would roll to the easy win, but the Ghosts had other ideas.
With 9:41 remaining and the Falcons’ goalie out, junior Gina McCoy headed a pass from sophomore captain Sheila Longo into the wide open net, and suddenly, it was a 2-1 game.
“It definitely took a lot of work,” Longo said of scoring the goal. “We didn’t come out as hard as we could have the first half. I think it was definitely a relief when we got the goal.
“Gina was there for me. I was able to get it past the goalie, and she put it in.”“We’re always working hard to get that one goal in,” McCoy said. “It’s nice to finally accomplish something.”
Tini put to rest any thoughts of a Ghost comeback when she banged home a goal from the left post into the opposite corner of the net, putting the Falcons on top 3-1 with 4:27 remaining.
“He asked us to go down, hit the corner, charge the goalie and shoot,” Tini said. “That’s what I tried to do.”
That 3-1 Falcon lead held up until the final whistle, but coach Chris Hill was pleased with his team’s effort and was especially happy to see his team – which has been shut out 10 times this season – get on the scoreboard.
“These two girls – Gina McCoy and Sheila Longo - have done a very good job of giving us more offensive looks both in the middle and in the front,” he said. “I have changed things around since earlier in the season.
“We don’t have any pure goal scorers on our team. We need to work the ball together as a team. Over the last couple of years, we have been trying to develop a team culture and get them to work together, and our scores this year have been better.
“I’m very happy with the girls. They played very hard, and they’re playing well together.”
The players believe their young team is heading in the right direction.
“We have a lot of heart,” McCoy said. “We always come out every game working hard.”
“There’s definitely more effort in it,” Longo said. “Everyone tries to go 110 percent every game, and that’s definitely a plus, and it has benefitted us this year.”
While the Ghosts fell to 2-9 in league play (4-11 overall), the Falcons evened their league mark at 6-6 (6-9 overall).
“This is a team we should beat most of the time,” Deininger said. “It’s just a matter of coming out and being confident and being able to get our heads focused before the game.
“Games like this – if we can’t beat some of the other teams, we need to beat these teams to get into the playoffs.”
“It’s very important to come out and win the games that we should win,” McCormick said. “This is considered one of those games.
“We’re only two games ahead of them in the league standings at this point, and it’s very important to beat the teams we’re in front of since we have struggled at times against the teams in front of us.”
PENNSBURY 3, ABINGTON 1
Pennsbury 1 2-3
Abington 0 1-1
Goals/Assists: Pennsbury – Taylor Tini 2-0, Leigh Deininger 1-0, Kersten Fermento 0-1. Abington – Gina McCoy 1-0, Sheila Longo 0-1.
Shots: P-17, A-4.
Saves: Kristen Shedaker (P) 3, Jessica Schmidt (A) 8.
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