McCausland lifts Soudertown in 2OT

WARMINSTER » William Tennent girls soccer took one of the Suburban One League’s best teams in Souderton to the brink, but it was the Indians who walked away with a win after Cara McCausland’s game-winner in double overtime Wednesday at William Tennent High School.

“I think we played really tough,” McCausland said. “We were unlucky to score off some of our chances, but everybody stuck through all the way to the end. It was a good effort by both teams.”

The game looked pretty straight forward at the beginning of the day.

Souderton was 9-0-1 and William Tennent was 3-4-4.

Despite the record disparity, the game was a battle.

This was evidenced by the look on the Indians’ Campbell Power.

Late in the first overtime, she tried to control a ball near the sideline, but instead kicked it out of bounds. Her face was pink from the chilly night air and she wore a look of disbelief that she was playing an extra period.

“It was an extremely intense game,” Souderton coach Chris Felber said. “It was extremely fast. They were up and down the field, so we had to match that and go up and down with them. The first half they got through us a little bit and the second half we shut them down. They stopped getting through us and we started to get chances.”

There were 36 combined shots on goal between the two teams with each having similar traits.

Each team had plenty of scoring chances, but each saw its shots sail high and wide.

The defenses from both squads were suffocating by shutting down offensive drives before they could finish.

There were also two goalies who made both the routine saves as well as miraculous saves to keep their team afloat.

The Panther’s Jessica Jara was especially impressive with her 20 saves, including two she robbed from the Indians.

William Tennent came to play from the game’s outset as it controlled the game’s tempo for the first 10 minutes.

The Panther’s pesky forwards harassed Souderton’s Lindsay Pazdziorko and nearly made her misplay a bounce into her net.

Souderton had a chance at winning the Suburban One Continental Conference earlier in the day, but Pennridge defeated North Penn 2-0 to repeat as champions.

Felber said the disappointment had little effect on his team, but instead blamed his team’s past performances against Pennridge.

“It would have been a big pick-me-up for us if we got the result we wanted earlier today, but at the same time we didn’t beat Pennridge, so we didn’t really deserve to win the conference,” Felber said. “We had two chances to beat them and we failed both times so the conference was really done for us and Top 8 in the district was what we really were hoping for tonight.”

The Indians matched the Panthers offensive intensity, but the game remained scoreless at halftime.

William Tennent’s Olivia Miller missed a golden opportunity in front of the Souderton net when she could not settle the ball.

Souderton also missed chances when a ball went over Jara’s head and just kissed off the top cross bar.

Another chance came for Souderton when Allie Trick found herself on a breakaway, but William Tennent’s Danielle Scott matched her step for step and cleared the ball away.

The end of regulation left Souderton in William Tennent’s zone, but overtime brought momentum to the Panthers.

The Panthers outshot the Indians 5-2 in the extra periods as William Tennent still appeared to have energy to burn.

Souderton was 0-for-4 on corner kicks, but the game

ended shortly after William Tennent received its first opportunity from the corner.

After the missed opportunity by the Panthers, the Indians raced down the other end of the field and Trick found McCausland on a crossing pass for

the win.

“We were up and back all night,” William Tennent coach Bill Hontz said. “It was a great competitive back and forth. Both teams had good chances to score. Going deep into the second overtime, they put it in and they won it tonight.”

William Tennent will now complete its schedule where Souderton heads to the playoffs that begin

next week.

Now in Felber’s fourth year, the Indians have improved every year in the district and are hoping for a bye this year.

Souderton 1, William Tennent 0

Souderton 0 0 0 1—1 William Tennent 0 0 0 0 — 0

GOALS: S: Cara McClausland, 1. WT: None Assists: S: Allie Trick, 1. William Tennent: None Saves: S: Lindsay Pazdziorko 16. WT: Jessica Jara 20