Pennridgecrushesu.dublininopener
This preseason the Pennridge girls’ soccer team has stressed defense, defense and defense. The defending District lne champs understand success stems from the backline.
However in the season opener on Friday, a nonconference game at Upper Dublin, the Rams quickly displayed offense, offense and more offense. The 9-0 win over the Flying Cardinals was exactly what first year coach Audrey Anderson ordered.
“It feels good to get my feet wet,” Anderson said. “We talked about how the first five minutes of the game are going to be the most important for us this year. lur goal was to connect, but I did not expect three goals in five minutes.”
Senior Natalia Pinkney’s cross 90 seconds into the action allowed sophomore Marissa Sheva to register the team’s first goal of the year. lnly five minutes later the Rams held a 3-0 and after 80 minutes the Rams had five different girls find the back of the net.
“We tried to play some 4-5-1 later in the game to take some offense out,” Anderson said. “In a 4-3-3 formation in the first half we connected so well. We had our forwards making their runs that they have been working on all preseason.”
Pinkney picked up two goals in the win and fellow senior captain Shannon Chynoweth tallied a hat trick. Considering Chynoweth started the game as a defensive back, the three goals was not expected today, but certainly welcomed. Chynoweth, who did play forward as a junior, realizes she may be on the defensive end more this season.
“We have areas that we need to make strong and we are moving people around,” Chynoweth said. “ln my club team I play everywhere, so they are trying me everywhere here. We definitely lost a lot of key players, but we have enough strong players back to fill in those holes.”
Teaming up with Chynoweth to start the game in the back was senior cocaptain Carly Henry. As the last line of defense in front on first year goalie Amanda l’Hara, who gets credited with her first shutout, the captains set the tone early by showing up to steal possession and help their squad smoothly transition from defensive to offense.
“Carly has been here and she is going to be our defensive go-to person,” Anderson said. “For her to be back there, be that smart, and have her voice is something we need. Even taking her out for a minute changes the whole tempo of the game.”
A Henry through ball and a Henry throw-in helped the Rams fly past the Cardinals and bury ball after ball. Cardinals’ junior keeper Alexis Rama finished with six saves in the loss. The Cardinals hope the difficult day does not deter all early season optimism.
“Years ago we decided we were going to challenge ourselves non-league and that is one of the best teams we will see,” Cardinals coach John Topper said. “It gives us an idea of where we are, what we need work on, which is a lot.”
The Cardinals are still trying to find the formation that works best, in the midst of having a few girls banged up. The season opening loss highlights areas of improvements for the Cardinals, who would rather deal with the lumps now and get healthier as the season progresses.
“We do not think this is going to be indicative of our season,” Topper said. “We have a lot of girls playing new positions and we are dealing with some injuries, so we were kind of filling the gaps today. We need to work a little on fitness to prevent some injuries. So hopefully we will heal up and be healthy to start the league schedule next week.”
The Rams also experimented with different formations during the preseason and after their effort at Upper Dublin playing predominantly as 4-3-3, the Rams hope they can continue to build toward their lofty goals. The pressure to play at a high level every game is there, but the girls welcome it.
“We have been working to knock the kinks out at practice,” Chynoweth said. “This game showed we have been working hard. We are trying to be confident, but not too confident. We have a lot of pressure on us. We are just going to take it one game at a time.”