2 Bonshaks are better than just 1
Sisters aiming to help Whitehall make its mark in postseason
Whitehall senior Kate Bonshak is one of the state’s best soccer players.
She is the reigning Eastern Pennsylvania Conference MVP. She was selected as The Morning Call’s player of the year a season ago. She is also a two-time all-state selection.
And this year, the skilled and speedy striker is welcoming a fresh faced — and extremely familiar — tag-team partner to assist with the scoring duties.
Freshman Emma Bonshak, Kate’s sister, has made an immediate impact for coach Chris Bleam’s Zephyrs, who are off to a 4-4 start overall after Wednesday’s 2-0 loss to Pleasant Valley.
Kate has totaled eight goals and seven assists through eight games. Emma is second on the team with five goals. It took fewer than 80 minutes for Emma to make her mark on a varsity soccer field.
She netted the game-winning goal, thanks to an assist from her older sister, in Whitehall’s 1-0 win over Nazareth in the season opener.
“I’ve been waiting to play on the same team as Kate since we were little,” Emma said, “so scoring my first goal after she crossed the ball to me was an amazing moment. I felt excited and proud. Since then, that’s happened a couple more times and it keeps getting better.”
Bleam, a longtime local coach at various levels, previously mentored Emma as a 7-year-old for the Lehigh Valley United team.
“Emma is great. She is coachable and hardworking,” Bleam said. “She and Kate are very different in many ways, both on and off the field, but both are great young people.
“Emma is an excellent finisher and is very good at reading crosses and finishing them. She did that three times in our first five games — all crosses from Kate, including the only goal of our game against Nazareth with two minutes remaining.”
Besides playing soccer this fall, Emma is also a starter on the Zephyrs’ field hockey team. Kate played both soccer and field hockey as a freshman and sophomore. Cara Bonshak, the sisters’ cousin, starred in field hockey and soccer for four years at Whitehall and is a junior on Michigan State’s field hockey team. Emma, a right halfback, had one goal and one assist in field hockey entering Thursday’s game against Allen.
“It is exhausting,” she said of playing two sports in the same season. “I get home late and I don’t get the chance to be at all the practices since I have a game almost every day. Sometimes I have practice and a game in the same day. I’m lucky that Coach Bleam and Coach [Jennifer] Bodnar take care of me.
“This year I decided to make soccer my priority when there are game conflicts. Mostly because I want to play with Kate as much as possible.”
Kate, for one, is confident Emma will sort it out sometime after the season.
She is cherishing what is likely to be the only season she’ll ever play on the same soccer field, at least competitively, as her younger sister.
“I expected a lot from her,” Kate said, “and it’s going really well. She’s doing great. I think she understands the game really well and she has the skill. I knew with the girls we lost from last year, we’d have to fill in the gaps and she’s been one of those key players.”
With the Bonshaks and experienced seniors like Grace Clary, Cassie Due, Ella Holmes and Sofia Pittas, Whitehall could be one of the contenders that challenges powerhouse Parkland for area superiority come the postseason. Exploring excellence: Moravian Academy senior Gabrielle Oudin announced her intentions this week to continue her academic and athletic careers at La Salle University.
Oudin, a defensive standout for the Lions, said it was always her goal to play at the Division I level.
“The No. 1 reason I chose La Salle was that academically the school was a good fit for me, which was ultimately most important in my decision-making process,” she said. “And being close to home was a big factor because I wanted my family to be able to come to watch me play.”
Before Oudin begins her college career, she has several soccer goals she’d like to accomplish as a senior captain for coach Darien Vercillo’s Lions, who entered play Thursday at 6-1 overall.
Gabrielle Oudin and her younger sister, Chloe, a sophomore, both have five goals and two assists.
“Having a successful start to the season has been an awesome way to build off last year,” said Gabrielle, who played for her father, Manny, the athletic director at Moravian Academy, on the Lehigh Valley United 2002/01 team.
Ranking rumblings: Emmaus’ boys are ranked 18th in the nation in the latest USA Today Sports Super 25, released on Tuesday. Coach John Cari’s Green Hornets (10-0) are also ranked No. 1 in the state in the PSCA “Large School” poll.
The Moravian Academy boys (8-0) are seventh in the “Small School” Top 10.
Pennridge’s girls (6-0), at third, and the Parkland girls (8-0), at fifth, both earned positions in the “Large School” rankings.
The Northwestern girls (9-1), who suffered their first loss of the season to Southern Lehigh on Tuesday, are ranked No. 1 in the PSCA “Small School” poll, released on Sunday, with Moravian Academy (6-1) checking in at No. 9.
(Records include Wednesday’s play.)
Sizable showdowns:
Liberty at Wilson-West Lawn boys, 11 p.m. Saturday: The Hurricanes could put their unbeaten record on the line (provided they beat rival Freedom on Thursday night) against the defending PIAA Class 4A champion Bulldogs, though Wilson-WL vacated the state title when it was deemed to have used an ineligible player.
Southern Lehigh at Saucon Valley girls, 1 p.m. Saturday: These two perennial powers played three times a season ago, with the Spartans winning in the Colonial League and District 11 3A semifinals after the Panthers prevailed in the regular-season contest.
Whitehall at Easton girls, 6:30 p.m. Monday: Two of the EPC’s contenders collide with playoff positioning — conference and district — at stake, as well as bragging rights.
Saucon Valley at Moravian Academy boys, 4 p.m. Tuesday: Big battle between the last two unbeaten, untied teams (entering Thursday’s action) in the Colonial League.