Kirby, Owen J. Roberts oust Spring-Ford in districts

BUCKTOWN >> Off the top of her head, Owen J. Roberts head coach Amy Hoffman can recall one major detail of both of the Wildcats’ losses this fall.

“We’ve had a few games this year where we’ve scored just one goal,” she said, “but two of them we ended up losing.

“We just kept telling our players tonight that one goal won’t be enough. We had to keep pushing.”

With that in mind, Owen J. Roberts was in full attack mode for 60 minutes Wednesday night on the way to a 2-0 win over Spring-Ford in the second round of the District 1 Class 3A playoffs.

Junior midfielder Jenna Kirby opened it up with a goal five minutes in, then added another with two minutes to go in regulation to ice a game that provided plenty of action along the way between two familiar Pioneer Athletic Conference opponents.

“We did not want this to be our last game,” said Kirby, who had the game’s opening score in last Thursday’s 3-0 win over Perkiomen Valley in the PAC championship game. “We’re on a high and we want to keep the momentum going. Our goal is to get to states and that’s what’s driving us right now.”

The result moves No. 4-seeded Owen J. Roberts (19-2 overall) to within a win of reaching that goal. The Wildcats will host No. 12 Central Bucks South — a 1-0 winner over Plymouth-Whitemarsh — on Friday with a spot in the PIAA Class AAA playoffs on the line while the loser will drop into the playback round.

No. 13 Spring-Ford’s season comes to a close at 12-7-1 overall, the second year in a row that the Rams’ run at districts ended at the hands of a PAC opponent.

On a night that featured the teams’ third meeting of the season, familiarity was afoot.

The OJR defense shadowed talented Spring-Ford freshman Ashley Sessa all over the field and made life difficult throughout the night for Spring-Ford’s fast-paced offense to settle inside the scoring circle.

“They stopped everything we were throwing at them,” said Spring-Ford head coach Jennie Anderson of Owen J. Roberts. “They played really good team defense. Everywhere we went, there was someone.

“We tried making adjustments, but their defense was just too much for us.”

For the night, Owen J. Roberts held a 12-7 advantage in penalty corners, converting their first try of the night at 24:47.

Kirby inserted the ball to senior defender Natalie Fuertsch at the top of the circle. From there, Fuertsch fired a big blast at the left side of the cage where Kirby was waiting for the finish to make it a 1-0 game.

“It was in the air so I wasn’t sure if I was going to tip it or not,” said Kirby, “but it touched my stick and went into the back of the net. Next thing I knew we were celebrating.”

But not for long.

Owen J. Roberts kept the pressure on throughout the first but couldn’t get anything past Spring-Ford keeper Ashley Della Guardia (11 saves) in the cage for the rest of the half.

Spring-Ford turned up the offensive pressure in the second half, but was struggling to get a clean look at the goal.

Then, the Rams finally got their opportunity.

Spring-Ford sophomore Abbey Boyer picked off an errant pass at midfield and charged all the way down to the cage with the OJR defenders nipping at her heels. Once she got within shooting distance, she was greeted by Wildcats’ goalkeeper Cayden Jarvis, who emerged from the cage to poke the ball away and preserve her team’s 12th shutout of the season.

On her team’s ensuing possession, Kirby finished her second goal off a feed from Olivia Leclaire to give OJR the final 2-0 lead.

“We came in saying, ‘If it’s close, we know we’ve got a shot no matter what the time is on the clock,’” said Anderson. “That’s what we’re most proud of our girls for. They never gave up, just kept fighting the whole game.”

So while Owen J. Roberts is planning for a potential state playoff run, Anderson and the Rams will begin planning for the 2019 season with plenty of promise and experience.

“We’re young. We’re losing some defenders and a big senior class, but we’ve got a lot of young talent,” she said. “So hopefully the experience this year will help us going into next year.”