Phoenixville tops Upper Perkiomen for first time since 2011

RED HILL — The tide has turned.

For three years Phoenixville had felt the sting of a potent Upper Perkiomen attack led by now-graduated Casey Umstead, Morgan Aldinger, Maddie Fox and others.

Now, with a victory on Monday afternoon, the Phantoms seem poised to take the reins of the Frontier Division that has long been in the clutches of Upper Perkiomen.

Bailey Quinn continued her torrid scoring pace, tallying two first-half goals while Haley White and TJ Jefferis also scored as the Phantoms’ win streak climbed to six games with a 4-0 victory over Upper Perkiomen.

The win was Phoenixville’s first over the Tribe since Sept. 9, 2011. They had been outscored 13-3 since that date.

“This is definitely a good win for us,’ Phoenixville head coach John Tornetta said. “It’s a good confidence builder because they’ve had our number the last couple of years and have been a thorn in our side.’

“It feels awesome to beat them,’ Jefferis, an East Stroudsburg recruit for lacrosse said. “It was our first win over them since we were freshmen.’

“It feels great, I’m pretty sure the whole team feels that way too,’ Quinn, who leads the league with 17 goals, said.

Phoenixville (2-0 PAC-10, 6-0 overall) held the Tribe (1-1 PAC-10, 1-3 overall) without a shot in the first half while it peppered Tribe goalkeeper Hannah Mack with twelve shots, three of them finding the back of the cage. Phoenixville also held the advantage in corners, 6-2. The team’s dominating half came as a surprise to Tornetta.

“I didn’t think it was going to be like that at all,’ the 17th year coach said. “I knew we were going make an offensive push and I knew our defense was pretty solid but I assumed that they would put some more pressure on us than what it was.

“We connected well, we put the pressure on and kept the ball in the offensive zone for pretty much the whole half, you can’t ask for better than that from our team.’

Quinn was the first to cash in on the Phantoms’ aggression as she stole the ball from an Upper Perkiomen defender after a restart and put it past Mack to give the team a 1-0 advantage two minutes in.

Ten minutes later it was White who cashed in after she collected a rebound off of Mack from a Katie McErlean shot and stuffed it home.

Quinn rounded out the scoring with 40 seconds remaining in the half as she displayed some nifty stick work before hitting a lethal reverse chip while falling to the turf. The shot evaded a Tribe defender before finding its way past Mack to give the Phantoms a 3-0 lead.

“We’ve been coming out strong the last couple of games,’ Quinn said. “That’s how its been the last couple of games.’

Phoenixville’s momentum carried into the second half as the team earned six corners in a five minute span before Jefferis hit a rocket that blazed past a diving Mack.

But it was the Tribe who found some life late. Upper Perkiomen tallied six shots and induced five corners within the last five minutes, nearly capitalizing with eight minutes remaining as a Michaela Swenk shot went just wide of target.

“We had a much better second half,’ Upper Perkiomen head coach Jamie Warren said. “We’re just still finding places for everybody on the field so that we can field a competitive, strong team.’

For Tornetta and Phoenixville, it’s all about staying in the moment and trying to continue to move forward.

“No one’s looking up to us, we still have a long way to go,’ he said. “These girls know that we’re just taking things one game at a time.’