Hatboro-Horsham shrugs off slow start, edges Methacton in District 1 first round
WORCESTER — For the first 15 minutes of Tuesday’s District 1 opening-round playoff game, the chances for Hatboro-Horsham to win the game looked slim.
Methacton took the play to the Hatters as the Warriors dominated possession as they won six of the first seven face-offs and outshot the Hatboro-Horsham 9-4 early on.
But a crucial man-up situation in at the end of the first half and a dominating offensive effort in the second half led by junior midfielder Syd Rausa helped the Hatters advance with a 14-13 win.
“We were down by like three or four and we were like ‘This is not our last game, we’re doing this for our seniors,'” Rausa said.
Hatboro-Horsham is at Great Valley for a second-round matchup Thursday.
Even though the Hatters was getting thoroughly outplayed in the early going, it was not getting significantly outscored. Hatboro-Horsham never trailed by more than three goals at any point, but the way things were trending it didn’t look good. Ultimately Methacton’s inability to capitalize on more chances during that time really hurt the Warriors in the later stages.
“We threw the ball away,’ Methacton coach Laurie Markle said. “After we went up 4-1 we preceded to throw the ball away.’
The Warriors got good offensive play from a pair of sophomores as attacker Daria Lucchesi and midfielder Jackie Cherchio combined for 10 goals, five apiece. Lucchesi mixed it up around the Hatboro-Horsham crease scoring goals in tight traffic resulting in her on the ground after most of her goals.
“I thought they played well,’ Markle said. “They put the ball in. They made a lot of other mistakes but they put the ball in.’
The effort put in by the Methacton keeper cannot go overlooked either as Sam Rothman tried her best to hold off the tidal wave of the Hatters’ momentum coming at it in the second half. Rothman made 10 stops on the day.
On paper it might have looked like Hatboro-Horsham back-doored its way into the playoffs with its 10-8 record. The reality, however, is the gauntlet of a schedule it puts its self through every year prepares it for games just like this and it was the ability of the Hatters to learn through its lumps and losses, which is why the Hatters are now advancing in the playoffs.
“Playing the tougher teams, we lose and we don’t (let it get into) our heads,’ Rausa said. “We just use it as a learning experience, we transfer their play and then turn it into ours.’
