Lansdale Catholic knocks off Archbishop Wood 2-0
LANSDALE >> Over the past five seasons, Archbishop Wood has been one the best girls soccer teams in the Philadelphia Catholic League. Over that same span, Lansdale Catholic has been one of the biggest thorns in the Vikings’ side, having defeated Wood four times in the last five years, including a playoff victory.
One of those four LC victories came Thursday afternoon as the Crusaders earned the 2-0 win as the teams played in less than ideal conditions to put it lightly.
“This was huge for us,” LC coach Tom O’Donnell said. “We really struggled against (Archbishop) Ryan and I think our confidence was a little shaken.”
The rain was light at the beginning of the game but the offensive attack and barrage of Crusader shots was not. LC jumped on Wood from the opening tap as sophomore Kate Henesey put the Crusaders up 1-0 after a couple near misses less than 10 minutes into the game.
“We had one (shot) clank off the cross bar and we had another narrow miss so we started very strong,” O’Donnell said. “I enjoyed that first half a lot I didn’t want it to end.”
Erin Andris added the second goal for Lansdale Catholic, which improved to 8-3-2 (6-1-0 PCL).
The name of the game for the Crusaders was pressure. Offensively, LC pressured the Wood defense by consistently getting balls deep in the Vikings’ zone, forcing Wood to make tough plays to get the ball out of the zone.
LC also used pressure on defense, the Crusaders aggressively attacking the ball from the midfield all the way to its own zone. The pressure defense was effective against the Wood ball handlers, as the Vikings at times looked unsure and threw some blind passes that didn’t work.
“They were winning the 50/50 balls,” Wood coach Bill Cappo said. “They put the pressure (on us) and they took the game away from us. They pressured, they took us off our game.”
Wood generated a couple scoring chances around the 65th minute, but for the most never put a consistent offensive attack together. A couple of bright spots for the Vikings were the performances of freshman Sierra Tarantino and senior captain Erin Eckert as the two played well in the midfield.
“They played well,” Cappo said. “They hustled. They were creating some opportunities. The couple opportunities we had we didn’t finish.”
O’Donnell was very pleased with his team’s upset victory but he knows a Catholic League playoff rematch is looms in the future and will “not be as easy.”
Top Photo: Lansdale Catholic’s Sarah Opdyke and Archbishop Wood’s Leah Brzezicki battle for a head ball during their game on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015. (Bob Raines/Montgomery Media)
