Abington displays dominance in SOL American win over Springfield

After giving up the first five goals of the game to the Suburban One American Conference leading Abington, Springfield rallied to score four of the next five goals to cut the Ghosts lead to 6-4.
Unfortunately for the Spartans the two-goal deficit would be as close as they would get.
After the fourth Springfield goal scored by Fiona Tran with 15 seconds remaining before the half would result in an answer from Abington.
Cathy Staerk scored with one second remaining before halftime with an assist from Sam McGee to give the Ghosts a 7-4 lead at half.
The second half was all Abington as the Ghosts amassed a 10-goal lead in the opening 11 minutes of the half. Abington scored 10 goals in total the second half headlined by four goals from Mikki Raymond and a goal and an assist from McGee, who finished with three goals and two assists as the Ghosts closed out for a 17-7 win.
“Ground balls and draws. In that way I’m happy about the result,” Abington coach Amanda Kammes said. “I thought we cleaned it up a lot in the second half. I think the second half was a much better effort.”
As the Ghosts were closing out on the Spartans Emily Tran was making the most of the limited possessions Springfield was getting as she cashed in for three second half goals in the final 8:37.
“That’s lax IQ and understanding what we’re looking for,” Kammes said of her team’s overwhelming possession time. “I thought in the first half we were forcing the issue.”
Judging from the reaction of Kammes on the sideline for much of the game one wouldn’t get the sense that her team was controlling the game.
“It’s not about the win or loss or the goal margin its about the brand of lacrosse that we’re playing. If its clean, if its messy and I was just disappointed with the fact that we were sloppy today.” Kammes said.
After a first round exit in the District One playoffs a year ago, losing to CB South in a 16/17 matchup 18-8, Abington returns more than a handful of the key players that got them to that point a year ago.
“We’ve just got to take care of our conference first,” Kammes said. “Hopefully, collectively the Central League prep and the out of conference stuff is going to prepare us for those games that we don’t even know who we’re going to play because it all depends on your seeding. We talk about that CB South game quite a bit.”
Abington improved its record to 6-1 with the win Thursday afternoon with its lone loss, a 4-2 loss to Ridley, with some tough matchups still remaining on the schedule. The Ghosts know that games remaining with Wissahickon and Garnet Valley, both coming in the final week of the season, will likely determine the conference champion and will go a long way in district seeding.
“Right now it’s one game at a time but certainly I think we have the talent this year with a lot of key returners to make a splash in the playoffs,” Kammes said. “District One is any ones game every year. A lot is going to depend on where we get seeded and what our road looks like.”