Pennridge keeps playoff hopes alive with win over Hatboro-Horsham

EAST ROCKHILL >> Pennridge senior attack Maddie Dachowski netted her 100th career goal at the 12:36 mark in the first half of Monday’s Suburban One League non-conference matchup with Hatboro-Horsham. She couldn’t celebrate for long as the goal gave her team a slim two -goal lead.

It was Dachowski’s fourth and final goal of the game that put the Rams up for good as her goal with 7:39 left, giving Pennridge a 11-9 lead, helped it close out for a 12-10 win.

“Maddie is a great player she loves the crease role,” Pennridge coach Karen Schnurr said. “She has a great shot. We knew it was coming, I wasn’t sure when it was going to come and tonight was just a beautiful shot.”

Dachowski’s goal, her 100th, was just part of crazy first half that saw huge momentum swings as Hatboro-Horsham scored the first two goals of the game with Pennridge responding with the next six. The Hatters answered that by scoring the next four tying the game at six. The Rams scored the last two goals of the half to take an 8-6 halftime lead.

Entering the game Pennridge knew the game would have implications on its playoff status, as will every remaining game on its schedule. The Rams were able to buckle down and answer just about every counter that the Hatters hit them with.

“We just have hustlers and they want playoffs so bad,” Schnurr said. “We’ve wanted playoffs since last year and we knew beating Hatboro-Horsham helped our chances at getting into the playoffs.”

The Hatters were able to do much of its damage in the midfield. Super speedy senior Syd Rousa helped keep Hatboro-Horsham in the game but too many turnovers and costly mistakes eventually caught up with the Hatters.

Hatboro-Horsham turned the ball over 15 times in the game to 10 for Pennridge.

“I think we made way too many mistakes and they capitalized on them,” Hatboro-Horsham coach Marie Schmucker said. “We have to make few mistakes and know where your second pass is immediately instead of waiting for them to collapse.”

As the game ticked down into its final minutes the Rams found themselves in unfamiliar territory—trying to protect a lead. Pennridge looked fairly comfortable as it tried to play keep away from the Hatters to run out the clock in an important victory for the Rams playoff hopes.

“We’ve been working on that because I knew there would be games like tonight or North Penn where we would have to kill two or three minutes off the clock,” Schnurr said.

The loss moves Hatboro-Horsham to 3-10 on the season but with one of the tougher non-league schedules its record isn’t fully indicative of the way the Hatters have played this year especially with some younger players in the lineup and a completely revamped coaching staff.

“Each game we’re improving tremendously,” Schmucker said. “It’s tough having a whole group of girls that have new coaches … I don’t think the record overall really displays what we’ve been doing.”