Plymouth Whitemarsh beats Springfield-Montco for first win

SPRINGFIELD >> Both Plymouth Whitemarsh and Springfield entered Tuesday’s Suburban One League American Conference game searching for their first victory.

All the goals scored in the game came during an 18-minute stretch in the first half. Springfield struck first but PW netted the final two as the Colonials notched their first win of the season by a 2-1 margin over their conference opponent.

“It feels good to get one under your belt,” PW coach Ryan Zehreh said. “There definitely were some tough results (earlier in the season) but the girls battled through the adversity and came out here and got a victory.”

Emily Giampietro got the scoring started as she scored on free kick from 30-plus yards out from the goal just before the midway point in the first half. While Giampietro scored the only goal of the game for the Spartans it wasn’t the only impact she had on the game. The senior was a ball hawk in the midfield for Springfield (0-5-0, 0-2-0 conference) all day.

“I think Emily Giampietro probably played the best for us at center half, I thought she was all over the field, 100 percent and didn’t give up ever,” Springfield coach Suzette Wolf said.

Sarah Putsch for the Colonials (1-3-0, 1-2-0) countered Giampietro’s midfield play. Although Putsch got called for several fouls during the game, her aggressive play help spark some quality runs for the PW offense.

“She definitely does bring a physical presence to the game,” Zehreh said of Putsch. “Sometimes we have to tame that but I’ll take being physical over not being physical any day of the week.”

Just less than two minutes after Giampietro gave Springfield the lead, Colonials freshman Annika Shula tied the game as she banged home a bouncing ball in the Springfield box off a corner opportunity struck by Lauren Fortscue.

With just about four minutes remaining until halftime Alyse Caffrey put home the second PW goal. Caffrey’s goal was scored in similar fashion to Shula’s, a bouncing ball near the Springfield goal that she was able to convert.

The Colonials went into halftime with the lead but not before keeper Haley Zygmunt made a couple of point-blank saves on Spartan shooters to preserve the first-half lead.

“Its her first year playing goalie and she been a machine back there,” said Zehreh of Zygmunt. “At the end of the first half, she made three saves in a row on the same play. If it wasn’t for her that game would have been 2-2 and it would have been a completely different story in the second half.”

Coming out of halftime Springfield controlled a lot of the possession in the second half however the PW defense was able to prevent Springfield from getting the quality looks at the net that it needed to get a game-tying goal.