Souderton pulls away to beat North Penn, end 2-game skid

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TOWAMENCIN >> Maybe it was some kind of ESP that lead to Meredith Moore heading a Ellie Andrade corner kick into the far corner of the goal early in the second half Tuesday night.

“Meredith told me after the corner she said she thinks we have a type of telepathy,” Andrade said. “We’ve been playing with each other since were like 8 years old. And she says she knows where I put my corners, so she just runs to that spot.”

But it did not take a mind reader to know Moore’s tally swung the momentum back in the Indians’ favor – restoring the two-goal advantage Big Red grabbed in the opening nine minutes of its Suburban One League Continental Conference match with host North Penn.

“It’s was exciting. A 2-1 lead is kind of dangerous in soccer, but a 3-1 lead is pretty hard to come back from that,” Andrade said.

Souderton added two more before the game’s finish – including a second by Moore – and put an end to a two-game losing streak with a 5-1 victory over the Knights.

“We never going to try and defend that early, we’re going to try and score more goals. We want to get two, three goals a game minimum, so 2-1, plan was still to get three goals,” Souderton coach Chris Felber said. “We want to get three goals, so get out there and score again. And once we scored again, we knew we could start shutting it down.”

Andrade put the Indians up 1-0 at 33:37 in the first half with Tori Dowd doubling the lead just 2:26 later.

Anna Pedicone’s high-arcing free kick got over Souderton goalkeeper Vivian Feliciani’s reach as North Penn cut the margin to 2-1, but Moore’s header at 35:31 in the second half gave the Indians (3-2-0, 3-1-0 conference) back a cushion as it collected five goals for the first time since beating Quakertown 5-0 last season.

“They scored four of the five goals on basically the same type of play that we can’t cover or defensively we just didn’t have it,” Knights coach Jim Dehner said. “Two goals in the first half within three minutes of each of other – that was a backbreaker. But then we came back.

“I thought we had better play going into that second half and then the second half I think that third goal on their corner I think that was a backbreaker. So, defensively we didn’t play well.”

The five goals allowed were the most for a North Penn squad since falling to West Chester Rustin 7-0 in 2013. Tuesday’s defeat was the second straight after the Knights (4-4-0, 2-2-0)  had won four in a row.

“This is surprising. We’re not a 5-1 loss team like this,” Dehner said. “But when you give up four of the five goals the same exact way, there’s something that we just mentally weren’t there defensively. We just didn’t pick it up.”

The win was Souderton’s first since beating Central Bucks East – last season’s District 1-AAA champ – 1-0 on Sept. 9. The Indians fell in 1-0 in double overtime to Elizabethtown the next day, then lost to Pennridge 2-0 last Thursday.

“I think we played really, really well,” Andrade said. “We just moved to the ball on the ground so well and that’s the opposite of what North Penn does and that’s what we needed to do during the Pennridge game. So we really redeemed ourselves.”

Both teams have SOL Continental games Thursday. North Penn is at Central Bucks South at 3:30 p.m. while Souderton — in a four-way tie for first in the conference with Pennridge, CB East and CB South at nine points — hosts Central Bucks West at 5 p.m.

Andrade opened scoring Tuesday by finding the back of the net off a Dowd assist in the seventh minute.

“Tori had a great cross, Tori crossed it to me and I think it deflected off a defender,” Andrade said. “I just shot it, cause that’s what we’re told to do, shoot when you get in the 18.”

Dowd made it 2-0, putting in a shot after Allie Trick laid off a ball to her at 31:11. Pedicone got North Penn back within a goal, using her right foot to loft a free kick from the sideline in at 14:08.

Ava Lehrman created a chance to level the contest a few minutes later, winning a few battles on a run in the middle of the field, but her shot went directly to Feliciani.

“Anna, who scored the free kick I mean she’s dangerous, she good, she’s powerful. It’s a great shot, I’m pretty sure she’s not crossing that, she’s thinking goal the whole way,” Felber said. “So we knew we had to stop them and there’s certainly times they kind of stretched us a little bit, but all and all I thought we dealt with it pretty good.”

But Souderton took a 3-1 less than five minutes after halftime after a Trick shot on goal was saved by NP keeper Hannah Lambert and went out for a corner. Andrade connected with Moore to put Big Red up two at 35:31.

The Indians went up 4-1 at 27:18 as Dowd found an unmarked Trick right in front and Trick one-timed it into the net. Moore earned her brace and tallied Souderton’s fifth goal at 14:30 with a blast to the top of the goal off a through ball from Bre DeRenzi.

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Mike Cabrey

Mike Cabrey
Mike Cabrey is the Assistant Sports Editor for The Reporter and Montgomery News. Email him at mcabrey@thereporteronline.com.

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