Moritz scores twice, Souderton bolsters postseason seeding with win over Mount St. Joseph

SPRINGFIELD >> With the District One playoffs just around the corner, there is no such thing as an unimportant soccer game.

So after Souderton topped host Mount Saint Joseph, 4-1, Wednesday afternoon, the favorite topic of conversation for both head coaches was the postseason.

“We’re sitting at 12 in Quad A, so we’re in good shape,” said Souderton head coach Chris Felber after a pair of goals by Taylor Moritz helped push the Indians to the non-league victory. “If we can stay in the top half of the district, we should be in good shape.”

The win was big for the visitors, who took a 1-0 lead by the half, added another goal in the first 2:00 of the second half, then survived an early second-half goal by the Magic’s Paige Comtois, got two quick goals by Moritz and Allie Trick and coasted home.

“We were just happy to get back to playing our game,” Moritz said. “We wanted to play at our pace, not the frantic stuff that high school soccer can become at times.”

Souderton carried play throughout the first half, keeping the ball in the Magic’s end for most of the 40 minutes.

The Mount, coming off a tough loss to Catholic Academy’s League rival Villa Joseph Marie, looked winded, but rallied to play a stronger second half, buoyed by Comtois’ free-kick tally shortly after Meredith Moore doubled the Souderton advantage early soon after the start of the second half, but it didn’t slow down the Mount.

“We really played well against Villa,” said Magic head coach Bill Naydan. “It was understandable that the girls came out a little tired after that game, but it was also good to see that when they got behind they came back stronger.

“That’s something we’ve talked about doing, not getting down after we get behind, and the girls came back hard instead of fading, and that’s what we want to see.”

With the match in hand, both sides substituted liberally.

Felber even reinserted Moritz in hopes of getting her a hat trick, and instead she passed off to a teammate in hopes of getting her a goal.

“Yeah, that’s what we’re trying to do, play as a team and get into the playoffs,” Moritz said. “But we can’t be happy with just making the playoffs. We want to go farther and get to states.”

The Magic, meanwhile, were hoping to make their mark in the AAA classification.

“We have a couple of winnable games coming up,” Naydan said. “One of the things we need to do come back strong after a loss, and I thought we did that today.

“It’s one of the things we’ve talked about all year and the girls have been using a loss as motivation to come back and play hard the next day.

“It’s great to see.”

Top Photo:  Mount Saint Joseph’s Ashely Pyne boots the ball past Souderton’s Campbell Power during their game on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016. (Bob Raines/Digital First Media)