William Tennent girls soccer proving it belongs in SOL Continental
WARMINSTER >> It’s not hard to spot the outlier among the Suburban One League Continental girls soccer schools.
Since 2011, Pennridge, Central Bucks East, Central Bucks West and Central Bucks South have played for a state title. Souderton has made districts the last two years and is on course to not only do it again, but contend for a first-round bye. North Penn boasts one of the largest enrollments in the state. They’re all big schools with deep talent pools.
Then, there’s William Tennent.
Sure it’s easy to overlook the Panthers, but the way this season has been going, that wouldn’t be wise. Tennent is on a roll and after knocking off previously unbeaten Pennridge on Tuesday night, the Panthers are believing in themselves.
“I think coming in as a team that was not expected to do as well in a conference that’s so big, it’s just really exciting to see everyone working together and surprising teams,” Tennent senior Nikki Reh said. “It’s completely a team effort. We have so many girls scoring and providing everything we have.”
Pennridge came to Tennent playing some excellent soccer. The Rams had conceded just one goal all season and were scaling to the top of the district power rankings. William Tennent senior Brianna Broccardi said it was a game that last year, her team would have been intimidated by.
When Tennent’s seniors were freshman, the team was the last team into the District I playoffs before losing a heart-breaker in the first round at Spring-Ford. The next two years, the Panthers couldn’t get back to the postseason and last year, left the SOL National for the Continental.
The Panthers weren’t pushovers, but they lost more than they won in conference play last year.
“This is awesome, I’ve never experienced this in high school,” Broccardi said. “I thought going into this year that it was going to be like last year. We’re in this tough division, it feels like all these teams have been state champs. Us coming in and beating these teams, it’s insane, it’s incredible and it’s such a good experience, especially your senior year.”
GIRLS SOCCER 11:15 2nd half: William Tennent 3, Pennridge 2
Brianna Broccardi from way out on a free kick pic.twitter.com/2S99QlSPfQ— Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3) September 27, 2017
Bill Hontz was an assistant the past three years but took over as head coach this fall. Many of the players he coached for years in club ball graduated last year, but he knew he had a good foundation of seniors including Reh, Broccardi, Ashley Rivera and Erin McDonald.
Tennent also has an influx of underclassmen playing pivotal roles. Freshman Caroline Weir not only forced Pennridge into a mistake at the back, she finished the chance for the first goal of the Panthers’ 3-2 win on Tuesday. Junior Rebecca Smith scored the team’s second goal, sophomore Liz Layer has been a midfield mainstay and sophomore Olivia Miller has been a scoring threat of late.
This recent run began with a wild 4-3 win at North Penn, where Miller bagged a hat trick, and showed the Panthers they could do more than hang with the bigger schools.
“It was a big start for us and we’ve just continued with that, we’re rolling,” Hontz said. “To keep it rolling and to know with every team in this division, it’s tough, there’s not really a bottom and any team can win on a given night.”
Reh and Broccardi said Hontz has brought a lot of positivity, encouragement and belief to the squad this year. He’s also managed to keep his players grounded and focused solely on the moment at hand. It’s a major reason they claimed victories over CB East and Strath Haven in back-to-back matches prior to facing the Rams.
Topping the Rams, who had conceded just a single goal for the entire season entering play on Tuesday, took all that Tennent had. A 2-0 halftime lead evaporated in a flash after an Ashley Groeber free kick and a Lindsey DeHaven chip shot.
“Brianna and I both said it, we were on our heels at that point,” Reh said. “We were sitting back, we didn’t have the intensity anymore. We basically said get it together and have intensity, get back on our toes and I think we did that.”
Broccardi struck the game-winner with 11:15 left on the clock when she hit a 40-yard free kick as perfectly as possible, sending the ball screaming into the top corner of the net.
“Everyone was telling me to shoot it, I usually can kick from about this far out,” Broccardi said. “I had to get over the ball. I had to. Otherwise, they tend to curve, so I had to get over the ball and I got over it perfect, it went to the far corner. We needed that to go in so bad.”
Tennent is a little unorthodox in its style. They attack teams from distance, whether it be Broccardi shelling away free kicks or Reh using her well-honed long throw-ins to pick out players 20 yards across the field, and they pressure opponents relentlessly.
Pennridge is a fine technical team, able to move the ball quickly and with precision, but the Panthers gave them next to no time to do it.
“Intensity. That’s all it comes down to,” Reh said. “It might not be the prettiest game that we play, but we have intensity and we want it more than anyone else on the field. We’ve never had this. We want it so much and it’s so exciting to see that Tennent is turning heads.”
Of course, the season isn’t even halfway over yet and the Panthers know they’ve still got a lot of work to do. They have to go to Souderton on Thursday, with the teams now tied for third in the Continental and run the entire Continental gauntlet again. Teams won’t be overlooking Tennent anymore.
“Teams would say ‘oh we’re playing Tennent, that’s an easy win,’ now that we’re beating some of these teams, they’re not going to be expecting that anymore,” Broccardi said. “We’re going to have to come out with that same intensity. We’re going to have to be even stronger than we were before.”
