Plymouth Whitemarsh attack gets going in win over North Penn
TOWAMENCIN >> Ali Diamond moved to within three goals of the 200 mark for her career, Sopie Kolkka crept closer to the 100-goal plateau, and Plymouth Whitemarsh’s offense sizzled in key stretches, riding along to a 13-5 victory over North Penn Friday.
“We have a lot of seniors on the attack,” said Vic Betterly, who piled up four goals and four assists in the non-conference victory, on the turf at NP. “We’ve just been playing together so long that we know exactly where we are (on the field) at this point. We don’t even need to talk really.”
The Colonials, first place in the Suburban One League American Conference, got goals from six different players in raising their overall record to 10-3 on the season.
PW jumped out to a 7-1 lead by the half, two scores each by Diamond and Betterly helping to provide the push. The Knights closed to within 7-4 after the break, but after that it was all PW.
“It got a little rocky in the second half to start, but we pulled it together,” said Betterly.
Fastest on the Draw
The Colonials closed out with a 6-1 run.
“Once I talked to them, they got themselves together and fought for the draw,” Colonials coach Ellen Reilly said.
“Draw controls — that’s what it came down to,” Knights coach Heather Mellow said. “You possess the ball, you’re gonna score. You’re gonna wind up being the winner in the end if you can get most of the draw controls.
“Normally, we do a good job of draw controls. That’s one of our strengths. Against these guys, we just couldn’t put it together.”
The Colonials were able to work it around, with many different weapons finding and firing the open shots. Diamond, Baskin and Lexi Petrakis scored twice, Kolkka scored her 97th and 98th career goals and Kennedy Reardon added a tally.
“Ali knows she’s gonna be face-guarded so she does things for other people,” Reilly said. “And passing to those younger kids who are just learning how to play the game, that helps them.
“I have a good group of seniors and they know how to play the game.”
The Colonials got momentum back for good when Kolkka popped one in, extending the margin to 8-4 with 13 minutes to play.
“(PW) has a lot of scoring options. They’re a strong team,” Mellow said. “And I thought our defense stepped up to the challenge. They did a nice job. They worked really hard. Unfortunately, you can’t get beat down that many times and not have teams score on you.”
Pushing Forward
PW is at rival Wissahickon Monday.
The Knights (5-6), who got a goal and an assist from Bri O’Donnell, now get ready for a National clash at rival Pennridge on Monday.
“We need to come out fighting,” Mellow said.
