Germantown Academy tests mettle in loss to Pennington School
WHITEMARSH >> Soccer can be a very fickle game.
Take for instance, the last two matches the Germantown Academy girls soccer team has played. Over the weekend, GA topped Archbishop Wood, but the Patriots’ performance wasn’t nearly as good as they felt they were capable of. Tuesday, against one of New Jersey’s top programs in The Pennington School, GA felt it put on a much better performance.
Yet, GA still dropped the match as Pennington used a brace from Kelli Collins to best the Patriots 2-0.
“I love playing them because it gives you a chance to measure yourself,” GA coach Chris Nelson said. “They knocked the ball around real well, they have a lot of kids with a lot of speed and I thought we held our own.
“It’s a nice stepping stone for us, it was a way better game than we played Saturday, even if we won on Saturday.”
The Raiders didn’t have a ton of size, but they were certainly feisty and had a ridiculous amount of pace at every position on the pitch. Their pressure was a constant presence throughout the 80 minutes of play, and it seemed like every time a GA player made a pass or a clear, there would be one or two white kits closing to the ball in seconds.
Playing Pennington created a great test for a GA side that’s still finding its identity early in the season. Two of last season’s top attackers — Mac Pluck and Bailey Gilmore — graduated and the defense is going through the growing process every group in the back has to at some point.
“It’s a good test for us, I thought we played really well and I was proud of the way we finished,” GA senior midfielder Katie Hackley said. “There were a lot of little things that could have made a big difference. A few of our free kicks, or Ally (Clark’s) header, we were really close and I’m proud that we stayed with them the whole time.”
The fact GA didn’t score wasn’t for a lack of effort, as the Patriots put in a high-energy 80 minutes but more the stellar play of Pennington keeper Sophia Kavulich. The sophomore keeper made six saves on six GA shots and two particularly outstanding stops on Clark, the Columbia-bound GA senior.
Late in the first half, Clark put an absolute rocket on frame that Kavulich jumped and palmed over the crossbar, yielding a corner but saving a momentum-shifting goal and then went totally horizontal to stuff a Clark header off a corner kick in the game’s final minutes.
“As I said to our players, (Pennington) is as good or better than any Inter-Ac team we’re going to face so I feel good looking at our game with (Episcopal Academy) on Friday intensity-wise, we’re totally ready,” Nelson said. “I was really impressed that we ran hard for 80 minutes and they really competed.”
Both Pennington goals came off some excellent passing and great work by Collins, but were also the type that GA is hoping to clean up going forward. On the first, which came with a shade more than 12 minutes left in the opening half, the Raiders were able to pressure a GA clear, win the ball and had Ellie Hawkey play Collins in for a composed finish on the counter.
The second goal, which came just a few minutes into the second half came through a defensive breakdown. Pennington’s Kylie Daigle, a sophomore verbally committed to Villanova, threaded a through ball between two GA defenders to Collins, who took a deft touch right, got the keeper to commit, then tucked the ball into the back of the net.
“That is a great test on our backs,” Nelson said. “It’s a mistake in the first half where she got clear and gave a girl with that much speed too much space and the second half is just a miscommunication. Again, they made a great play on it, not to take away from the finish, but we can clean that up.”
GA got strong play in the back from central defenders Maddie Burns and Riley Axenroth, outside back Elizabeth Van Blarcom was very active and keeper Lilly Altomare controlled her box well on a couple corners and free kicks.
One thing Hackley, who has committed to Delaware, noticed early on with this team is there are a lot of players who want to be involved.
“It was a good test for our strength as a team, they were really aggressive and we stayed with them,” Hackley said. “We have a lot of good freshmen; all our freshmen on varsity are forwards so I think we’re pretty strong in the attack still.”
Three of those freshmen, Lilly Funk, Cassidy Palazzo and Alexis Goodridge along with junior Grace Kaupas, played well against Pennington’s quick back line and the Patriots got solid midfield minutes from Grace McGettigan and Kiley Kergides alongside Clark and Hackley
Hackley felt her team responded well after both Pennington goals, with each tally forcing the Patriots to up their level of play to contend with the swarming Raiders. The senior believes GA’s fitness will be an asset throughout the season and Tuesday’s performance backed it up as the midfielder felt her teammates were going full bore every minute.
Going forward, she wants the Patriots to get better stepping defensively as a team, which is a task that doesn’t come overnight for a squad at any level. On the same note, the Patriots have been making an emphasis to switch the point of attack.
GA begins Inter-Ac play on Friday at home against Episcopal in what should be a tough and competitive league slate.
“We just need to work a little bit harder going forward, stepping together as a team and using the forwards as the first defender with the whole team following suit,” Hackley said. “The team chemistry, we’ve already grown a lot and it’s still the beginning of the season.”
