North Penn boys, girls remain unbeaten with wins over Souderton

TOWAMENCIN >> The offense had a half dozen different players contributing goals, and in the final seconds, the defense held tough to accomplish a goal of its own.

“We’re really working on trying to keep every team under five goals,” said North Penn senior Haley Muth. “We’ve been working on keeping our defense up, shutting down ball-side drives.

“We focused on keeping everything clean, getting off to a strong start. Sometimes we tend to have a slow start so we really worked on that first quarter, getting our speed up.”

The Knights gained a 2-1 edge in that first quarter and then broke it open to 5-1 by the half, ultimately pulling away to an 11-4 victory over rival Souderton on Thursday evening in the first half of a doubleheader. The North Penn boys would follow with a 14-9 victory over the Indians to complete the sweep for NP.

“We know every team in the (Suburban One) League and in the state is looking out for us,” Muth said, as the Knights have begun their state title defense in impressive fashion this fall. “We keep our heads up and keep doing what we’re doing. Our coaches are really supportive and they work us really hard during practice.”

Muth converted on a pass from Ryleigh Warner to stretch the North Penn lead to 3-1 early in the second quarter. Kaelan Daly scored for the Knights (3-0) and Abbie Broadhead soon lofted one into the far corner, making it a 5-1 margin by the break.

“We were working on clean shots, working the ball around on man-ups, making good passes,” Muth said.

The Knights raised their unbeaten record to 3-0, with a consistent, cohesive effort at both ends of the pool.

Said Muth of this squad: “This is awesome. (Being a senior), I wanna end on a good note. The last three years, it was great to have that experience with the other upper classmen leading us to the state championship. So we just wanna keep that tradition going.

“We’re really close. It’s great working together, and playing the sport that we love.”

The North Penn boys (4-0) jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the first quarter and maintained at least a four-goal advantage throughout.

Souderton, with contributions from Jake Kramer, Reid Sinkinson and Will Leyland, pushed to within 8-4 in the third quarter, but a goal by the Knights’ Nick Clark helped sway momentum back in North Penn’s direction.

A Sean Faikish-to-Chris Killion connection powered the Knights’ advantage up to 12-5, which would grow to 13-5 by the end of the third. A goal by Nick Forte capped things off for the Knights.