Ruth leads North Penn past Avon Grove in District 1-4A first round

TOWAMENCIN >> Lauren Ruth, North Penn’s heat-seeking missile, scored a pair of goals Tuesday night, helped set up another, and perfectly exemplified the Knights’ team speed right from the start.

“You really don’t wanna defend against her,” North Penn coach Steve Whitby said of the senior, “because she’s tracking you down. If you have the ball at your feet, watch out, because she’s coming.

“She’s a really good player, a top-quality player. She’s one of the best players in (the Suburban One League). She just provides that spark, right from the get-go. She provides the intensity like nobody else.”

Ruth pointed the way, as 14th-seeded North Penn earned an impressive 4-0 victory over No. 19 Avon Grove in the opening round of the District 1-4A Tournament. The Knights now advance to a Thursday second-round game at No. 3 Pennridge.

“We’re really hungry and we wanna make it further,” Ruth said after a cool, crisp night on the turf at NP. 

The Knights went up 1-0 midway through the first half, on a goal by Zoei Baines. Baines was plenty active, also setting up one of Ruth’s tallies. 

Ruth finished off a two-on-one break for the Knights to make it a 2-0 advantage at the intermission and then scored again midway through the second half to widen the gap to 3-0.

“We play with a lot of offense and we work until we can’t work anymore,” Ruth said of the tempo. “We’re not giving up until the ball is in the back of the net.

“The defense played hard and (keeper) Ashley (Schmidt) made a really good save. We haven’t been in the playoffs in three years so we wanna make a difference, make a name for ourselves.”

Generating plenty of pressure throughout, North Penn capped the scoring when Sophia Broadhurst put one in with six minutes to play.

“I was really proud of her, to see her put it in the back of the net,” Whitby said. 

The key save by Schmidt – she had three in all – came late in the first half, with the Red Devils nearly cutting the deficit to 2-1.

“We were a couple inches away there,” Avon Grove coach Joe Herman said. “The goal keeper made a beautiful save…That team was fast. They had a lot of team speed.

“I’m so proud of this team. They have done nothing but battle and play together, and work as hard as they possibly could this whole season. And to get to the playoffs was just a great accomplishment for them.”