CB East shuts out Souderton again, advances to District 1-3A semifinals

BUCKINGHAM >> The Souderton field hockey found no charm in its third meeting with Central Bucks East.

After the Patriots earned a pair of 1-0 victories over the Indians in the regular season, the only thing different in the third go-round between the Suburban One League Continental Conference rivals in Friday afternoon’s District 1-3A quarterfinal was the score.

Mackenzie Lever scored 3 minutes, 59 seconds into the contest off a penalty corner, top-seeded East added another before the break then added another in the second half as the Patriots shut out the No. 8 Indians 3-0 at 1st Lt. Colby J. Umbrell Field at Patriot Stadium.

“They beat us to the ball today. They were the better team today,” Souderton coach Sue Casciato said. “We didn’t bring our best effort. They were quicker, their goalie made some great saves when we did get some good shots off so like I said they played much better as a team today than we did.”

Phia Mannino doubled the East lead at 5:53 in the first half while Allison Gallant added the third goal as the Patriots (19-1-0) advanced to the district semifinals for the second straight season and earned a PIAA berth for the third consecutive year.

“I think today we knew what was on the line,” said Lever, a sophomore committed to James Madison. “We knew that if we won, we’d be going to states and I think that was a big part of us playing today and knowing that we had to win. And so I think that definitely changed the game a little bit.”

Emily Bullard made eight saves for CB East, which hosts No. 4 Owen J. Roberts — a 4-1 winner over No. 12 Central Bucks South — in the semis Tuesday.

“My big goal was to try to play CB East field hockey,” Patriots coach Meghann Spratt said. “Our passing game was perfect and our pressure and our defense and our goalkeeper, every single person on the field played really ,really well today.”

Jordan Michalak stopped three shots for Souderton (16-3-0), which still can qualify for states but now do so though playbacks with the Indians hosting CB South Tuesday in the teams’ third meeting this year –—the Indians taking the first two. Winner clinches one of District 1’s final two PIAA bids.

“We’ve been successful this year so we’ll talk Monday,” Casciato said. “We did make some changes here today because we had a couple kids that were sick. Some things worked so we might change things up a little bit just because South has seen us a couple times, too. Just to keep things fresh and they can’t key on the same players.”

Lever made it 1-0 East at 36:01 on the Patriots’ second penalty corner. Lever passed the ball out of the circle to Emma Donnelly, who sent it right back in to Lever for a one-timer that slid through some traffic and into the goal.

“I think, honestly, when the ball came to me I was just debating whether to do a drive or hit it in,” Lever said. “I just closed my eyes and hit it and luckily it just slipped through.

The Patriots took advantage of another corner to go up 2-0. Molly Eron got by a Souderton defender to get into the circle and sent the ball forward. Mannino was in the path and knocked the ball into the cage at 5:53.

“I think we weren’t going in cocky because we knew how good of a team they were,” Lever said. “But we definitely held our own and we knew that if we played as a team and did our best that we would come out with the win.”

Gallant tallied East’s third goal at 18:53 in the second half, putting in a shot after Lever sent a ball to the front of the net.