Ciaccia’s hat trick sends Pennsbury to states, ends Abington’s season
ABINGTON >> Pennsbury forwards Evie Ciaccia and Christine Cataldo-Smith don’t like waiting for the ball to come to them.
It’s a big reason why the duo has combined for more than 30 goals this fall, buzzing around an opposing back line waiting for the slightest window to pressure and pounce. It helps the Falcons take leads and once they’re up, hold and build on them.
Ciaccia was in her element on Tuesday, netting a hat trick as she led the No. 7 Falcons over No. 6 Abington 4-1 in a District 1-4A girls soccer playback game, clinching a PIAA playoff bid.
“That was by far the best effort from the two of them this season,” Falcons coach Kaitlyn Battiste said. “The individual effort was there and toward the end of the game they started finding each other.
A playback game is always tough for both teams involved, especially with both coming off district quarterfinal losses on Saturday. Pennsbury, which lost to Conestoga, felt it was far from its best on Saturday and wanted to right itself and return to states.
Abington, which lost a late lead at Pennridge before going down in overtime, was hunting the same thing and a continuation of its best season in coach Rick Tompkins’ tenure. Even playing on their home pitch, the Ghosts weren’t able to capitalize on a couple early chances.
“They beat us 4-1 but our backs did well, Ariana Mancini played a whale of a game but they beat us when they needed to,” Tompkins said. “I thought in the first half, we were with them and it was a matter of if we scored the first goal. We didn’t but Cam (Lexow) hit the penalty kick and were still in it, but the third one hurt.”
Ciaccia started the scoring late in the first half when she tracked down a ball from Kasey Kowal, beat a defender and buried the chance with 12:25 left in the frame. While that held up as the only goal in the half, she was just getting started.
Pennsbury (17-3-1) had to make an unexpected adjustment to start the second half. Goalkeeper Alyssa O’Driscoll had injured her hand late in the first half and wasn’t able to start the second half, so midfielder Kendall Palatine, donning a blue pinnie and gloves, harkened back to her club days and hopped in goal.
Palatine gave up a goal on a Cam Lexow penalty kick, but she also made one huge save, denying a close range effort from Casey Touey.
Ciaccia also helped make things easier for Palatine with her second goal, which came less than two minutes into the half. The junior carried the ball through three players and slipped it past the keeper for a tally that proved very deflating for Abington .
“The second one really was a killer,” Tompkins said. “We were getting stretched and pressing and they’re too good to give it up.”
Even after Lexow converted the PK, the Ghosts still had to push numbers up and alter their formation, which opened things up. Pennsbury got a corner kick, with Rosie Bostian playing a terrific service into the box that Cataldo-Smith hit into the net on a perfect header for her 22nd goal of the season.
“It’s gotten to a really good point,” Battiste said. “They understand their roles and the chemistry. One thing we asked them to do at halftime was anticipate each other’s movements and they did that.”
The senior forward would then provide all the highlights on Pennsbury’s fourth goal, working some on-ball wizardry to shake her way past a couple players before hitting a low cross to a wide-open Ciaccia for the hat trick with 11:13 left.
Pennsbury moves on to face No. 5 Downingtown East in the 5-6 seeding game on Friday with both teams going to states.
Abington’s season ends with a 16-5-0 record that included an SOL American Conference title. The Ghosts lose a senior class that helped the program to its only two postseason appearances under Tompkins but leave a fairly solid foundation for the future.
“They played as hard as they could to the end even though they knew the game was getting away, there was no quit in them and how can you not like that as a coach,” Tompkins said. “Of course there were a lot of tears in the locker room and I’m trying to get them to keep their heads up because they’re good kids with bright futures in front of them.
“Only one team goes home happy from this, for us it just happened later than a lot of other people.”
PENNSBURY 4, ABINGTON 1
PENNSBURY 1 3 – 4
ABINGTON 0 1 – 1
Goals: P – Evie Ciaccia (Kasey Kowal), Ciaccia, Christine Cataldo-Smith (Rosie Bostian), Ciaccia (Cataldo-Smith); A – Cam Lexow.
