Hughes, Abington defense up to task against North Penn
ABINGTON >> The defensive unit of the Abington girls lacrosse team needed a bounce-back game in a big way.
Down an expected starter for the year and coming off a rough loss to Penn Charter, the Ghosts defenders wanted to prove they were still capable of getting the job done. They got the right kind of test Thursday afternoon against a North Penn team that led in a lot of statistical categories but not the one that matters most.
Senior goalie Ellie Hughes was a difference maker as the Ghosts edged the Knights 11-7 in an SOL crossover game at Memorial Field.
“They’re an amazing group of girls, they work really hard and I love that they give so much and from my perspective, they make my job easier,” Hughes said. “At the same time, they’re my biggest supporters, they work hard and it makes us look good. We worked hard, we deserved to win and I’m just so proud of them all.”
Hughes, who recently committed to West Chester, was terrific for Abington with 10 saves. The goalie was quick to hand off credit to her defenders and midfielders for all the work they did to make the Knights’ shots easier to see and stop.
Abington’s roster is stocked with seniors and the back end was expected to be a strength of the team coming into the season. Unfortunately, senior defender Becca Gable tore an ACL that’s left one of Abington’s best defenders sidelined for the year.
Instead of wallowing on it, Gable has become a vocal presence on the sideline and the rest of the unit has stepped to fill her absence on the field.
“We talked a lot more on defense today,” senior defender Anna Joseph said. “It’s like we could hear each other’s thoughts, we worked together so perfectly. We have to keep it up, that was a good win for us.
“We’ve played pretty well, we miss Becca dearly, but we’ve all been playing together since like third grade so we’re working through it.”
Abington never trailed Thursday, going up 2-0 to start the game and stretching its lead to 4-1 with about 10 minutes left in the first half. The Ghosts built that lead despite losing the battle of draw controls and total shots, but Hughes was there to keep her team in front.
Even after North Penn closed to 4-3, the Abington defense held its ground and took the Ghosts to the break leading 5-4. In total, Thursday’s game summed up the Knights in this early part of the season. After losing two of their top goal scorers from last spring, the offense has struggled to finish out of the gate.
“(Abington) did a nice job of clogging up the eight and sliding to pick up when we were trying to drive and their goalkeeper had a good game,” Knights coach Heather Mellow said. “When we took shots, she stopped them. We needed better shot placement, we weren’t really diverse.”
The Knights hung around the entire game Thursday, with their defense and midfield working hard against Abington, but a pair of goals by the Ghosts midway through the second half proved vital. First, senior Kaley Ehnow scored on an eight-meter shot then senior Jamira Mashore scored a terrific solo goal by making a run from behind the cage and ripping a shot along the turf and in for an 8-6 lead.
Grace Sacchetti, who had a pair of tallies for North Penn, got the Knights back within a goal after she capitalized on a rare miscue from Hughes, stealing a pass and scoring one-on-one. But again, the Ghosts responded with consecutive goals and the defense came up with a couple stands on a long Knights possession.
“We couldn’t get the ball in the net, but we knew it would be an area we had to work on this year,” Mellow said. “Losing Bri O’Donnell and Kelly Macnamara, they combined for over 100 goals, so we have to figure out who’s next.”
Abington was able to even out a lot of the statistical categories in that second half. Joseph, aside from her defense, was a big part of the Ghosts leveling out the draw control battle by using her speed to get to the balls Ehnow was sending her way off the initial draw.
“Kaley was pushing it to me and putting it on the ground, so in my head, that was telling me to go,” Joseph said. “I kept telling myself ‘if I get the ball, we’re going to score.’”
The Ghosts are also temporarily without Lauren Van Buren, who picked up an injury at the end of the Penn Charter game, but they found a way to fight through it on Thursday. North Penn’s quickness was a threat the Ghosts took seriously and Joseph felt they did a good job of stopping or slowing the ball and talking through defensive possessions.
Aside from Joseph, the Ghosts got solid defensive play from Sam Raymond, Jillian Poppert, Ella Timbers and midfielders Sam Simon and Shea Gormley. Hughes added the team’s underclassmen have been playing well out of the gate and it’s encouraging for her to see the future of the program growing.
Abington gave up some fouls inside the eight, but Hughes was strong stopping the Knights free-position shots, plus making stops from the run of play.
“I always just tell myself to reset,” Hughes said. “If there’s something big that happens, like a turnover, I just tell myself ‘I can do this,’ and it’s really all the other girls. The support from them, it goes right back to them. They’re the biggest help.”
“When Ellie makes a save, we all get really hyped and play off that,” Joseph added. “That’s our motivation for the rest of the game.”
ABINGTON 11, NORTH PENN 7
ABINGTON 5 6 – 11
NORTH PENN 4 3 – 7
Goals-Assists: A – Abby Johnson 3-1, Abby Thomas 2-0, Jamira Mashore 1-3, Kaley Ehnow 2-0, Maddie Hinkle 1-0, Grace Hinkle 1-0; NP – Kristin Varilla 2-0, Grace Sacchetti 2-2, Millevoi 2-0, Szilagyi 1-0, Lindsay 0-2.
Shots: A – 15, NP – 17. Saves: A – Ellie Hughes 10, NP Lambert 3.
