Plymouth Whitemarsh stick-handles past Wissahickon
LOWER GWYNEDD >> Plymouth Whitemarsh showed off its stick-handling skills in it 5-1 Suburban One League American Conference win over Wissahickon at Wissahickon High School Wednesday afternoon.
Kaleigh Missimer got the scoring started. She deked through a couple of defenders before doing the same to the goalie and finding the back of the net.
Ava Borkowski scored in similar fashion on her first of three goals. She left Trojan defenders in the dust and went to her backhand to make it a 2-0 PW lead.
Borkowski’s second goal was assisted by Missimer. Borkowski found herself in front of the net and waited for the goalie to make the first move. When she did, Borkowski worked her way around her and extended the lead to 3-0.
“We work on everything,” Missimer said. “Ava and I love to (stick-handle). We’re trying to pass more at the same time, but once we get a few in our coach always likes to have variety. We practiced everything but that’s our favorite thing to do. It works the best.”
“Ava and Kaleigh both have really great stick skills,” PW coach Charise Halteman said. “Wissahickon has a good goalkeeper in Meghan Reilly and I think they read her really well today. Last year we struggled to score early on them because Meghan would often take a lot away from us. I think Kaleigh and Ava did a really nice job of reading what was in front of them.
“We do a fair amount of (stick work), but I would say both Ava and Kaleigh are playing a lot outside of the fall season. They have a stick in their hands all the time. With game experience having a stick in their hand they’re able to make good decisions with the ball.”
Fast Start
Plymouth Whitemarsh’s first three goals of the season weren’t only pretty plays — they happened quickly.
Missimer got on the board in 2:21. Borkowski doubled the lead 5:36 into the game and she made it 3-0 after 10:15.
“(The fast start) was really important,” Halteman said, “especially because at the end of the game I thought we looked really tired. Having that buffer was really important and I think allowed some of our players to at least remain calm and composed later on even though I don’t think the end of the game was our best hockey.”
After the game-altering start, Wissahickon settled in. The Trojans kept the Colonials off the scoreboard for the rest of the first half and the first five minutes of the second half, until Borkowski completed her hat trick.
“In the first 10 minutes we were playing incredibly nervous and we were not putting pressure on the ball,” Wissahickon assistant coach Shelley Uthgennant said. “We were just letting PW dribble down and shoot. It was like a totally foreign team to me as much as I don’t like to say that. I’ve never seen our defense play scared and we play scared. I’m very used to our defense playing with extreme confidence, so even I was taken aback by what was going on. That’s why I called the timeout (after the second goal). I was like we need to shake this off. Then we re-adjusted and said I don’t care if you have to drop your post player and go put pressure on the ball up top — that’s what you need to do. Then they turned it around and it looked much more even.”
Not Enough Offense
Wissahickon struggled to generate offense in the season opener. They earned five corners and put two shots on net, including a goal by Sophia Havrilla.
“The person who was typically at the top of (PW’s defensive) circle (Livia Truong) has a really nice block tackle,” Uthgennant said. “She was very sturdy, quick feet and she was able to stop us at the top a lot with really clean blocks, which is not always the case in high school. Also, (PW) backed each other up. They tended to play person on-ball and person behind-ball pretty well so that you would beat one and there was someone else there. Their defensive style was a bit different.”
