Host Baldwin tops Shipley in Main Line boys-girls soccer doubleheader

Bryn Mawr – Three years ago, Baldwin School soccer head coach Adrian Cox created a way for the soccer programs at Haverford School, Shipley and Baldwin to showcase their abilities and bring a community together.

 

On Sept. 4, the three programs came together again at Baldwin for a girls’ contest featuring Baldwin and Shipley that preceded a boys’ match between Haverford School and Shipley.

 

Cox, who is also Baldwin Assistant Athletic Director, said, “Baldwin and Haverford soccer programs play non-league games every fall against Shipley. Since Baldwin and Haverford are both single-sex schools and many families have children at both schools it’s always nice to partner and bring our school communities together. All three schools are located within a mile of each other and a lot of the student-athletes know each other and even play on the same club teams outside of school.

“Baldwin does a lot of partnering with Haverford in academics, the arts and international exchange programs. Athletics serves as a great platform to unite the schools. It allows all these talented student-athletes to play a competitive contest in a fun and spirited atmosphere against local non-league rival Shipley, a co-ed school.” 

 

For the second time in three years the girls’ contest came down to the closing minutes before Baldwin pulled out a 2-1 victory over Shipley. In the boys’ match, Haverford grabbed an early 2-0 lead before the game was eventually postponed due to the combination of lightning, bad weather and eventually darkness before the match was completed.

 

“The whole day is exciting,” said Baldwin sophomore Josie Stockett. “We hype each other up all day in school. It’s a great way to bond and bring the community together.”

 

Shipley senior Liv Hamilton said, “The game is very important to us because Baldwin is so close and the game is always competitive and it’s great to have our boys team come out and support us and we’ll stay and support our boys team. It also gets our classmates out so we can show them what we have been working so hard on in pre-season.”

 

With the sun shining brightly as the girl’s took the pitch the two teams battled as the crowd got into the contest with both teams having early scoring opportunities. With a little over four minutes remaining in the first half, the combination of Clara Page and Josie Stockett gave the Polar Bears a 1-0 lead when Stockett converted on a feed into the box from Page.

 

Midway through the second half, the Gators knocked home the equalizer when Liv Hamilton went far into the box and without much of an angle fired the ball on goal hoping for something to happen.

 

Fortunately for Hamilton, her shot that ended up going near post went off the hands of Baldwin keeper Taylor Levinson into the back of the net to level the match.

 

“I did not have a great angle,” said Hamilton. I knew the shot was a high risk, high reward chance. Luckily it went in. It felt good to help my team however unfortunately we did not get the result we wanted.”

 

With a little over two minutes remaining, Page drove the right side and put a ball into the box. As she has done so many time before, Stockett followed the ball into the box and was able to settle the carom off the keeper’s hands and deposit the eventual game winner into the back of the net.

 

“I had confidence that Clara would put the ball into the box and I just wanted to put myself in a position. Fortunately, I was able to do that and convert the rebound.”