Plymouth Whitemarsh starts fast, dominates Council Rock North in District 1-3A 2nd round
WHITEMARSH >> Despite plenty of regular season success, it’s been a while since Plymouth Whitemarsh advanced in the district playoffs.
The Colonials earned first-round byes in 2017 and 2018, but lost to North Penn and Central Bucks South — both by one goal — in the second round.
That wasn’t going to happen again.
Plymouth Whitemarsh scored two goals in less than three minutes and dominated Council Rock North, 8-2, in the second round of the District 1-3A playoffs Wednesday afternoon at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.
“That’s what we wanted to do all season long and that’s what we talked about in our huddle,” PW coach Charise Halteman said. “We wanted to get on the attack and set the tone and do what we’re strong at, which is scoring goals. We wanted to do that right from the get-go. When you put two in early it makes the rest of the game go a lot smoother.”
“We know that (CR North is) a tough team,” senior captain Livia Truong said. “They’re aggressive so we just wanted to shut them down as fast as possible and get a few goals, that way we had some comfort time to relax and play our hockey.”
The first two goals came on penalty corners. Truong took shots both times, the first coming 68 seconds into the game and the second 2:58. One was her goal and the other tipped in by Ava Borkowski.
“We knew that we have a fast team,” Truong said. “Obviously they’re fast but we wanted to make sure that we got around their defenders as quick as possible and ‘1-v-1’ with the goalie. We wanted to take advantage of quick shots on the goalie and rebounds — definitely rebounds and tip-ins. I think that’s how we got our first two goals — with tips.”
“We had a couple corners planned in where we thought there would be some space,” Halteman said. “They executed that well and made good decisions. It was excellent corner execution.”
PW, the No. 2 seed in the playoffs, added four more goals in the first half. Kaleigh Missimer scored twice and Alexis Minor and Haley McCourt each found the back of the cage.
In the second half, Borkowski scored two goals to give the Colonials an 8-0 edge.
Defensively, the Colonials didn’t give Council Rock North many opportunities until the game was out of hand. A majority of the game was played on the Indians side of the field and when it did get into PW’s half, the Suburban One League American Conference champs quickly cleared to the midfield.
“Coach always emphasizes that everyone on the team plays defense,” Truong said. “That starts with the forwards. I think our forwards did a great job with defense. That way, if the ball came to us we could triple-team them or at least double-team them to get the ball back.”
Council Rock North, the No. 18 seed, scored twice in the final 15 minutes. Sarah Everett got the Indians on the board with 14:50 left in the game and Riley Clark finished the game’s scoring with 1:30 on the clock.
Plymouth Whitemarsh will host No. 10 Council Rock South in the quarterfinals Friday. The winner clinches a spot in the state tournament while the loser heads to playbacks.
“Amazing,” Truong said of her feelings after a playoff win. “We’re going into Friday very excited. I haven’t personally been to states yet, so Friday would mean a lot if we won.”
