Archbishop Wood shuts out Lansdale Catholic in PCL semifinals

BENSALEM >> Archbishop Wood controlled the pace and dominated possession for much of Thursday’s Philadelphia Catholic League semifinal against No. 3 Lansdale Catholic, resulting in a pair of goals for the second-seeded Vikings on their way to a 2-0 win at Trifecta Sporting Club.

“I’m super excited for the girls, they’ve been working really hard for this,” Wood head coach Tom DeGeorge said. “We came out and played really well and I’m just happy for the team.”

When the two teams met on Oct. 7, Archbishop Wood came away with a 3-0 win, but it took a three-goal outburst in the second half after a scoreless first for the Vikings to put away the Crusaders.

Thursday, the Wood offense wasted no time getting going, as freshman Daryn Savage scored from distance on a free kick in the ninth minute.

LC, the defending PCL champion, was called for a foul about 30 yards from its own net, setting the stage for Savage’s early goal. The Wood center back struck the ball hard with her right foot, sending a high-arching shot toward the far post and under the crossbar to give her team the early lead.

“I knew as soon as I hit it that it had a chance to go in,” Savage said. “I knew the sun was in her eyes a little so I just tried to get it up there in the far corner and it went in.”

Wood had multiple chances to get on the board again in the first half, but its second goal of the afternoon came about halfway through the second half as Alyssa DeGeorge dropped a perfect pass for midfielder Leighann Kafel, who took a moment to settle the ball and then beat Lansdale Catholic goalie Brynne U’Selis on a low, driven shot.

“I saw her (Alyssa DeGeorge) get it, made a run, saw I was onside and I just knocked it in the corner,” Kafel said. “It was a great pass.”

Most of Wood’s chances came from its ability to win the ball in the midfield. When the LC defense or midfielders got control and tried to work it up the field, there seemed to always be a Viking player there to take the ball of their foot.

The Crusaders didn’t register a shot on goal in the first half, and the team’s first scoring chance came about halfway through the second on a Megan Steinbach shot that rolled just wide of the net.

LC head coach Bree Benedict said part of the reason Wood controlled the pace, especially in the first half, was the Crusaders’ game plan to stay compact. They put just one attacker up top, bringing all their other players back to try and prevent Wood from getting shots off, knowing they may not possess the ball much as a result.

Benedict also attributed some of it to injuries and inexperience on her team’s side of the ball.

“It’s not a secret, we’ve been struggling through injuries for a lot of the year,” she said. “We have a lot of younger players on the field for us now and just trying to get them up to the level of physicality can be tough. A lot of those Wood girls are the same girls we played last year, so they’re just more physical than us and maybe a little bit more quicker and faster to the ball than us.”

Now Benedict and the rest of the defending PCL champion Crusaders have to try and put the loss behind them to prepare for District 12-2A playoffs.

“It’s tough to look at your seniors when they’re upset after this loss, especially after the special year we had last year,” Benedict said. “We just reminded the girls that even though they aren’t going to win the league, they have a chance to do something no other (Lansdale Catholic) team has done, at that’s make a run at states.”

Wood advances to Saturday’s league title game against the winner of the other semifinal between top-seeded Archbishop Ryan and No. 4 Little Flower.

The Vikings fell, 2-1, to Ryan on Sept. 16 and defeated Little Flower in overtime, 2-1, in their next game.

Archbishop Wood 2, Lansdale Catholic 0

Lansdale Catholic            0 0 — 0

Archbishop Wood              1 1 — 2

Goals: AW – Daryn Savage; Leighann Kafel (Alyssa DeGeorge).