Giangreco gets gritty in Perkiomen Valley’s win over Owen J. Roberts

LINFIELD >> Perkiomen Valley field hockey coach Erik Enters has been preaching for two seasons to senior Sophia Giangreco that she needs to be gritty.

The senior forward heeded her coach’s advice in Wednesday’s 2-0 victory over Owen J. Roberts in a Pioneer Athletic Conference game at the Training Center. She scored the game’s only two goals in what would be described as gritty fashion.

Giangreco stuck her nose in a scrum in front of the net to knock in a goal in the second quarter to put the Vikings ahead. She then put the game away in the final seconds when she stretched on the ground to collect the ball on her stick and send it into the back of the net from her knees.

“That’s what we’ve been talking about to her since last year, the grit,” Enters said. “Digging, fighting and laying your body up there to put the ball in the net, and she literally did laying her body on the turf to get the ball in the net.”

Perk Valley (3-2) and Owen J. Roberts (2-2) find themselves in similar standing while returning few starters from last year’s teams that advanced to the District 1-3A semifinals and PIAA second round.

PV and OJR combined to graduate 10 all-area players from last year’s squads. Both Enters and OJR coach Amy Hoffman are relying on seniors like Giangreco to help maintain the level of play the programs have become accustomed to.

HALF: Perk Valley 1, OJR 0 … Sophia Giangreco credited with the goal for the Vikings. https://t.co/ODPQaM36e6

— Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue) October 7, 2020

 

Giangreco is one of seven PV seniors, including Saige Shine, Ashley Derrick, Cristina Dougherty, Anna Dawson, Marie Lindberger and Kaci Shelton. Lindberger and Shine tallied assists on the Giangreco scores Wednesday, while Derrick made four stops in goal.

“We still have seven seniors,” Enters said. “I think once you have your program established, that’s what you’re going to have. This class comes in, bang, next class comes in, bang, and we’re good. Skillswise I don’t think there’s much of a drop off from previous years. It’s just learning to connect, learning to take advantage of our opportunities.”

OJR’s senior class includes Raina Smolij, Emily Himmelreich, Payton Hansen, Amanda Turner, Makenna McCourt and Maggie Kilgallon. The Wildcats also returned junior Rylee Laloup, an all-area honorable mention last season.

“We’re relying a lot on the seniors and the girls who played last year, but we’re just trying to follow whoever’s willing to lead,” Hoffman said.

PV started the season with a win over Spring-Ford before dropping two of their next three, including one-goal losses to Methacton and Boyertown. OJR  dropped a 2-1 game to Methacton in its opener before wins against Spring-Ford and Pottsgrove.

The Wildcats have held opponents to three goals through four games. Goalies Amy Erb and Reilly Hagarty combined for seven saves Wednesday. Hoffman said Wednesday’s loss, in which her team was outshot and out cornered, was an example of the work that needs to be done on the offensive end over the last five games of the season.

“We’re going through the same things everyone’s going through, not enough time, no scrimmages, you don’t really know what you have until you show up and it’s the very first day and very first game,” Hoffman said. “We’re just trying to figure out some of the basic stuff, how to shoot, how to score and how to be a little more offensive than we’ve been.”

The OJR offense started to connect late in the third quarter and into the fourth Wednesday, forcing four corners in the final 15 minutes after none in the first half.

PV’s defense warded off two of those corner tries in the final two minutes, the last kicked out by Derrick with about a minute to play.

Along with Giangreco, Enters also noted the play of senior captains Shine and Dougherty as well as Dawson, who he described as being all over the field Wednesday.

“We just played a really good defensive game,” Giangreco said. “Our goalie was really on today. After our past couple games, I think we just really stuck with it and we needed to have our sticks down, stop using our reverse.”

Ashley Derrick with two more big saves for PV … 1-0 Vikings with 6:30 to play. pic.twitter.com/aTCBmjtRIp

— Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue) October 7, 2020

 

OJR, which faces Boyertown on Friday, is about to cross the midpoint of its season, while the Vikings are suddenly more than halfway through their nine-game PAC regular season, which started Sept. 25.

The two teams won’t meet up again unless it’s in the postseason as the Wildcats follow Friday’s game against Boyertown with games against Upper Perk, Methacton, Spring-Ford and Pottsgrove, while the Vikings conclude with rematches with Spring-Ford, Methacton, Upper Perkiomen and Pottsgrove conclude their season

“Hopefully we beat the rest of the teams to come and make it to districts,” Giangreco said of her team’s ambitions. “It’s my senior year and six other people’s senior years and we were all just like, ‘Let’s make this year count and do the best that we can,’ because it’s a little different this year.”

NOTES >> Despite having to divide his squad into a varsity and JV squad for practice purposes to abide by COVID-19 guidelines, Enters has continued to use a big roster in games, substituting as many as eight players off the bench. “We roll everybody,” Enters said. “It’s a big strength.”