Wissahickon’s season ends with loss to Kennett in District 1-3A 7th place game

LOWER GWYNEDD >> Wissahickon’s season came to an end with a 2-1 loss against Kennett in the District 1-3A seventh place game Friday afternoon at Wissahickon High School. 

No. 8 Kennett scored the game-winning goal early in the fourth quarter. Jordyn MacMillan took a shot that Wiss goalkeeper Julianna Thomas stopped, but the rebound went to Mary Carroll, who put it into the back of the cage.

The win earns Kennett a spot in the PIAA-3A state playoffs.

The Blue Demons took a 1-0 lead early in the second quarter. Playing short-handed due to a player getting a green card, Kennett had possession deep in Wiss territory. CJ Herring centered the ball from the right side of the cage and Sarah Fritz was there to put it away. 

The third-seeded Trojans tied the game up at the end of the first half. With time ticking away and the ball in the circle, Wiss earned a corner just before time expired. With the clock showing zero, Ella Hummel inserted to Brynne Miller, who relayed the ball to Julia Schools. Schools sent the ball towards the cage and Riley Ball deflected it in, tying the game and giving her side momentum going into halftime. 

“That was really exciting,” Miller said. “Julia was supposed to pass it back to me, but I was like, ‘Go go go’ because we don’t have time. Riley’s done so well this season tipping in all of our goals.”

The 1-1 score held through the third quarter and the first 1:57 of the fourth until Carroll caged the game-winner. 

Kennett had plenty of opportunities to expand its lead in the fourth but Wiss and Thomas kept it a one-goal game. Thomas made four of her 11 saves in the fourth quarter and the Trojans successfully defended five penalty corners. 

“Our defense really hung in there,” Wiss coach Lucy Gil said. “Our defense played great at Souderton and played great today. We need to get the offense to finish.”

The Wissahickon offense managed just two goals in their final three losses of the season against Methacton, Souderton and Kennett.

“We get the ball there and then we have trouble keeping the ball there,” Gil said. “That’s something we’re going to have to work on for next year.”

“We weren’t used to playing against really strong offensive teams,” Miller said. “So I’ve had to stay back a little more. We’ve had problems with me and Sophia (Havrilla) going up and back and just communicating with that. We usually do score on our corners. I think we weren’t used to faster defensive flyers. Our communication kind of started going down as we got more and more frustrated against the better teams.”

Despite the three-game skid to end the year, it was a successful season for the Trojans. They won the Suburban One League Liberty Division, earned the No. 3 seed in the District 1-3A playoffs and won a district playoff game. 

“I think we did really well these past few games,” Miller said. “We stayed high against teams with D1 commits. I feel like we still did really well. We’re like a family… Us being close helped us on and off the field and made us really strong.”

“This season has been like Happy Birthday,” Gil said. “One game after another after another. It was really nice. It was really nice to not let in a ton of goals. That’s always our goal – I keep track of every year and we’re up in the top three or four this year because we only let in like 15 goals. We were very happy with that.”