Victor scores 8 goals, Central Bucks South storms past Souderton

WARRINGTON >> Kate Victor was eagerly anticipating Wednesday afternoon’s matchup with Souderton. So it ended up being no surprise when the Central Bucks South girls lacrosse senior came out and set an early tone by scoring the first three goals.

“All morning, all practice yesterday I was just ready to come out and beat Souderton,” Victor said. “It’s a pretty big rivalry, last year we had a pretty close game and we were just ready to beat them pretty strong.”

Grace Gannon followed her teammate’s lead and collected the next three goals and by late in the first half of the SOL National Conference contest the Titans had stretched their lead to 10-0 before the visiting Indians finally found the back of the net.

“Everyone was touching the ball – we were getting it around, everyone was a threat today which really got their defense off balance,” Gannon said. “Which allowed me and Kate to definitely produce a lot of goals today.”

Victor and Gannon combined for 13 goals – Victor scoring four in each half for a career-best eight while Gannon, a Richmond commit, tallied five – as CB South boosted their effort to turn around recent struggles by rolling past Souderton 17-4.

“I love playing with Grace,” Victor said. “We always have a good connection. If I’m not scoring, I’m assisting it to her. If she’s not scoring, she’s assisting to me. It’s just a great combination. We had to make some adjustments with injuries this season so me and Grace definitely have had to step it up.”

Souderton could not convert on a few offensive opportunities at the start of the first half and when draw controls began to swing in South’s favor the Titans took advantage of their edge in possession, going out a 10-0 lead after Maddy Flynn goal with 2:08 before the break.

“We let in way more goals than we wanted to on Monday (in a 17-6 loss to Avon Grove) so yesterday at practice we just all focused on defense, all locked in, became a unit and I think today that really showed,” Gannon said. “We all played so great together, our slides were there, we had each other’s back through the whole game.”

Reiley Knize scored Souderton’s first goal 61 seconds later with the Bloomsburg commit striking at 23:25 in the second half to make it 10-2 but that was as close as the Indians could get as they were handed their first SOL National loss.

 “I think we are a very energy-sensitive team and that’s something that we’ve acknowledged about our play and ourselves,” Souderton coach Claudia LaMarca said. “And I think we just walked on the field today and couldn’t match the energy that CB South brought. They played an awesome game and they had their foot on the gas pedal the whole time so I think we were never able to match that which made it really tough for any comeback.”

Knize had two goals while Jess Burns and Lauren Hallman both added a goal for the Indians (7-4, 4-1 conference), who scored a season-low in falling for the second time in their past three games.

“I think today’s play was uncharacteristic of us unfortunately and I think we’re led by a ton of great, awesome senior leaders that are not satisfied with today,” LaMarca said. “They’re not satisfied with the way we ended last season. So I think their motivation to succeed I think is going to drive us through our next week-and-a-half. We have a really tough week-and-a-half of games so we’ll see how that goes but I think we’re ready.”

Flynn scored twice with Brooke Cenci and Emalee Day both chipping in a goal for Central Bucks South, which opened the year 4-1 but proceeded to lose their next four – three by one goal – and came into Wednesday having dropped five of its last six.

“We definitely want to flip the script right now,” Gannon said. “We’ve had a bit of a tough season. We played a great schedule, we knew that we might have played some harder teams than Souderton so we had an advantage in that aspect coming into the game.”

The Titans visit Council Rock South Friday. Souderton is home against Pennsbury Monday. The Indians, Pennsbury (3-1) and Pennridge (4-1) all have one loss in SOL National play with North Penn (6-0) the only unbeaten side.

Victor, who said her previous high for goals in a game was four, opened Wednesday’s scoring three minutes into the first half off an assist from Gannon. Victor then struck for her second at 17:43 then made it 3-0 South at 15:28.

“Once I got that first goal in, I just knew I had a touch today,” Victor said. “And I was just ready to go.”

Gannon scored her first 40 seconds later, added another 45 second after that then extended South’s lead to 6-0 at 10:27.

“Today I just wanted to make sure everyone looked good,” Gannon said. “I know that I have produced bigger in some of the other games so I probably would be somewhat of a focus point for their defense so I definitely want to make sure everyone else shines.”

Victor forced a turnover and drove down the field for her fourth goal at 6:01 to put the hosts up seven. 

After Flynn struck on an eight-meter shot at 4:22, Cenci scored off a Victor assist at 4:08 while Flynn’s second goal two minutes later, putting the Titans’ lead at 10-0.

“Our gamplan going in was just to hold the ball and make sure we had nice offensive sets the whole time,” Victor said. “And that definitely manifested itself in the game and we were all getting the ball around, no one was dropping it, there wasn’t any silly turnovers and we were just really finding the open girl.”

Knize broke the run at 1:07 to make it 10-1 at halftime then scored the second half’s first goal off a Burns assist. But Victor converted on an eight-meter at 22:51 with a Gannon tally at 20:44 giving CB South back a 10-goal advantage.

A Burns goal had Souderton trailing 12-3 before the Titans scored the next four – two by Victor.

Central Bucks South 17, Souderton 4
Souderton 1 3 — 4
Central Bucks South 10 7 — 17
Souderton Goals: Reiley Knize 2; Jess Burns 1; Lauren Hallman 1.
Central Bucks South Goals: Kate Victor 8; Grace Gannon 5; Maddy Flynn 2; Brooke Cenci 1; Emalee Day 1.