WHITEMARSH >> Plymouth Whitemarsh’s defense needed to be perfect against Abington Tuesday afternoon and delivered.
The Colonials allowed two shots on goal, both in the first quarter, and posted a shutout in a 1-0 Suburban One League Liberty Division win at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.
“We like to pass out wide,” PW senior midfielder Jules Tulio said of the defense. “We get open. We used really big balls today that helped us a lot to get it up the field.
“When they have it (in our circle) we just keep calm so we’re not scrambling everywhere. We tried to keep possession and get it out.”
Abington’s best scoring chance came at the end of the third quarter. The Ghosts (0-2, 0-1 SOL Liberty) applied consistent pressure for the final two minutes of the third and sent a beautiful pass in front of the net in the final seconds, but weren’t able to knock it home.
“One of the things that we’ve really been concentrating on is keeping our sticks down in the circle,” Abington coach Katie Small said. “I think that is what happened there. We were ball-watching a little bit and our stick was up. That ball came across and it was a great pass, and we just missed it off that post. Next time I’m hoping that’s a goal for us. We had great scrimmages where we were putting the ball in the back of the net. We just need to get back to that type of play.”
Tulio scored the Colonials (1-1, 1-0 SOL Liberty) goal at the end of the first quarter. Tyler McLafferty sent a pass in front of the cage from the left side and Tulio was there to re-direct it past the goalie.
“I told my team that I wanted possession first,” Tulio said. “I was like, ‘Possession first, score first.’ That was our goal going into the game and when I saw we had it in the circle I was like, ‘This is the time that we execute it’ and we did. It was a good assist and I had a good shot on goal. We worked really well together.”
Tulio believes playing with a lead helped the Colonials confidence. They led for the final 46:03 of the game.
“It motivates you when you’re already a goal ahead,” she said. “You just want to keep going because you know that you have that advantage. It just motivates everyone and starts making them go. We use that to execute our game even more.”
“Plymouth Whitemarsh really came out to play today,” Small said. “They have a great group of girls, very, very talented. We fell back on our heels early after that first goal and we never were able to get back into our game. We really like to enjoy our little passes, and we ended up doing a lot of big hits and tried to run on it. We ended up getting pretty tired towards the end of the stretch. We had a good middle 15 minutes and we need to propel that to the full 60 minutes next time.”
Abington’s Camryn Stewart carries the ball while Plymouth Whitemarsh’s Hadley Blake defends. (Ed Morlock/MediaNews Group)
Abington’s defense was strong for most of the game. They allowed just five shots on goal over 60 minutes.
“I really commend the play of Olivia Dougherty, Maddie Slavin and Grace Upham,” Small said. “They did a great job back there marking and taking care of business after that one goal and really telling everybody else where they need to be. Obviously my center-mid Cam Stewart really controlled the middle of the field a lot of that game, but once we got to that offensive 25 they shut us down. They have some great players over there.”
Both teams are back in action Thursday. PW travels to Quakertown at 7 p.m. while Abington visits Hatboro-Horsham at 3:45 p.m.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 1, Abington 0
Abington 0 0 0 0 – 0
Plymouth Whitemarsh 1 0 0 0 – 1
Goals: PW: Jules Tulio.
Assists: PW: Tyler McLafferty.
Corners: A: 4. PW: 3.
