Ball scores 5 goals, Wissahickon rolls past Upper Dublin

LOWER GWYNEDD >> Wissahickon field hockey’s Riley Ball has a definite number of goals in mind for her sophomore year.

“I’m just trying to beat my sister, pretty much,” she said.

Grace Ball, now a junior playing at Appalachian State, scored 32 times as a senior in 2019.

So far, Riley Ball is off to a great start in her bid to surpass that mark. On a hot Thursday afternoon against visiting Upper Dublin, she found the back of the cage five times, raising her total through three games to nine as the Trojans cruised to a 9-1 Suburban One League Liberty Division victory.

“You have kids like that, that have a nose for the goal,” said Wissahickon coach Lucy Gil of Riley Ball. “You just stick them right in front and hope that they can stick their stick on it. And she has been doing really a lot in terms of making sure that anything comes from the outside at least gets a stick on it, a tip, anything.”

After the scoreless opening quarter, the Trojans began to find success on offense in the second. Ball assisted on Kayla Mullin’s goal exactly a minute into the period with Ball proceeding to post a hat trick before halftime – her third coming on a corner with no time left to give Wissahickon a 5-0 lead.

“We picked it up in the second and I think our give-and-gos were pretty good,” Ball said. “We were communicating better in the second quarter and the rest of the game than the first. And just the stick-to-stick passing was better.”

It seemed as if Ball was going to stay on three goals when she needed help to get off the field at 2:16 in the third quarter. But the sophomore later returned and after Upper Dublin ended the shutout in the fourth Ball collected the contest’s final two goals.

“I got like this weird cramp all down my shin and I was like ‘Uh oh I can’t really walk right now,’” she said. “But I just stretched it out a little and (athletic trainer Pete) Rooney helped me so it got better.”

Sophie Havrilla added a goal and two assists for the defending SOL Liberty champ Trojans (3-0-0, 2-0-0 division). Mullin, Kendall Crowley and Ella Hummel each finished with a goal and assist.

“I’m very excited and very happy with how we’re doing,” said Havrilla, a senior committed to Central Michigan. “We’re connecting well – off ball, good off-ball movement, really connecting with our passing up the field especially with the forwards which is why we were so successful scoring.”

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FIELD HOCKEY: @WissAthletics’s Riley Ball with her 5th & final goal, redirecting a ball from Avery Mullin on a corner 4Q vs. Upper Dublin. Wissahickon won 9-1. pic.twitter.com/QxhYTeR5u0

— Mike Cabrey (@mpcabrey) September 2, 2022

Tess Malizia scored the lone goal for Upper Dublin (1-2-1, 0-1-1) on a corner, getting to a ball knocked across by Olivia Burdo then shooting it inside the cage’s opposite left side to make it 7-1 in the final quarter.

“Our 30 (Olivia Vitella), she hit it, just a really nice shot down to the corner and I was going and running to post,” said Malizia, a sophomore. “So when I ran over and she hit it down I just tapped it into the corner and slipped into the right side.”

Wissahickon has scored nine goals in its last two games and has outscored its three opponents 20-3 with Ball providing almost half of the Trojans’ early-season offense.

“Until last year she was, I don’t know, she told me a midfielder or a back or something,” Gil said. “When I saw her ability in the circle it was like you have to be a forward and then she took to it like right away. I think that’s where she was born to play.”

In the Trojans’ opening game last Friday at home against Council Rock South, Ball had the tying goal in the third before Hummel scored in overtime for a 2-1 win. Ball then tallied three goals Tuesday in a 9-1 SOL Liberty win over Hatboro-Horsham.

“I was trying to improve on my stick work over the summer and just my pulls around people,” Ball said. “But I’m still trying to get my shots off better, like the top of the circle shots cause I usually get most of them by tips or flicks but I’m trying to get my drives better.”

Ball says her older sister is supportive of Riley exceeding her single-season goal total.

“She hopes I do too, pretty much,” Ball said.

Both teams host division games Tuesday. Wissahickon – which went 18-4 in 2021 but ended the year with three straight losses in the District 1-3A tournament – takes on Quakertown at 3:30 p.m. Upper Dublin, which was a district qualifier last season, faces Abington at 4:30 p.m.

“I really like this group of girls,” said Malizia of the Cardinals. “It’s a lot of girls that we played with last year. We did lose a big group of seniors but we still got a decent amount of girls that I’ve been playing with since freshman year so we know how to play with each other. We’re definitely still just growing as a team and getting better. But I love the girls, they’re like my family.”

Mullin gave the Trojans a 1-0 lead at 14:00 in the second quarter with Ball doubling the advantage, striking near the right post at 8:05. Wissahickon then struck for three more goals on penalty corners in the half’s final four minutes.

“Our defense gets scared and they hang back on our forwards are like, ‘C’mon, c’mon, c’mon,’ and they go forward and so we have this giant gap in the middle,” Gil said. “And that’s what we’ve been working on, closing up that gap. And I think that they finally got it in the second (quarter).

“With Upper Dublin just blasting the ball down the field, it’s hard to work that midfield, let them do their thing. So I think the defense was kind of settling back and so once we started moving them forward I think then they closed the gap.”

Hummel made it 3-0 at 3:57 before Ball scored at 2:06 then collected her third of the afternoon on an untimed corner to put the Trojans up five at halftime.

“I think we just were taking our shots a lot faster, not really using the big wind-up swing,” Havrilla said. “What we talked about during our first quarter, halftime and our coach just said just take little shots on goal instead of the big wind ups so I think that was really helpful.”

Havrilla scored with a lift shot at 6:01 in the third then assisted on Crowley’s goal that gave Wissahickon a 7-0 lead with 4:22 left in the quarter.

After Malizia put Upper Dublin on the scoreboard, Ball notched her fourth knocking in her own rebound then tallied her fifth by redirecting a ball from Avery Mullin in the cage on a corner.

Wissahickon 9, Upper Dublin 1
Upper Dublin 0 0 0 1 — 1
Wissahickon 0 5 2 2 — 9
Scoring
Second Quarter: Kayla Mullin (W), 14:00, Riley Ball assist; Ball (W) 8:05, Caroline Kirkpatrick assist; Ella Hummel (W) 3:57, Sophia Havrilla assist; Ball (W) 2:06, Kayla Mullin assist; Ball (W) 0:00, Kayla Pak assist.
Third Quarter: Havrilla (W) 6:01, Hummel assist; Kendall Crowley (W) 4:22, Havrilla assist.
Fourth Quarter; Tess Malizia (UD), Olivia Burdo assist; Ball (W), Crowley assist; Ball (W), Avery Mullin assist.