Stressman helps North Penn hold off CB West for 5th straight win
DOYLESTOWN >> When Central Bucks West whittled the North Penn girls lacrosse team’s second-half lead from four down to one, Kayla Stressman stepped up to give the Knights the late boost needed to continue their winning streak.
“They’re a great team so they were catching up,” the North Penn senior said. “And I saw the score getting close and I went to give us that extra lead.”
Stressman found the back of the net to put the Knights up two with 5:39 remaining in the SOL National Conference matchup then less than three minute later strucka again off a drive, extending the margin to 11-8. Grace McGeehan added one last goal for North Penn as it held off the host Bucks 12-9 Monday night at War Memorial for its fifth victory in a row.
“Honestly she’s just confident right now and that’s awesome, that’s a good feeling to have because it was a slow start in the beginning of the season,” said Knights coach Heather Mellow of Stressman. “She wasn’t familiar with the girls, they weren’t familiar with her. It was like actually it was a whole new team so everyone’s trying to become familiar with one another.
“And now we’re actually, we’re getting in that swing of understanding how each other plays, where their strengths are, where their weaknesses are and playing off of that.”
Stressman scored three times after halftime in finishing with four goals and was a major factor in North Penn (8-4, 6-1 conference) controlling possession as the Bloomsburg commit collected 13 draw controls.
“That’s amazing, that’s an awesome day right there and she’s not even the one taking the draws,” Mellow said. “So I really have to give Katie Harkins credit too, she’s the one placing the ball. We had Emily Varilla back to help us out and she really gave some lessons right before the game – nothing we weren’t doing well before then but really helped us out, especially in this game.”
Lauren Blanch had a first-half hat trick and matched Stressman for the team-high in goals with four while Harkins and McGeehan both chipped in two goals.
“I felt we did really good on the draws,” Stressman said. “Katie Harkins’s the one who takes it, places it really well, she knows my height. I feel like we were just like we need intensity and if we get it rid of that intensity we’re going to crumble and they’re going to catch up.”
Freshman Aida Ierubino scored all four of her goals in the second half to pace CB West (6-8, 3-4), which has lost two straight. Ashley Lott added two goals while sophomore goalkeeper Kalena Mandeville recorded her 200th career save with a stop in the final minute of the opening half.
“It takes a lot of hard work and effort,” said Mandeville of reaching the milestone. “But my teammates have my back and my coaches and they all surprised me so it was really cool.”
Having to replace nine starters from last year’s team that won the SOL National, North Penn got off to a slow start – sitting 3-4 overall after falling 9-7 to Plymouth Whitemarsh April 13. But the Knights have not lost since and now sits second in the conference behind Pennsbury and 11th in the District 1-3A rankings.
“We’ve done very well on draw controls in the last several games and that’s really made the difference for us,” Mellow said. “We can keep possession and keep it down in our end then we’re doing good and we have some people that can put the ball in the net. And we’re working things out.
“And defensively too, we were missing (goalkeeper) Kiera (Holt) for four games from a concussion but she just recently came back and we feel more confident again with her back in the cage so defensively now our confidence is up.”
Both teams have SOL National games Wednesday, West visiting Neshaminy at 3:30 p.m. while North Penn hosts Central Bucks South at 7 p.m.
“We just have to push this one behind us,” Mandeville said. “We worked hard so we can build off of that, build off of what we need to work on like our clearing and passing under pressure. So once we build off those at practices, we just got to win out.”
Stressman collected Monday’s first goal at 24:16 with Blanch doubling the Knights’ advantage at 22:43. A Harkins tally at 13:07 made it 3-0 before goals from Grace Naylor and Lott pulled the Bucks within 3-2 at 9:43.
“At first we were running a zone defense and we were all kind of frustrated and all over the place,” Mandeville said. “So then we decided to go back into our standard pressure and pinch and collect ourselves, cool off and then we got a grip of ourselves and we were able to play.”
Blanch, however, struck for her second 43 seconds later while Stressman found McGeehan for a goal at 7:01 for a 5-2 NP lead. An Isabella Carter tally at 4:07 sent CB West into the break trailing 6-4.
Stressman started the second half’s scoring at 23:36 with Blanch’s fourth goal of the night giving the Knights an 8-4 edge at 21:50.
Ierubino struck for the first time at 18:37, her initial shot blocked but the ball bouncing into the net. Raylin Tulio’s tally at 15:48 made it 8-6 before the Knights went back up three on a Harkins goal. But Ierubino scored twice in the 39-second span to pull West to within 9-8 with 6:02 left.
Stressman answered with the next two with McGeehan’s goal pushing North Penn’s lead to 12-8. Ierubino notched her fourth cutting through a crowd to score with just 6.1 seconds remaining.
North Penn 12, Central Bucks West 9
North Penn 6 6 — 12
Central Bucks West 4 5 — 9
North Penn Goals: Lauren Blanch 4; Kayla Stressman 4; Grace McGeehan 2; Katie Harkins 2.
Central Bucks West Goals: Aida Ierubino 4; Ashley Lott 2; Isabella Carter; Grace Naylor; Raylin Tulio.
