Upper Moreland gets SOL American win over Cheltenham

CHELTENHAM >> Monday’s Suburban One League American Conference matchup between Upper Moreland and Cheltenham featured two teams looking to make a move from the middle of the conference toward the top.

The Golden Bears improved to 3-2 in league play as they used a quick start and a solid performance to convincingly edge the Panthers 5-2.

“The girls played well today which was really nice,” Upper Moreland coach Karen Grossi said. “It was closer for longer than I wanted it.”

The reason for the game being closer than Grossi would have liked it was because of the play of Cheltenham keeper Teagan Dorley. Dorley made 22 saves on the contest, including 15 in the first half as a result of a slow start for Cheltenham.

“She’s staying really focused on the ball,” Cheltenham coach Elaine McGoldrick said. “She’s taking a lot of rebound shots which is the hard part of being a goalie.”

Upper Moreland jumped on Cheltenham early as the Bears outshot the Panthers 15-4, had seven corner opportunities to the Panthers two as Upper Moreland took a 2-1 lead into halftime.

“We usually struggle when we come to this field so we talked to them ahead of time and said we are a good team we have to come out and play like a good team,” Grossi said.

Offensively, Cheltenham was able to take advantage of the little opportunities, as Hailey Wilken netted a pair of goals, one in each half, to highlight the Panther scoring.

McGoldrick spoke highly of the senior who is playing field hockey for the first time this season as a converted soccer player and seems to be picking up quickly on her new sport.

“She knows when to cut in front,” McGoldrick said. “She’s playing post. She plays aggressively. She had two goals today both off of deflections.”

There was good to be taken out of the game for both squads. For Upper Moreland, it proves that it has the quality team that it thought that it had and for the Panthers they had good showing for team that really got out played for the majority of the game.

“We started off against two tough teams and we played good games against them,” Grossi said. “I’m happy that we got these last three wins and hopefully we get a couple more before we go back in to play PW again.”