Grace Ball’s goal lifts Wissahickon over Springfield-Montco

LOWER GWYNEDD >> Wissahickon earned almost 20 corners in its Suburban One League American Conference matchup with Springfield (Montco) Tuesday afternoon, but struggled finding the back of the cage.

Thanks to a dominant effort from the Trojans midfielders, they only needed to capitalize once — and that’s what they did.

Grace Ball scored off a penalty corner midway through the first half to lift Wissahickon to a 1-0 win over Springfield at Wissahickon High School.

“Hannah Havrilla made a nice pass out wide,” Ball said. “I made a pull around the (defender) and shot and it went to the left backboard.

“I saw that the flyer was coming out towards the right a lot, so I had this free, open space. Then I saw that the goalie was a little bit off her center mark, so I aimed towards that way and it went in.”

Ball beat the Spartans goalie on another corner later in the first half, but the shot was called dangerous and the goal disallowed.

For the other 15 corners, the Springfield defense closed quickly and goaltender Rebecca Berglund kept the ball out of the cage.

“(The defense) played very well,” Springfield coach Linda Nixon said, “although you have to remember, if there were 16 corners we fouled in the circle 16 times. We did a nice job coming out and defending the corners, I don’t think we played as good of defense as we needed to. We weren’t moving today very well.”

The Trojans possessed the ball for most of the game and kept it in the offensive zone. They put 15 shots on goal compared to just two for the Spartans.

“What was really nice is that I feel like we dominated most of the game,” Wissahickon coach Lucy Gil said. “Our problem was getting the ball in the cage. We had a bunch of corners. We had a bunch of shots on goal. We just weren’t moving the defense in order to take those shots, we were just straight-on taking them. 

“I was glad that my team came out and took possession of the game and took possession of the ball and really pushed forward and didn’t shrink back. We’re getting better every game and that’s all you can ask for.”

Springfield had a scoring opportunity with nine minutes left in the game. The defense forced a turnover, which resulted in a two-on-two fast break in transition. Wiss’ Julia Schools stepped up to challenge the ball-carrier, stole the ball around the Trojans 40-yard line and sent it back into the offensive zone.

“We played Friday,” Nixon said. “We played (Monday) on grass and we came here (Tuesday). I think it was a little too much. Wissahickon has a nice team. It would have been nice if we could have played a little stronger.”