Souderton can’t stay with Great Valley in 2nd half, falls in District 1 quarters
WEST GOSHEN — The Souderton girls lacrosse team played really well for at least the first 25 minutes of its PIAA District 1 quarterfinal matchup with Great Valley Saturday afternoon. The problem for the Indians was they needed to play perfectly for 50 minutes to beat the powerhouse Patriots.
Fourth-seeded Great Valley grinded down No. 12 Souderton in the second half and moved on to the semifinals with a 15-7 win at West Chester East.
Things started well for Souderton as it controlled play in the early going, but the Indians were unable to convert on early opportunities with some uncharacteristic turnovers and poor shot selection.
“Mia Tornetta is a phenomenal goalie,’ Souderton coach Kelly Kelly said. “You got to move here. We had a couple opportunities where we had the shots, we didn’t fake. We came up kind of short in terms of our shot selection. We were getting in there and getting opportunities but she was making saves.’
Although a district title is now out of the picture, Souderton’s season does not end with the loss. The Indians visit No. 9 Springfield (Delco) — which fell 17-7 to top-seeded Conestoga — Tuesday in fifth-place playbacks. District 1 sends five teams to the PIAA Tournament.
“We just got to push it out and keep going for the rest of the season,’ Souderton senior midfielder Natalie Bulgier said. “(We need to) focus on Tuesday and the next game that’s a head and just look past this.’
Great Valley — which clinched its first state appearance since 2012 with the win — takes on Conestoga in the semifinals 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at Haverford.
Despite the failed chances in the first half, Souderton only faced a two-goal deficit going into halftime. The Indians, however, continued to give away the ball in the second half, committing over 12 turnovers on the day to only five for Great Valley.
The turnovers coupled with the depth of the Patriots resulted in Great Valley outscoring Souderton 9-3 in the second half.
“I think our movement was a little slow to start off,’ Bulgier said. “Once we got into it and realized we can take these girls one-v-one I think we got more confident and I think we kind of ran with that.’
Bulgier was the main source of offense for the Indians in the first half, scoring three of Souderton’s four first-half goals. However, the Georgetown commit was forced to focus her efforts on the defensive end and fatigue — like it did for the rest of the Indians — began to set in.
“They have a lot of players that could start coming off the bench,’ Bulgier said. “We put all our girls out there and we had to play hard the whole game.’
