Plymouth Whitemarsh edges Abington in battle of SOL American unbeatens

WHITEMARSH >> With both teams entering game undefeated in the Suburban One League American Conference, Thursday night’s matchup featuring Abington and Plymouth Whitemarsh was a pseudo-championship game even though both teams still have conference games remaining on the schedule.

The contest delivered to expectations as both teams played great games. Aurora Mills scored off a pass from Monica Dresnin with 3:21 remaining to put Plymouth Whitemarsh up 7-6 and that stood as the winning tally.

“It think it was two good teams that fought their hearts out and we were lucky to come up at the end,” PW coach Ellen Reilly said.

It would be a disservice to how well played the game was by both teams to really reduce the game down to a matchup of each teams’ best player but Dresnin for PW and Sam McGee for Abington were huge factors in the game.

Dresnin controlled the field both in the offensive zone and midfield. She played a key role in the Colonials winning the draw control and put the offense in great positions all night. The senior attack assisted on four of the team’s seven goals, including a great heads-up play off a draw where she found Maddie Berman with long pass for a goal to give the Colonials a 6-5 lead in the second half on a man-down situation.

“Even though she was pressured, she could hit open kids and dish the ball,” Reilly said of Dresnin. “That’s just her seeing the field, especially that last one, she saw the open girl where not too many other kids would see that and dish the ball to her.”

McGee was equally as important for Abington. The junior attack was aggressive from the start of the game and just kept firing shots at the PW cage. McGee is known for her scoring prowess, but she put her talent on full display scoring four of the Ghosts’ six goals and assisting on another.

“She’s been in a slump,” Abington coach Amanda Kammes said of McGee. “I think tonight was some redemption. I think she found her stride a little bit. It’s playoff lacrosse. This was a playoff lacrosse game and when it comes down to it it’s going to be Dresnin vs. McGee.”

Overall, the defense of PW was able to frustrate the Abington offense into some bad decisions and eventually broke it late in the game as the Ghosts had three critical turnovers in the last six to six-and-half minutes of the game.

“It came down to just careless turnovers,” Kammes said. “Our D just kept shutting them down but like I said to the kids, you can only stop a team three, four [times before they] get something.”

While the loss for Abington will definitely sting with a shot at the SOL American title all but out of the picture but the Ghosts are in a good position, not only because their still going to make the District One playoffs but also because despite the loss it played one of its best games of the season.

“We probably played our best lacrosse game of the year tonight,” Kammes said. “As far as I’m concerned we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing right now. We’re getting better every game. We needed to play PW tonight, going into the home stretch here.”