Perk Valley’s defense sets tone against North Penn
TOWAMENCIN >> Almost every time a North Penn attacker tried driving in the first half Monday afternoon, they got cut off.
The Perkiomen Valley girls lacrosse team’s defense was giving up little space and even fewer shot attempts. With the Vikings’ offense a little slow to get going, the defense made sure it wouldn’t have to play catch up and when PV took the lead, the defense made sure to hold it.
Perk Valley’s strong first half defense helped lead the way as the visiting Vikings topped the Knights 12-7 in a nonleague match on Monday.
“Our defense is really good, our communication and the bond we have really helps influence the strong backbone to our defense,” PV goalie Lauren Foley said. “We have some strong players that really help with that too.”
A state playoff team last year, the Vikings brought almost everyone back for this spring and at least on the defensive side, everyone is back in the fold. PV’s starting group of Maggie Sell, Elizabeth McMahon, Kelly Owens and Danielle Hamm, with the support of their midfield, held North Penn in check during the first half.
Neither team was particularly crisp out of the gate, with a lot of dropped passes slowing things up. The Knights jumped on the board first, scoring less than four minutes into the first half but the Vikings’ defense held them to just one more goal before the intermission.
“You go right into a Monday game, especially against these guys, we know they’re good,” North Penn coach Heather Mellow said. “We played them in the first round of districts last year, they didn’t lose anybody, so we knew what we were playing against.
“We didn’t move the ball well enough on offense to create opportunities either, so they could just stay in the eight(-meter), keep us isolated or overload to one side.”
For as stout as PV’s defense was to start, the Vikings led just 2-1 midway through the first half. The offense finally got untracked with a bit more than 10 minutes left, giving Perk Valley some breathing room to back up the defense’s effort.
Kaleigh Funk and Kat Kelley scored for a 4-1 lead and after NP’s Brooke Millevoi cut the lead in half, PV’s Riley McGettigan and Paige Tyson answered with back-to-back goals that stuck the Vikings to a 6-2 advantage.
Kelley and Tyson had hat-tricks for PV with McGettigan scoring two goals with three assists.
“We had a timeout in the first half and the one thing we talked about was that they needed to be more dynamic on attack,” PV coach Lisa Clark said. “Our attack was very slow, boring, lethargic and once we started to push and be more of a threat, that’s when things changed.”
No possession better summed up the first half than the one North Penn had with about six minutes left. PV was assessed a yellow card with 5:55 left in the half, but even a player down, the Vikings still managed to force North Penn into difficult matchups and survived the two minutes without allowing a goal.
“All these teams we’ve played against, we knew they were going to be good teams,” Mellow said. “Our schedule in general isn’t easy, so in a way, it’s been good because we’ve seen a lot of looks. I think it’s helped us for the future. We’re going to connect, it’s going to happen.”
Anna Dawson scored twice early in the second half to extend PV’s lead to 8-2. The Knights kept working, scoring the next two goals of the game, but luck was not on their side offensively most of the game.
North Penn struck metal, either the crossbar or a post, at least three times in the second half alone. Some of that was due to Foley, who commanded her net well and didn’t give the Knights much space to try and slip shots through.
Foley finished with six saves and a couple ground balls on top of helping direct the defense in front of her.
“They had a fast attack but we adjusted pretty quickly,” Foley said. “All our key players are back on defense and it really influences the way we play the game. We all know each other and work really well together. Everyone has something special about them and it really ties us together.”
North Penn stands at 0-4 on the season but Mellow feels like they have played better than that record. After losing the top two attackers from last season and couple other key players in other areas of the field, the Knights have been trying to build chemistry through the first few weeks.
The next step is creating some consistency while also continuing to find new ways to be dynamic offensively. Mellow felt her defense played well on Monday, but needed to cut down the amount of time they were in their defensive end.
“They’re getting there, you could see it at the end,” Mellow said. “The end of our game Saturday, the assists were there and that’s exciting. You see they’re working together, they’re not looking to go it alone, they want to pass the ball off.”
North Penn will have a chance to do that this week with just one more game on the schedule. Lilly Szilagyi paced the Knights with three goals and an assist while had Millevoi two goals and an assist.
PV got plenty of players off the sideline and into the game during the second half. With three games on tap this week, including a match with PCL and state power Archbishop Carroll, the Vikings will need their defense to keep things rolling.
“This gives us the little boost in confidence I think we needed,” Foley said. “We want to win PAC, that’s a big goal and I want to see states again. I want us to go further in states and see what we can do against some of the other big teams. It was neat to see we could do it.
“We’re all a little more driven, we just really want to get back.”
PERKIOMEN VALLEY 6 6 – 12
NORTH PENN 2 5 – 7
Goals-Assists: PV – Kat Kelley 3-0, Riley McGettigan 2-3, Paige Tyson 3-0, Kaleigh Funk 1-1, Anna Dawson 2-0, Jania Noss 1-0, Kate Hickey 0-2; NP – Lilly Szilagyi 3-1, Brooke Millevoi 2-1, Grace Sacchetti 1-1, Alli Lindsay 1-0
Shots: PV – 16, NP – 14. Saves: PV – Lauren Foley 6; NP – Ashley Lambert 4
