Captain combo helps CB South edge Pennridge
EAST ROCKHILL >> Bridget Curtis and Janessa Watson just work well together.
The Central Bucks South senior co-captains seemed to be everywhere important Monday night as the Titans girls lacrosse team battled Pennridge under the lights. Together, they helped control the draw circle, set up some goals and scored a couple, including the eventual game-winner.
With the dynamic duo in front, South edged the Rams 9-8 in a game that came down to the final minute of play.
“We just have really good chemistry,” Curtis said. “We’ve been playing together pretty much our whole lives, so it just makes us a good duo. I can play the ball to her on the draw; she boxes out and takes it up the field.”
“It works every time,” Watson added.
Between them, the seniors scored two goals, assisted two others, had two caused turnovers, collected five ground balls and in the biggest display of their teamwork, helped South go 12-of-17 on draw controls. Curtis, a midfielder, takes the draw and usually looks for Curtis, an attacker, coming off the circle.
Watson had assists on back-to-back goals, the first to Curtis and the second to Teagan Mullan, which put the Titans up 4-2 and prompted a Pennridge timeout with 14:29 left in the first half.
The Rams fought back from there to knot the score 4-4 at halftime, then after a back-and-forth second half, fell behind 9-7 with 7:51 to play. They would get within one, but fell a possession short of tying the game. It wasn’t a matter of one play however, as an accumulation of little things added up.
“It really came down to our little mistakes,” Rams coach Karen Feher said. “Our midfield transition kind of fell apart, we maybe forced the ball a little bit in the attack and those type of mistakes add up, either it’s a turnover or a ball down and it forces our defense to come up with another stop and a couple times, it resulted in a goal on their end.”
Mullan had a nice game offensively for South, scoring four goals and assisting on Kate Victor’s go-ahead goal that put the Titans ahead 8-7 with 9:41 to play in the second half. Her quick start, which saw the attacker net three of four first half goals from South, was cooled somewhat after halftime.
Pennridge’s defense played stronger as the game went on and the Rams held CB South without a score over the final 7:50 of game time. After getting run all over in an 18-11 loss to Upper Dublin on Friday night, Feher wanted to see her defensive group get some stops.
Goalie Brenna Craig, a sophomore, made some nice saves and defenders Grace Rosica, Ava Fantaskey, Emily Amsden and Nikki Machado adjusted to South’s tendencies.
“Upper Dublin kind of rocked us so we focused this weekend on our defense and holding our positions,” Feher said. “I have to give credit to our defense, they showed up today and played hard. We are a young defense but we have fire and fight so I knew they were going to fight to the very end.”
Amelia Loughery made a stellar individual effort to tie the score 7-7 with 16:37 left and Craig made a great save on Victor with 12:36 to play that could have turned the tide in the Rams’ favor. However, the adding tally of errant passes and turnovers in possession prevented Pennridge from going back in front and South took advantage when Mullan found Victor with 9:41 remaining.
Maddy Edinger led the Rams with three goals. Feher said her team, which started a combined five freshmen and sophomores, has the intangible qualities she wants to see and now it’s a matter of cleaning up the performance on the field.
“Their grit and determination to not give up has really shown,” Feher said. “Tonight, we down by two goals twice and we fought back. To me, that’s the best kind of team to coach and know they’re never going to give up no matter what the scoreboard says.”
The Titans got another important goal shortly after thanks to some hustle from their senior co-captain. Curtis, who was also a captain this fall for the girls soccer team where she was also teammates with Watson, made the Rams pay for a mistake.
After the defense had gotten a stop, Pennridge turned the ball over in its own final third, where Curtis scooped up the ground ball and was able to bounce in a shot for the two-goal lead with 7:51 on the clock.
“I just saw the ground ball, and I was having a pretty slow game shooting, so I saw my chance, took it to cage and put it on net and gave it my best effort,” Curtis said. “I just took my shot, I wasn’t aiming anywhere specific, I more just flung it on net and hoped for the best.”
The goal proved important when Pennridge cashed in a long offensive possession with a goal from Kate Unzicker that made it 9-8 with 1:30 to go. A violation on the draw gave the ball back to the Rams and South’s defense had to make a final stand.
Applying pressure outside the eight-meter circle, the Titans were able to force a difficult pass that flew into traffic and put the ball on the ground. Curtis had a bead on it and drew a whistle that put the ball in her stick for a restart with 46 seconds left and from there, South ran out the clock on a hard-fought win.
Watson said she felt the offense did a good job of keeping its focus and not forcing shots, something that had been an issue in other games this season. Defensively, the group communicated well, led by Grace Gannon who collected six ground balls.
“This was important for us to see how when we focus, we can win in different situations,” Watson said. “We had to work together and play as a team. When we did that, it all came together for us.”
CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 9, PENNRIDGE 8
CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 4 5 – 9
PENNRIDGE 4 4 – 8
Goals- Assists: CBS – Teagan Mullan 4-1, Bridget Curtis 2-0, Kate Victor 2-0, Janessa Watson 0-2, Grace Gannon 0-1; P – Maddy Edinger 3-0, Amelia Loughery 1-1, Kate Unzicker 2-0, Aubrey Maher 1-0, Mackenzie Herbst 1-0.
