Owen J. Roberts powers past Methacton in battle of PAC unbeatens
FAIRVIEW VILLAGE >> Owen J. Roberts sophomore Gabbi Koury did not officially suit up for the Wildcats before this season. A cancelled 2020 campaign kept her and the large chunk of this year’s OJR roster from logging their first official varsity minutes.
However, Koury, who watched her older sister Maddi help the Wildcats to their third, fourth and fifth straight Pioneer Athletic Conference championships from 2017-19, is familiar with the legacy of the OJR program and the expectations that come with suiting up for the Wildcats.
Even with only a handful of holdovers from its last championship team, those expectations didn’t change heading into 2021 and they’ve been met thus far by Koury and her teammates winning eight straight games — most recently an 11-5 victory Saturday over previously unbeaten Methacton.
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Koury finished with four goals and an assist, while sophomore Alexa Vogelman added a hat trick and an assist. Junior Gracyn Smith chipped in a pair of goals and assists, and seniors Emily Himmelreich and Grace Kratz rounded out OJR’s scoring.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Koury said. “We were really missing out on last year and having all our great seniors leave and missing. We were really motivated to come out and be the best team out there.”
OJR (5-0 Liberty, 8-0 PAC) rolled through its first seven games of PAC play, winning each game by double digits. It looked like it might be more of the same for the Wildcats early Saturday against Methacton (3-1 Liberty, 5-1 PAC).
Goals by Koury, Kratz and Vogelman pushed OJR out to a 3-0 lead by the 17:27 mark in the first half. Vogelman and Koury netted their second goals a few minutes later and suddenly OJR was up 5-0 and appeared headed toward another rout with 10 minutes to play in the first.
“We definitely came out with some fire in our stomachs in the first half,” Koury said. “It got a little messy but we finished strong.”
The Warriors entered 2021 with expectations and ambitions of their own and knowing a win Saturday would put them in good position to accomplish some of those things, they made sure they didn’t go down without a fight.
Methacton regrouped from the early onslaught with Julia McCann, Megan Sanelli and Delaney Smith netting goals to pull their team within two 5-3 with a minute to play in the first half.
“One of my favorite things about this team is we’re all best friends with each other,” said Smith, who led her team with a pair of goals. “We know that we can come back from anything. No matter how big of a hole we put ourselves in, we always keep fighting until the final whistle.”
Methacton’s resolve was matched by that of the Wildcats. After coasting through their first seven games, a little adversity showed OJR has another gear it can turn on when needed.
Thirty seconds after Smith closed the gap to two, Koury answered with a goal to halt Methacton’s momentum and give OJR a 6-3 lead at halftime. OJR netted two more early in the second half to increase it’s lead to 8-3, never letting the Warriors get closer than four the rest of the way.
“When we called timeout that was a big focus of recovering, taking momentum back from Methacton,” OJR coach David Schlesinger said. “It’s their home field, it’s their Senior Day, we wanted to take their momentum and make it ours and I thought we did a really good job of that.”
“Our coaches always talked about for big games we need people to step up, and I think our whole team did a get great job of stepping up this game,” Koury said.
The Warriors couldn’t muster much offensively outside of the three unanswered goals during a four-minute stretch in the first half. Smith scored her second goal with 14:51 remaining to make the score 8-4 and Jayme Weber added a late goal.
“OJR’s a good disciplined team,” Methacton coach Laurie Markle said. “That was the difference today. I don’t know that their players are necessarily any better than our guns because we have some great shooters, I thought our defense played well today, but they were disciplined.”
OJR freshman goalie Korrigan Sweeney played a large role in slowing down the Warriors’ offense. Even when Methacton did get some good looks, Sweeney was often there to stop them making 10 saves in the game.
“It was really fun, it was nice to get action,” Sweeney said.
Without a scheduled league postseason, Saturday’s win gave OJR the inside track on an sixth straight league championship. Methacton and Frontier leader Upper Merion (5-0 Frontier, 6-1 PAC ) sit a game behind the Wildcats in the loss column.
While the Wildcats can’t technically clinch a league title next week, they can put themselves in really good position to do so. OJR faces Boyertown on Monday before playing Upper Merion on Wednesday and getting a rematch with the Warriors on Friday.
“Everyone is committed to what our goals are for the season,” Schlesinger said. “In order to achieve them, we’ve gotta stay focused game-by-game.”
Methacton plays Norristown and Pottsgrove next week before getting its second shot at OJR. With no Final Four to potentially get a third shot at the Wildcats or redemption on any other team this season, the Warriors know each game is important moving forward.
“It’s a shame that there’s no tournament this year, but that just means we have to come out every single game like we’re playing for the championship,” Smith said.
NOTES >> Methacton celebrated its Senior Day for seniors Delaney Smith, Allison Hazlett, Alexa Kratz, Ryan Stanton, Julia McCann, Ava Probst and Kealy McCarthy before Saturday’s game.
