Complete effort propels Central Bucks South past Souderton

FRANCONIA >> Aggressive but clean defense and a patient but potent offense keyed Central Bucks South’s victory over Souderton Wednesday night.

“I feel like this is the first game our team was actually coming together and seeing the field together,” said junior Tegan Mullan. “Grace (Gannon) was killing it on the draw and our midfielders were working super hard. I feel like we’re starting to trust each other and I think that’s the biggest thing.

“We know each other and where we are and we can kind of sense that. So it’s super exciting to finally work together.”

The Titans rolled up their sleeves and went to work, earning a 14-8 victory over Big Red in a Suburban One League National Conference game.

“I think this is definitely gonna give us some momentum for the rest of the season,” said Gannon, a sophomore, after the Titans raised their conference record to 5-1. “We got out fast, which had been kind of a problem, but we got out and we held it there.

“And we trusted each other, which has been one of our problems but we got out and we held it there. And we all worked together and we trusted each other, which had been one of our problems, but we really improved today.”

Mullan scored a game-high five goals and Gannon added a hat trick. Bridget Curtis, Janessa Watson and Kate Victor all had two goals each.

“The biggest thing was energy,” Mullan said. “We’d always have one bad thing throw us off but today we kept it all up.

“Our coach (Janique Craig) always says the key is the energy we have and bring on the field, and I think we kept it together today.”

Led by Lauren Hallman’s hat trick, Souderton made its move early in the second half.

Big Red (4-3 conference) battled to within 10-8 of the Titans, but South then went on its biggest run of the contest.

“That just fueled us even more,” Gannon said of the tightening score. “We thrive under that pressure.”

South got to more 50-50 balls in the second half and was able to clear it out to the attack more efficiently.

“I was really proud of my attack because we were slowing it down, taking our time,” Craig said. “We were playing a team attack, passing it around. We found the open player.

“(The defense) was aggressive, going for the interceptions. They were playing up on the girls. It was nice, clean defense. Souderton did a phenomenal job of doing double and triple teams on us in the first half, and in the second half, we broke that down, which was good.”

Big Red hosts Upper Moreland Saturday at 11:30 a.m. and South is back at it Thursday, at home against Springfield Montco at 3:30.

“I’m excited to see how the rest of the season goes,” Mullan said. “We have a big game (Thursday) and our coach stressed how important this one was for the playoffs and I think we all knew that.

“We wanted to work towards that, do it for the seniors, and I’m just really happy with how we played tonight.”