Higgins’ rebound shot a winner for Penncrest

NEWTOWN SQUARE >> The last two weeks have been rough on Penncrest, and few have felt that as acutely as Tara Higgins.

Thursday’s task for the sophomore wasn’t just to get up and down the wing, but to do so sporting a new sleeve over her left knee, a remnant of an injury picked up in Tuesday’s overtime loss to Conestoga.

Add in an early Marple Newtown goal forcing Penncrest to chase Thursday’s Central League contest, and the latest installment of disappointment seemed inevitable for the Lions … until Higgins decided otherwise.

Higgins connected on a corner kick that rattled around in the box 55 seconds into overtime, helping the Lions banish some recent setbacks and score a 2-1 win.

Gia Martyn delivered the corner, which danced chaotically through a couple of attempts to nudge it this way or that. It took a deflection off Penncrest defender Sarah Hughes and sat up perfectly for Higgins to lash with her right foot and deposit her eighth goal of the season.

“I never get ahead on those,” Higgins said. “I try, but it’s always other people. And it always tends to hit off people and go out. So I decided to take this one, get back a little bit. … I saw it and I tried to put it in the back of the net and I did.”

Tara Higgins the game winning goal 55 seconds into OT. Final: @penncrestad 2, @MNAthletics 1 http://t.co/8FIJ8Bf2AZ

— Matthew De George (@sportsdoctormd) October 15, 2015

The Lions (10-5, 7-4 Central) got to overtime for a third straight game only through the work of another bandaged attacker, Cassidy Moretti. The midfielder, who has been limited by injuries most of the season and sported a bubble-wrapped cast on her left forearm, chipped Marple Newtown’s Halle Robinson from 32 yards out with eight minutes to play to get the teams on level terms.

For all the buildup that resulted in few concrete chances before Moretti’s goal, the setup for the tally seemed innocuous. But as the pocket of space around her grew, Moretti figured she’d have a go.

“I just kind of realized that I had a lot of time and I realized I couldn’t get any closer,” the senior said. “I just kind of went for it, and it worked out.”

Marple Newtown (10-6, 5-6) had been the better team for most of the first half, and several excellent saves among Kayla Allen’s seven denials prevented them from augmenting the lead.

They got the goal in the 24th minute, with Shannon McCarthy weaving through a couple of defenders and poking a pass to Megan Lynch, who blasted a shot across the face of Allen’s goal for her 14th marker of the season.

Julia Lynch almost made it 2-0 before halftime, but Allen fought off her bouncing free-kick delivery before pouncing on the ball amidst a scrum in the six-yard box. Allen also produced a superb double save on Megan Lynch in the 61st minute, batting away Lynch’s sharp-angle drive, then recovering as Lynch outhustled a pair of stationary Penncrest defenders to toe-poke a shot that Allen caught.

That passage of positive play, though, was too infrequent in the second half for the Tigers.

“It’s so tough,” Megan Lynch said. “We dominated the first half and we had such great shape, and I feel like we just reverted to our kick-and-run game and our shape just fell apart. It’s so tough from the top to see everything break down. …

“When you’re up, you want to have possession. When you have possession, they can’t score. You know they’re going to have opportunities when they keep going at it the whole half.”

In the league finale for both teams, opposite courses have been charted. Marple entered the week on the outside looking in at the District One Class AAA playoff field. But a 1-0 loss to Radnor before Thursday’s setback robbed the Tigers of not just wins but sizable shares of bonus points.

With two games left in the season, the Tigers have to regroup and hope for the best.

“We’re going to give it all we’ve got,” Megan Lynch said. “The only thing we can do is play our best and try to win our last two games and see where the playoffs fall. That’s all we can try to do.”

Higgins is the difference between the Lions facing a similar predicament. They entered having lost four of five, and arresting that slide as the postseason looms gives Thursday’s win more weight than just a plus in the standings.

“I think it’s a positive uptick, and now we’re all really excited so we can keep going on a high note,” Moretti said. “We were down, so now we’re up.”