Henesey’s hat trick the catalyst as Lansdale Catholic tops Archbishop Wood
LANSDALE >> It was a pivotal moment in the match and Lansdale Catholic’s statement-maker decided to make a statement.
With her team playing a little flat and with Archbishop Wood having just scored a goal, LC senior Kate Henesey did what she seems to always do. The senior forward picked up the ball just past midfield, beat three defenders down the field then calmly slotted the ball home in the 53rd minute to restore her team’s three-goal lead.
Henesey had a hat-trick, bringing her to 98 career goals, as the Crusaders romped over the rival Vikings 5-1 Thursday afternoon.
“This was our biggest game of the season,” Henesey said. “I felt like it was time to pick our team back up and that was the best way to do it.”
Wood, of course, knocked off LC in the Philadelphia Catholic League title game last fall so the Crusaders had this game circled on the calendar. The Vikings also had it pegged as a key game, but right now, every game is a key game. Wood took a major hit on Sept. 19 when junior forward Lauren Ruth was injured, setting off an unbelievable series of events that have her sidelined for the rest of the year.
Ruth collided with a Central Bucks South goalkeeper, then suffered acute compartment syndrome in her right leg, forcing her to get surgery that’s left her with clamps on an artery, stitches and 17 staples in her leg, plus a five-day hospital stay and a three-to-four month recovery. The junior, who has committed to Delaware, was on Wood’s bench Thursday but she won’t be back in uniform this season.
As for the Wood lineup on the field, the game took a familiar path.
“We’ve had a problem all year of finishing, whether we’re scoring goals or not, and finding the right combinations,” Wood coach Dan Finello said. “What happens is our defense plays well for a certain time, does some things well for a certain time and then we lose it. Virtually every game has followed the same pattern.”
LC scored three times in the first half, and the Crusaders kept going to the left to get them. All three tallies came as a result of crosses off the left wing, with Henesey and LC’s Emily Schall meeting in front of the net in the 21st minute and Henesey getting to the ball first.
Schall got on the board for the team’s second goal in the 32nd minute. Another cross found its way into the box, and while it just missed Henesey and Wood’s oncoming keeper, it found Schall for the easy hit into the gaping net.
Sarah Fitzpatrick capped the first half scoring by bypassing any theatrics in the box completely. The junior hit a cross off the left side in the 35th minute that took a bend, perhaps influenced by the wind, which nestled into the netting on the far post.
“Goal number three, when that went it, that’s when it hit me that this might be our day,” LC coach Tom O’Donnell said. “None of our girls knew it went in until the keeper had to go in and get it. But I just thought that’s a sign that this is our day.”
O’Donnell felt his team started to celebrate too early and Wood was able to capitalize. The Vikings played hard all match and their energy in the opening 10 minutes rewarded them with a goal.
Liz McCloud made a well-timed support run after a service into the box and found herself wide-open when the ball came out to her feet. With LC’s keeper pulled out of the net after going for the airborne ball, McCloud hammered it home in the 47th minute.
“We have plenty of speed on the outside, but we never used it to the best that we could in the first half,” Finello said. “We got the one, but they’ve got Henesey. Erin Welsh did a good job and kept her quiet in the first half, but you can only do that for so long.”
Henesey restored the three-goal lead with her bombing run in the 53rd minute, then showed off her strength and ability in the box to complete the hat-trick. A win just outside the 18 found Henesey inside, where she fended off a defender and put the ball home.
It was the long run that O’Donnell felt really decided the game.
“I always say to my kids, I don’t know how you would defend that,” O’Donnell said. “She just ran through three of their kids and knocked it in. I don’t know how you stop it. She sent a message right there and that really turned the game, I thought.”
LC also topped Little Flower 6-0 on Monday, another team that usually plays the Crusaders tough. With things clicking this week for LC, just wants to keep things going through the second half of the season and keep everyone a part of it
“It just shows us how deep our team is,” Henesey said. “Everybody can contribute. We’re capable.”
LANSDALE CATHOLIC 5, ARCHBISHOP WOOD 1
ARCHBISHOP WOOD 0 1 – 1
LANSDALE CATHOLIC 3 2 – 5
