Kriney’s brace lifts Pennridge over CR South

EAST ROCKHILL >> Emily Kriney was, quite frankly, a little angry.

Kriney and her Pennridge teammates had just given up the tying goal early in the second half to Council Rock South and the sophomore forward wasn’t happy about it. She didn’t want anything less than a win in her first varsity start at home, so she went and did something about it.

Kriney scored twice after the equalizer as her second half brace helped spark the Rams to a 3-1 win over the Golden Hawks in the season opener for both sides Friday morning at Helman Field.

“I was motivated, definitely, I was mad they scored because I thought they shouldn’t have,” Kriney said. “We wanted to get right back into it, run toward them and get the lead back.”

As far as openers go, it was a good challenge both ways between a pair of SOL teams that intend to compete for a conference crown and make a long playoff run. The Golden Hawks come out of the tough SOL National and wanted to see where they stood early while the Rams, off last season’s state title game appearance, had the same ideas before jumping into SOL Continental competition.

It’s a much different Pennridge side than a year ago with five returning starters and a couple contributors from last year put in new roles. That didn’t stop the Rams from presenting a strong early impression by using their hallmark pressure to help create an early goal.

A big tackle by senior Chance Hendricks at the center of the pitch led to an early run forward and yielded a corner kick. Junior Raina Adelman, a new starter, put a good ball to the far post where senior co-captain Lauren McIntyre got enough of the ball to direct it home not even six minutes into the season.

“Going into it, we know what they’re slated to do this season and yesterday’s practice we just worked on preparing for them,” Rams coach Audrey Anderson said. “Their midfield is really good, their forwards are so great so our goal was to deny them the ball.”

Pennridge held that advantage through the half, but CR South did start to find its footing after the slow start. With a potent front line, the Hawks needed to start connecting more passes up to the forwards, a task that did prove difficult at times against the Rams midfield pressure.

Both sides had a couple quality looks but Pennridge keeper Meghan Kriney and CR South keeper Sydney Mandel answered every challenge. For CR South, the task at halftime became turning moments on the ball into spells of possession and therefore generating chances.

“We get to see a team that will expose some of our flaws and we get to see what some of our strengths are going against good competition,” Hawks coach Nick Heim said. “It may not be the smartest move when you look at the point system but we’re more concerned how we’re playing when you get to the playoffs than the points.”

CR South weathered an initial storm by Pennridge to start the second half then found a chance to capitalize on a little over six minutes in. Junior Aubrey Hondros played an on-line diagonal ball to senior Sammy Jones on the right side of the penalty box.

With the keeper rushing at her, Jones slotted the ball perfectly to the far corner of the net to knot things up.

“We were a little rough at the beginning, but by the end of the game we all brought it together,” Kriney said. “When they scored the goal, we fought back as hard as we could to get this one. We tried to tire them out, our center forward was doing a good job checking back, so we tried to make runs behind them and that’s how I got in, I just made a run and beat the defenders.”

It only took a couple minutes for the Pennridge pressure to regain the lead. The Rams front line of Emily Kriney, Lindsey DeHaven and Leah Malone, plus the players who subbed in for them, pursued the ball relentlessly all game and that pressure led to a giveaway that DeHaven slipped into a wide-open Kriney.

From there, it was just a matter of depositing the ball into the gaping mouth of the empty goal. Kriney, who put four shots on target Friday morning, wasn’t done. With a shade less than 14 minutes left, Malone made the unselfish play to send a through ball to Kriney and the forward rewarded the pass with a terrific finish under the bar at the near post.

“She just works so hard,” Anderson said. “I said to the girls yesterday I like our odds because we have a Kriney behind us (Meghan, in goal) and a Kriney in front of us (Emily, at forward) so I’ll take those odds. Emily Kriney is just a workhorse, everyone else may quit on a ball but she’s going to keep going because that’s just what she does.”

Mandel had a good game for the Hawks, making seven saves in goal and defending her posts against the Rams’ seven total corner kicks. Hondros played a good shift out wide as did Jordi Rubakh on the opposite wing trying to set up Jones and Claudia Steinmetz in the middle while midfielder Lauren Smith did a good job of disrupting some of Pennridge’s central passing lanes.

“It was a good game for us despite the result,” Heim said. “We made some adjustments that helped us. You need to take advantage of every opportunity against a team that possesses the ball as well as Pennridge does and we just didn’t take advantage.”

Pennridge is back at it Tuesday night when the Rams host Lansdale Catholic at 7 p.m. before starting SOL Continental play on Thursday against Quakertown. After a preseason of tough practices, the new-look Rams were happy to open their season with a win, even if they had to get a little angry to do it.

“I really wanted to win our first game, so this is such a good feeling,” Kriney said. “I felt we were ready for this game. They were a good team, so to get a win today, I’m excited for the season.”

PENNRIDGE 3, COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 1
PENNRIDGE 1 2 – 3
COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 0 1 – 1
Goals-Assists: P – Emily Kriney 2-0, Lauren McIntyre 1-0, Raina Adelman 0-1, Leah Malone 0-1, Lindsey DeHaven 0-1; CRS – Sammy Jones 1-0, Aubry Hondros 0-1. Shots: P – 11, CRS – 6. Saves: P – Meghan Kriney 5, CRS – Sydney Mandel 7. Corners:  P – 7, CRS – 3