Senior duo the anchor for Pennridge midfield, Lansdale Catholic making early strides

EAST ROCKHILL >> The Pennridge girls soccer team didn’t return many starters, but it did bring back two in a crucial part of the field.

The senior duo of Maddie Anderson and Chance Hendricks are the anchor in center midfield for the 2-0 Rams, solidifying the team’s spine and also providing essential cover for the back line. With so much of what Pennridge wants to do emanating out of the middle, having that duo back is a huge plus.

It also doesn’t hurt there’s not much either Anderson or Hendricks can’t do on a field, as they demonstrated in Tuesday’s 5-0 win over visiting Lansdale Catholic.

“It’s been totally different from last year, we have so many new players starting and coming in,” Hendricks said. “Having a lot of underclassmen stepping up, having Maddie and myself in the midfield helps because we’ve been through this and it’s easier with us in there to help out the underclassmen.”

Five different players scored on Tuesday, including Anderson who buried a howitzer of a shot from 25 yards out to make it 3-0 in the first half. Hendricks, who has pledged to play at Marist next year, didn’t score, but she chalked up a pair of assists, first sending a free kick right to Lindsey DeHaven for a header and then sending the ball out that Anderson promptly rifled into the net.

Both midfielders seized starting roles last year and helped spur the Rams to the PIAA 4A state title game as part of a midfield trio that included Ashley Groeber, now at St. Joe’s. Pennridge hasn’t settled on a third starter in the central midfield, but with Anderson and Hendricks there, it’s an easy fit for the handful of options the team has.

“We just all know how each other play, especially this year,” Anderson said. “We seem much closer and being close off the field helps us play better. On the field, in practice everyone has been working so hard, even the other day it was just amazing to see how everyone was connecting.”

Certainly, the pair doesn’t have to do it all alone either. The rest of this year’s senior class, including co-captain goalkeeper Meghan Kriney and defender Lauren McIntyre and midfielder Rachel Dudek, have been through the ringer of a postseason run and are working to get everyone on the same page as Friday’s SOL Continental opener with Quakertown approaches.

Scoring and assisting goals are certainly attributes the team will take from the senior midfielders but their main job is to win and distribute the ball. It was a tackle by Hendricks in the middle of the field that led to the team’s first goal in Friday’s season opener and she had another on Tuesday that led to a chance for DeHaven.

Likewise, Anderson is one of the squad’s best aerial players and dropped to play center back for a couple spells against LC as the Rams rotated different players in.

With three previous senior classes to draw from, Anderson, Hendricks and the rest of their class have a good example of how to lead a team.

“They were all just such hard workers and leaders and that’s what we hope to accomplish,” Hendricks said. “It was what they did on and off the field so that’s what we hope to bring to the team, keep the tempo up even if we’re down or if we’re up, it doesn’t matter, we have to keep the pace and intensity for the underclassmen to follow.”

“Every year, we can never take a game off,” Anderson added. “We have to be right back where we left off the last year so it’s making sure we don’t have any gaps at any place on the field.”

Hendricks and Anderson said they like playing with the weight of the role on their shoulders and filling similar roles that Groeber, Erin Stevenson and Savanna Harrison have taken the past few seasons. They’ve also worked hard to mesh with whoever is occupying that third center spot whether its Raina Adelman, Dudek or junior Grace Myers, who started on Tuesday.

“I’m hoping everybody will continue to feed off their energy,” Rams coach Audrey Anderson said. “Those two and Lauren McIntyre, they’re very good at winning balls in the air and I think that’s important and their work rate and ability to play 80 minutes is what’s going to feed these younger players.”

Pennridge got on the board when Leah Malone followed up her own rebound for a third-chance goal 10 minutes in. DeHaven nodded in Hendricks’ free kick for a 2-0 lead before Anderson’s rocket pushed the lead to 3-0 and Abby Brown stretched the lead to 4-0 just before halftime after good work by Liv Lowery set her up in the box.

The Rams got their last goal off a fantastic hit by Maddie Angelo after a couple quick passes between her and Riley Hepler. Angelo’s rip from about 20 yards out on the right flank found its way into the upper corner on the far post with three minutes to go.

Kriney picked up five saves for her first shutout of the season.

POSITIVE STEPS

LC, the defending PCL champion, had a lot of spots to fill this offseason.

Second year coach Bree Benedict lost eight senior starters to graduation and at least one in each third of the field. Still, the Crusaders have come out looking to put things together early and have been bolstered by a solid freshman class.

After battling Penn Charter to a draw in their season opener, the Crusaders put together a solid second half against Pennridge on Tuesday.

“When we came into this game, we talked about staying compact, staying inside the football lines and not getting stretched out,” Benedict said. “In the first half we gave those up and made some silly mistakes like not marking on set pieces and giving up rebounds. The second half, we played with a little more heart, stayed compact and got back in and that’s what we needed to get out of this game.”

Benedict, who is an assistant coach on Rams’ coach Audrey Anderson’s club team, gave her squad an impassioned halftime talk and another after the game extolling their effort in the latter 40 minutes.

The freshmen have been put to work early and Benedict has been very pleased with how they’ve responded. Megan Steinbach was a positive force in attack after halftime, forcing Meghan Kriney into a pair of tough saves and helping draw one of three straight corners during LC’s best attacking spell.

“It helps when we can get Kellie (Gillen) going up top, she’s been playing like a senior the last three years,” Benedict said. “Someone like that up top just running at people and committing to getting to goal is fantastic and our freshman Meg did a great job in joining her. We just have to clean up our chances.”

LC is without one of its top defenders in Julia Boccella to start the season but the defensive unit which includes Danielle Mehlmann, Emily Hopkins, Casey Sabolsky, Delany Molettiere and keeper Brynn U’Selis, have meshed quickly.

“Our defending is the best it’s been as a group since I took over the program,” Benedict said. “We’ve been compact, we pressure-cover all over the field and I think the difference is Brynn who’s been making some miraculous saves and keeping us in games.”

PENNRIDGE 5, LANSDALE CATHOLIC 0
PENNRIDGE 4 1 – 5
LANSDALE CATHOLIC 0 0 – 0
Goals: P – Leah Malone, Lindsey DeHaven (Chance Hendricks), Maddie Anderson (Hendricks), Abby Brown (Liv Lowery), Maddie Angelo (Riley Hepler)