Hatboro-Horsham tops Wissahickon in overtime in SOL Liberty opener

LOWER GWYNEDD >> Last fall, Hatboro-Horsham ended Wissahickon’s season with a 3-2 win in the second round of the District 1-4A playoffs.

The Hatters welcomed the Trojans to the 2022 season the same way.

Mia Malofiy scored just over two minutes into overtime to lift Hatboro-Horsham to a 3-2 Suburban One League Liberty Division win Monday night at Wissahickon High School.

The Hatters earned a free kick early in the extra session. Wiss keeper Meredith Blight made her 11th save of the game on Sarah Roesing’s shot, but Hatboro-Horsham went after the rebound aggressively. Malofiy found the ball and put it away for the game-winner.

“It was exciting,” Malofiy said. “Golden goal, so we just had to get it in. We just had to crash the net. Sarah (Roesing) did it all though.”

The Hatters (1-0-1, 1-0 SOL Liberty) wasted no time jumping out to a lead in the beginning of the game. Roesing put her side ahead just 21 seconds after the opening kickoff. She stepped up to a slow roller leaving the Wissahickon box, put air under it and when the ball landed the visitor were celebrating a 1-0 lead.

“Super exciting, so hype,” Malofiy said of the fast start. “Sarah hit it from the 30 or 25 or something. One touch.”

“We missed on a clear,” Wissahickon coach Chris McDaniels said. “I think we have an opportunity to get that ball out. We miss on it and the girl catches one, sweet from 25 out and sticks it in that near, top right corner. It’s a rough way to start, kind of fluky and unfortunate, but kudos to the girl for having the guts to have a pull from there.”

Roesing book-ended the first half with a crafty give-and-go with Kathryn Randa. The two went back-and-forth multiple times in the offensive end before Randa scored and made it 2-0 with :31.5 remaining before halftime.

“I thought giving up that goal 21 seconds in and then getting to half 1-0 with the ability to talk to the girls, make a couple of adjustments and explain what I thought they were doing well and how we could counter it, that’s important,” McDaniels said. “For me I thought the second goal was actually the one we really need to avoid.”

Wissahickon answered in the second half. Kylie Friedman scored off a Kendall Dries assist to make it 2-1 in the 51st minute. 

Friedman drew a foul in the 77th minute about 25 yard away from the Hatboro-Horsham goal. Sage Stelzer took the free kick and scored to tie the game, 2-2.

“Anybody who’s been at our practice knows she has the ability to hit a ball like that,” McDaniels, who was proud of the way his team responded in the second half, said. “She got all of it. The ball dipped. It was hit from probably 25, 30 out. It dipped right under the bar. It was a fantastic finish, got us in it, got us to overtime and we played hard til the end.”

The Trojans (0-1, 0-1 SOL Liberty) had a chance to score on the first possession of overtime, but couldn’t turn a quality opportunity into a shot on goal. 

The two teams meet again on Oct. 7 at Hatboro-Horsham.

“From half onward, that was anybody’s game,” McDaniels said. “With them, we’ve been playing them to one-goal battles all of last year, this one, guarantee the one at their place will be a lot like that too.”

Hatboro-Horsham 3, Wissahickon 2

Hatboro-Horsham 2 0 1 – 3

Wissahickon 0 2 0 – 2

Goals: HH: Sarah Roesing, Kathryn Randa, Mia Malofiy. W: Kylie Friedman, Sage Stelzer.

Assists: HH: Sarah Roesing. W: Kendall Dries.

Saves: HH: Alyssa Tooley 7. W: Meredith Blight 11.