Penn Charter grad Julia Casasanto (right), now a junior playing for Chestnut Hill College, attacks along the left wing against Lincoln University. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

This season goals have not come easily for the women's soccer team at Chestnut Hill College, but the Griffins were able to raise their scoring stats significantly during last Wednesday's home match against visiting Lincoln University.

With injuries thinning out an already short roster, the Lions arrived at CHC's Victory Fields without any substitute players available for action, but before anyone had the chance to become winded, CHC was leading 4-0 just over a dozen minutes into the game. The hosts held a 6-1 advantage at halftime, then glided to a 9-2 victory.

Six different players scored for the winners, with Chestnut Hill receiving two goals apiece from starting sophomores Brianna Ferrell and Molly Sullivan and junior reserve Anna Abbot. Lincoln actually got off a number of shots, mostly from long range, and CHC's freshman goalie, Leah Peshkin, finished with 10 saves.

This was the final non-conference match of the season for the local booters, who improved to 3-8-2 overall while remaining 1-6-1 within the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference. Following Wednesday's contest, the Griffins were scheduled to head to New York and New Jersey to take on CACC rivals Nyack College and Georgian Court University. After that, they'll the return to more familiar environs to host Felician College and then play down at Philadelphia University.

Chestnut Hill's roster includes Julianna Casasanto, a junior midfielder out of Penn Charter. While at PC she suffered a broken leg of almost catastrophic severity which curtailed her athletic activities late in her career with the Quakers and into her first several seasons with the Griffins.

Now back in action, she has appeared in all but one of the Griffins' games thus far, and has started twice. Despite her 5'1" stature and her injury history, she doesn't shy away from contact, and is currently playing with a cast protecting a broken wrist she suffered in practice.

Up through the first weekend of October, CHC had scored seven goals in nine games, and all of the points had come in just two of those contests.

Last week against Lincoln (1-9), Ferrell found the net for the Griffins with a little over five minutes elapsed, and she scored again after Sullivan made her first mark in the book around the eight-minute mark.

When a Chestnut Hill breakaway culminated in a bullseye by junior Morgan Ruth with 12 minutes and 20 seconds elapsed, the hosts already had their winning goal and an insurance point up on the board.

In the middle of the opening period, Lions sophomore Cleo Spear snapped the shutout, but then Sullivan's second goal and Abbot's first spread the score to 6-1 for halftime.

In conference, the CHC offense had clicked for the team's first win on October 4, when the team topped Holy Family University, 3-0.

"That gave us some confidence, because up to that point we had a major drought," admitted fifth-year head coach Sandy Dickson. "We changed some things going into the Holy Family game, and we kind of simplified everybody's roles. We should have won the next two games, too."

At least the local women didn't lose those next two matches, tying both CACC member Bloomfield (N.J.) College (2-2) and North Carolina's Chowan University (1-1).

In their second half against Lincoln, the Griffins outscored their guests by a more modest 3-1 figure, thanks to Abbot, freshman Geena DiRugeris, and sophomore Macailagh Smith. DiRugeris is the sister of former CHC basketball point guard Mark DiRugeris ('13).

Tamara Greene furnished the second-half goal for the visitors, who marked down 11 saves in goal for another senior, Deborah Roseboro.

Aware of Lincoln's sub-less situation, CHC's Dickson pulled one of her own players off the field when one of the Lions left temporarily to have a minor injury treated by the training staff.

Some of CHC's difficulties in the first month of the season can be put down to inexperience; the roster lists only one senior, a smattering of juniors, and 16 freshmen and sophomores.

"Even if you were a good scorer in high school, you'll find that it's harder to score a goal in a college game," Dickson said. "If we could get a couple of kids to be more dangerous, we'd be in a much better spot. Still, everybody that played for us last year has improved this season."

In an effort to boost the offense, the Griffins' skipper moved former midfielder Ferrell up to forward, and she's also seen some inventiveness on attack shown by new players like Cecelia DuMond, a freshman out of Archbishop Ryan High School.

Although Peshkin played in goal last Wednesday, junior Meghan Guagenti has been the regular starting keeper. Dickson noted that she played a key role in the shut-out of Holy Family, making 15 saves as she faced 46 shots from the Tigers.