Penn Charter senior Brigitte Gutpelet (left) shields the ball from SCH freshman Abbie Rorke. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

When the girls of Penn Charter hosted Springside Chestnut Hill Academy for an Inter-Ac League match last Thursday, there was sort of a Northeast Philly soccer reunion on the Northwest Philadelphia sidelines. Both the Quakers and the Blue Devils have drawn coaches from that soccer-steeped section of the city.

Penn Charter's program is run by Darci Borski, a former Nazareth Academy star, and her longtime assistant, Ashley Maher, played for St. Hubert's Catholic High School. Archbishop Ryan alumna Maria Kosmin is the new head coach at SCH, where she is assisted by her brother Tom DeGeorge, a former Father Judge standout.

Both squads came into the game in close pursuit of league leader Episcopal Academy, which defeated PC by a 2-1 count, and SCH, 2-0. Both area teams will meet EA again in the second round of Inter-Ac games.

Charter led 1-0 at the half, and the Quakers scored again relatively early in the second period. The visiting Blue Devils made some vigorous charges in the last 10 minutes, putting in one goal, but missing a few chances to tie the match and suffering a 2-1 defeat.

"I think we're on our way up, we're improving," PC's Borski said. "We worked out some kinks early in the season, and now people are really settling into their roles and have learned how to play in our system."

The Penn Charter players span the age spectrum, and as in many seasons past, there is an eighth-grader (Kait Haughey, another Northeast Philly product) playing up on the high school varsity.

Junior Giovanna DeMarco, the only PC player with firm plans to play soccer in college (Wake Forest) was also an eighth-grader when her varsity career with the Quakers began.

Speaking of youngsters, Borski's infant son, Jace, attended Thursday's match and, as usual, the PC girls provided a victory for their little rabbit's foot. Borski has been at school coaching the soccer team all season, but she just returned to her administrative duties as Associate Director of Athletics the morning of the match against SCH.

Aside from DeMarco, another junior who has made a verbal college commitment is SCH scoring machine Emily McNesby (Tennessee) whose late goal at Penn Charter last week gave her 20 for the season.

"We were really aware of her today - you have to be, she's dangerous," the Quakers' Borski commented. "Macaul Mellor [a PC senior] pretty much played her straight up and did a very good job. The defense played very well overall."

Fortunately for Springside Chestnut Hill, its defense was also playing well from the start of the game, or the Blue Devils could easily have been down by more than goal at halftime. SCH sophomore goalie Sena Houessou-Adin had many of her 16 saves in the first period, while PC junior keeper Mackenzie Listman made some key stops in the closing minutes and finished with six saves.

The Blue Devils' Coach Kosmin noted, "In the first half they just came out and ran through us. They won every ball and we couldn't get out of our end. They came to win and we played a little bit scared in the first half.

"Until we played Episcopal [on October 4]," the coach continued, "we hadn't seen at team that really just ran right at you, and we weren't ready for it. I thought we would be today, but the game didn't start out that way."

Charter's Borski commented, "We were prepared and I was very pleased with our start to the game. We were really motivated for today, because it's a big league game and their team has been doing well. This was probably our best start to a game this season."

The SCH defense, praised by Kosmin, limited the damage resulting from the PC pressure, but at halftime the Quakers had the lead. Sophomore Ally Paul, who made her varsity debut as an eighth-grader in 2014, fired on Houessou-Adin, and when the visiting keeper blocked the ball but couldn't hold it, Paul put away her own rebound. During the opening period, SCH lost a veteran defender to injury; senior Jazmin Contreras was unable to return after the intermission.

In the second half, with 31:39 still remaining, Charter scored its eventual game-winner on a similar play, only this time two players were involved. An outside shot by DeMarco created a rebound, and this season's eighth-grade prodigy, Haughey, drove in the loose ball.

Later, Springside Chestnut Hill's Kosmin said, "We eventually began to win balls and get forward, but it was too late to start doing that."

The Blue Devils got on the board with nine minutes to play. The scoring sequence began with a free kick out of the defensive half by Dartmouth-bound junior Grace Rorke. She delivered the ball to the left side of the box, where freshman Madison Niebish centered it and McNesby tucked it into the net.

SCH junior high scorer Emily McNesby (left) was shadowed throughout Thursday's game by PC senior Macaul Mellor. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

With five-and-a-half minutes to go Penn Charter had a corner kick on the right that didn't lead to a shot, and the rest of the way, the Blue Devils were on the attack most of the time. PC's Listman was able to grab the ball on Lucy Lamb's header from near the right post with just over three minutes left.

Lamb, a junior defender, drew enthusiastic comments from Kosmin.

"Every game, she puts everything she has into it, and does whatever we need her to do," the coach said. "Hustling to get a head on that ball is a good example. She wasn't there for our Episcopal game, and it showed."

On another long kick out of the back by Rorke, the ball traveled a little too far for McNesby to run it down before Listman could come out to fetch it. That happened with under two minutes remaining, and the visitors' last true scoring chance came when sophomore Mo'ne Davis hit a shot from outside of the box on the right. The ball bounced briskly toward the near side of the cage, but Listman corralled it in front of the right post.

Coach Kosmin could clearly identify one problem area for the Blue Devils, noting that the connections between the defense and offense need to be more consistent.

She remarked, "I thought our defense played extremely well, but there's too much of a gap between them and our forwards. I need my midfield to step up across the board and play the way they're capable of playing."

UPDATE: SCH's McNesby scored her 21st goal on Saturday, but the Blue Devils lost 2-1 on the road at Baldwin. A day earlier, Episcopal suffered its first league loss on a trip to Germantown Academy, where goals by senior Brynn Skelly and juniors Annie Peterson and Mackenzie Pluck powered the Patriots to a 3-2 victory. GA and Charter meet on Tuesday.