Junior Lizzie Friel sends the ball upfield for Mount St. Joseph Academy. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

From the perspective of Mount St. Joseph Academy soccer fans, you could call last Tuesday's Senior Day match a near-upset or a moral victory, but however you'd choose to describe the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies Contest, the fact is that the for almost half-an-hour in the second period, the Magic found it exhilarating to hold a 1-0 lead over visiting league power Villa Joseph Marie.

There are Mount victories over Villa Joe lurking far back in the record books, but they're beyond the personal recollection of anyone associated with the modern day MSJ program.

The Mount's Allie Prue, a sophomore who has been coming on strong in recent weeks, scored the first goal of last Tuesday's tilt in the second minute of the second half. The Magic maintained the lead for much of the period, until VJM senior Casey Kilchrist tied the match with just under nine minutes to go. Only 90 seconds remained when Jems junior Miranda Behr scored on a long-range rocket for the game-winner.

With that, the Jems completed a series sweep of Mount St. Joseph, which has lost 6-2 out in Holland, Pa. back in the middle of September.

The PIAA Class AA state runner-up in 2015 and winner of numerous titles in prior years, Villa Joe left the Mount at 12-1-1 overall, and appears destined to retain the Catholic Academies crown with a 9-0 record in league play thus far.

The Mount, which came away with a 7-5 mark overall and a 4-6 record in the league. In addition to their two league games against the Jems, the Magic split their home/away series with Gwynedd Mercy, Nazareth Academy, and St. Basil's, defeated Merion Mercy, and lost to Villa Maria. Rematches against Merion and Villa Maria (as well as a few non-league games) remain to be played before the PIAA District 1 playoffs begin in the last full week of October.

Given the fact that the season has been a bit of roller-coaster ride, first-year head coach Bill Naydan said that heading into the home stretch, "I want the girls to look at this result against Villa Joe as a definite positive, which tells us that right now we can play even with any team. Villa Joe is number one in triple-A right now (in the District 1 rankings), so we don't need to be afraid of anybody. We just want to go out there in these final games and fight for the best seeding we can get for Districts."

The Mount was previously a Class AAA team and Villa Joe was a double-A team, but with a quad-A category being introduced in girls' soccer for the largest public high schools, both the Magic and the Jems are now in the triple-A division.

In its pre-game ceremony last Tuesday the Mount had almost a dozen departing seniors to honor, including three who were already impact players as freshmen, Ashley Pyne, Paige Comtois, and Angela Gervasi. The other members of the soccer Class of '16 are Allie Carpenter, Maddie Finnegan, Regan Fitzgerald, Micailla Fitzpatrick, Kieran Glowacki, Julia Hawthorne, Gwyn Manchester, and Bridget McGonigle.

"We have such a large group of seniors, and we're fortunate that they really do work very well together," Coach Naydan said. "They lead by example and they're focused on the betterment of the team."

Of course, the Mount's 11 seniors could constitute a full starting line-up, and that's the way the Magic began the Villa Joe game, with Glowacki in her usual spot in the goalcage. Both teams made early rushes, and it was quickly evident that the Mount's game plan for this challenging opponent was not to employ a "prevent" defense.

"Having Senior Day with all that positive emotion was a good lead-in to the game," Naydan noted. "We went right out and attacked them as opposed to letting them attack us. We pushed three forwards right up front and played with a lot of intensity, and when we were able to disrupt their game, it made the girls even more confident."

Villa Joe's talented Murphy Agnew, a Harvard-bound senior, always presents a challenge for opposing defenses, and about seven minutes in she hit a solid shot wide to the right of the Mount cage. The Magic did not connect quite as well with the ball when they got a shot at the other end off of a throw-in.

A potentially troublesome Villa serve into the box was grabbed out of the air by Glowacki, and one of her defenders, Hawthorne, blocked a shot by the visitors a little later. With around 27 minute remaining in the first half, Mount St. Joe subbed in five younger players. The Magic weathered two Villa corner kicks, with Carpenter heading the ball out across the 18 on the second attempt.

In the middle of the period, MSJ's Comtois booted a free kick from out on the right wing, and just as the ball was tipped over the crossbar by Jems goalie Olivia Eife (four saves), an offsides call was made on the Magic and they didn't get a corner kick out of this sequence.

On a corner for the visitors, a header in front by junior Erica Behr was stopped by Glowacki, and soon after that Gervasi cleared out a loose ball from next to the Mount's left goalpost. Manchester sent a Mountie corner kick in from the right side, but Villa booted the ball away upfield.

Many times the Jems' Agnew seemed on the verge of breaking free for an assault on the cage, but things never quite clicked. Several times, the ball was simply taken off of her feet my MSJ junior Deirdre Regan, whose defensive effort was praised by her coach.

Another Villa Joe senior, Eva Ruppersberger, launched a late shot that was tipped outside of the left post by Glowacki, whose six saves came mostly on very challenging shots.

"We could have been down a couple goals if not for Kieran," Naydan remarked. "She made some incredible saves today on point-blank chances."

The half ended with the score still 0-0, a lot more encouraging for the Mount than the 3-1 deficit they'd faced at halftime of their earlier game against the Jems. The rematch featured a fair amount of physical contact; at one point there was a mid-field collision between Pyne and Villa Joe's Kilchrist, who will be playing together next year at La Salle University.

The Mount attacked immediately as the second half began, with Pyne narrowly missing a redirection opportunity at the right post off of a serve from junior Caitlyn Vesey. The Magic remained on offense and scored the game's first goal just one minute and 16 seconds into the new period.

The play started with a throw-in from the right sideline by Reagan to Finnegan, who sent the ball down toward the right endline for Prue. The sophomore fired from beyond the right post into the far side of the net.

"It was a perfectly-struck ball," Naydan commented. "When you watch her it's easy to forget that she's a year younger than most people in her class. When she started preseason with us last year as a freshman, she was still just 12 years old. She already came a long way last season, and at the end she scored one of our goals in the game in Districts. That sort of served notice that she was a full-fledged varsity player."

Prue also helped thwart some offensive thrusts by Villa Joe both before and after she scored. Realizing they were truly in for a scrap, the Jems vigorously sought the equalizer.

With nine minutes gone, MSJ's Glowacki dropped to her knees to control a ball fired directly at the middle of the cage. Villa Joe wasted an outstanding cross by Kilchrist that tracked directly in front of the MSJ cage from right to left with no other Jems around to finish the play.

On a similar sequence at the other end midway through the period, Mount junior Grace DiGiovanni sent the ball inside from the right endline, and almost saw it go in at the right post without another touch.

With the clock winding down close to 12 minutes remaining, what would have been an excellent assist for Agnew came to naught when Glowacki repulsed a shot taken from just a few yards away by Kilchrist. Agnew let one go herself soon after that, shooting just a little over the crossbar.

The visitors kept sending balls into the box, and finally Kilchrist connected with her head from a little beyond the left post and the ball bounced into the right side of the Mount net with 8:59 on the clock.

The Mount made a few rushes in quest of another go-ahead goal, but down the stretch Villa Joe attacked repeatedly. The Magic at least had the consolation of knowing they lost on a beautiful shot by their rivals. From 35 yards out in the middle, Miranda Behr blasted a ball straight at the cage that went in just below the crossbar. Only one minute and 30 seconds remained in the contest, and the Jems took home a 2-1 win.