GA soccer shoots past Hun School girls

Posted 9/25/17

On this play, GA sophomore Grace Kaupas (right) shot the ball past Hun School goalie Leah Sutphen for the Patriots' second goal. (Photo by Tom Utescher) by Tom Utescher It was a week of encouraging …

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GA soccer shoots past Hun School girls

Posted

On this play, GA sophomore Grace Kaupas (right) shot the ball past Hun School goalie Leah Sutphen for the Patriots' second goal. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

It was a week of encouraging redemption for the girls' soccer team at Germantown Academy.

After a successful non-league entry into the 2017 season (3-1, with the loss coming to powerful Pennington School), the Patriots had suffered an 0-4 setback in their Inter-Ac League opener at Episcopal Academy on September 15. To make matters worse, senior standout Mackenzie Pluck, a Duke University recruit, was knocked out of action with a concussion in the first half of the EA match.

On Tuesday of last week, with Pluck out of the line-up, GA wrested a 2-1 victory from Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, which had started out in the league by beating defending champ Penn Charter. Last Friday, Hun School arrived at Germantown Academy with a 4-1 record, and the Patriots took control in the opening half and notched a 3-0 non-league victory that raised their overall record to 5-2.

Germantown entered the week looking to get back on even footing in the Inter-Ac by beginning to avenge a home/away sweep by the SCH Blue Devils last season. SCH had scored a total of seven goals in those two bouts, and now, with Pluck temporarily removed from their offensive arsenal, the Pats really needed to play solid defense.

Maryland recruit Emily McNesby, an SCH senior, had been high scorer in both of the 2016 matches against GA, but she did not score last week.

"I thought we took very good care of McNesby," commented Patriots head coach Chris Nelson. "We made a decision not to man-mark her, although we obviously wanted to keep track of her. I think with the exception of the Episcopal game, we've been playing solid defense, and after that loss to Episcopal, the win against Springside was important for us."

GA senior Annie Peterson, who recently announced that she'll be playing for St. Joseph's University, furnished the first goal in that contest. The halftime tally was 1-1 following an equalizer for the Blue Devils by sophomore Maddy Niebish, but in the second half Patriots senior Bailey Gilmore set up the winning goal by junior Katie Hackley.

Meaghan Toscano held sway in the goal cage and recorded five saves, and three days later it was GA's other sophomore keeper, Lilly Altomare, who stepped between the posts.

GA got off the first shot in Friday's match, firing wide of the cage in the opening minute. Over the next few minutes, Hun booted a long free kick out of play over the endline, and at the other end the Raiders' keeper dove to cover the ball following a Germantown corner kick.

Hun couldn't get much going on offense during the first half, and GA dominated in time of possession. Peterson, Gilmore, and junior Ally Clark each had a near miss, and about 15 minutes in, Peterson bonged a shot off the right end of the visitors' crossbar. In one of their rare advances, the Raiders carried the ball down near the left corner at GA's end, but then were overwhelmed by the defense.

GA junior Ally Clark (right) and Hun School's Nicole Apuzzi cringe after contact with an airborne ball. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

Despite the one-way flow of play much of the time, the score remained 0-0 in the first half until the clock dropped below 12 minutes. GA's Hackley brought the ball up to 18 a little right of center, then angled a shot to the left of a Hun defender in the middle of the box and into the far side of the cage.

Germantown continued to press the attack, and just over two minutes after Hackley's strike, a pass by Gilmore caught sophomore Grace Kaupas on a run up the middle. The goalie charged out into the box, but Kaupas fired the ball past her on the left and into the goal. The resulting 2-0 tally was still on the board at halftime.

To their credit, the Raiders generated a lot more offensive activity in the second half, but they didn't really get off many truly dangerous shots and they couldn't keep Altomare (six saves), from recording a shutout.

Early in the period, GA sophomore Elizabeth Van Blarcom made a nice charge up the right wing, but when she centered the ball nobody ran onto it in the box. A bit later, a boot by Hackely propelled the ball a few feet wide of the upper left corner of the visitors' goal.

A long ball sent up by Hun was being chased down by a front-running forward, but GA junior defender Riley Axenroth beat her to it and quashed the threat. Another Hun attacker dribbled the ball through several Germantown defenders before Patriot senior Nicole Marion took the ball off her feet with a slide tackle.

After a Hun corner play fizzled out with 14 minutes left, GA began to pick up the pace on offense again. Clark dribbled up and took a shot that tracked a little too far to the left, and fellow junior Julia Johnson got away a nice shot from down near the left endline and almost had the ball catch the top right corner.

The 3-0 final score went up on the board with 7:40 remaining. From the left side, Clark dribbled the ball laterally into the middle just above the 18 and successfully targeted the upper right corner of the cage.

The last serious threat to the GA shutout dissipated when senior Rachel Villari cleared the ball out as Hun School attacked toward the right post.

Coach Nelson credits Villari, Axenroth, and Marion with providing an effective bulwark in front of whichever keeper is in the cage.

"We're still sort of tinkering with stopper," he related. "Against Hun School, when Maddie Burns played there I was really happy with her."

The Patriots are playing another New Jersey prep school, Peddie, at the end of this week, but aside from that, they're really getting into the heart of the Inter-Ac schedule.

"There aren't really any bad teams in the league at this point," Nelson noted, "so if you don't bring your "A" game, anybody can get you on any given day."