October 26, 2006 Issue                                       

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©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Springside hockey earns first league win
by TOM UTESCHER

A pair of second-half goals powered visiting Springside School to a 2-0 victory at Agnes Irwin last Thursday, as the Lions landed their first Girls Inter-Ac League win of the 2006 season.

Springside (1-5 league, 4-7 overall) had already gone through all but one of its first-round games in the Inter-Ac (a match with Episcopal was rained out), and with Thursday’s outcome, the local sticksters started their second trip through the league by avenging a 3-0 loss to the Irwin Owls back in mid-September.

The Owls slipped to 2-4 in league play (4-5-2 overall) even as their goaltender, Alex Cain, matched the five saves that Springside keeper Sara Heinze made for her shutout.

The play was largely between the circles for the first ten minutes or so, then after Irwin applied some offensive pressure for a spell, Springside came back up for a penalty corner. The resulting shot was blocked by an Owls defender with 13 minutes to go in the first half.

With a little over seven minutes remaining, Irwin had an open shot in the Springside circle right at the stroke line, but the Owls’ Laura Wagoner couldn’t get good wood on the ball. Players on both sides had to cope with goal circles that were still muddy from Tuesday’s all-day rain.

The hosts attacked at the beginning of the second half, but Springside soon steered the play in the other direction. After the Lions’ Leslie Jacoby crossed the ball into the circle from the right side, Erica Frankel knocked it into the cage, chalking up the eventual gamewinner with 26:09 remaining in the match. It was the first varsity goal for Frankel, a senior.

Seven minutes later, the Lions’ Tori Roebuck was scrapping for the ball in the left side of the circle, and she drove it to the front of the cage to set up an insurance goal by Meg Cronin. Nora Langan was also active on the attack for Springside, and Anna Hayne provided her usual steady strokes on restarts.

Agnes Irwin called time-out after the second Springside goal, but on a subsequent corner the Owls weren’t able to get off a viable shot. Later, the Lions earned three more corners of their own to finish with a 7-5 advantage in that category. Neither club capitalized on its late chances, and the Lions’ 2-0 lead held up until the final whistle.