October 26, 2006 Issue                                       

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©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Springside soccer falls prey to Owls
by TOM UTESCHER

Springside’s Sophia Petrillo. For more archived photos of Springside soccer visit www.chlocalphotos.com. (Photo by Jimmy J. Pack Jr.)

In a number of Girls Inter-Ac League soccer outings this season, the Springside Lions have played hard late in the game, but were unable to overtake opponents who’d built up a comfortable lead earlier in the contest.

This scenario played out again last Thursday afternoon, when the host Owls of Agnes Irwin School took a 3-0 advantage into the halftime break, and then cruised to a 3-1 victory. Irwin improved to 4-2 in the league and leveled its overall record at 6-6, while Springside dipped to 0-7 in the Inter-Ac and 3-10-1 overall.

Neither club was at full strength for the contest. Irwin was missing seniors Molly Bourke and Veenie Mahmoud and junior Alyna Khan, all of whom were starting players earlier in the season. Not long after the game began, the Lions found themselves without three of their starters. Freshman Courtney Caputo was on the injured list and senior Jess Griffin was away on a college visit, and a little over ten minutes into the action senior Nan Weisel twisted an ankle while blocking a shot by the Owls.

Irwin continued to attack, and just after Anna Whiteman hit a shot wide to the left, Amanda Carmarck found the net for the hosts with 25:30 remaining in the first half. Irwin’s next two shots went over the cage and into the crossbar, then Olivia Goodman found the mark with about ten-and-a-half minutes left in the opening period. With less than two minutes to go, a strike by Bailey Marshall set the Owls up with a 3-0 lead for the intermission.

When play resumed the visitors logged a lot more ball possession and generated more scoring chances than they’d enjoyed in the first half. With 27:45 left to play, Springside broke up the shutout for Irwin goalie Nicole Uber (five saves), as a shot by Lauren Voye was blocked and Sophia Petrillo closed in to score off the rebound.

Late in the game, Irwin protected its lead by going on the attack. On one play, Springside keeper Tori Baggio (ten saves) was caught too far out in the box. An Irwin forward blooped a soft shot over her, but Baggio was able to scramble back and swat the ball outside of the left post. In the final minutes the Owls’ Marshall headed and kicked shots over the Springside goal, and the bout ended with the count still at 3-1.