November 23, 2006 Issue                                       

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©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Springside soccer ends ’06 season
by TOM UTESCHER

Springside School’s Nan Weisel, #12, battles an Epsicopal opponent. (Photo by Jimmy J. Pack Jr.)

Two weeks ago, on a frigid afternoon that seemed designed to encourage the pursuit of indoor sports, Springside School’s soccer fans shivered through their team’s 2006 season finale.

After the visiting Baldwin Bears took away a 2-0 victory, the Lions bagged up their soccer balls for the last time with an overall record of 4-14-1 and a 1-11 mark in the Girls Inter-Ac League. There were still a few games left on the schedule for Baldwin, which scored once in each half in Friday’s match to reach a record of 4-6 in the league and 6-9 altogether.

A week earlier, Springside supporters had been celebrating beside the home pitch after the Lions knocked off Notre Dame Academy, 1-0, for their first Inter-Ac win of the season. With a little over nine minutes left in the first half, a corner kick by Sophia Petrillo led to the game’s only goal, which was scored by Larissa Sfedu. Lions goalkeeper Tori Baggio booked seven saves to secure her shutout.

In Springside’s season swansong, senior standout Jess Griffin was dropped back to play defense, replacing the missing Tija Bross. Unfortunately, this prevented the Lions from putting much pressure on Baldwin’s inexperienced goalie. The Bears’ regular keeper was out with an injury, and freshman fullback Claire Henkel was filling in.

The visitors attacked from the outset, and Springside’s Baggio made two of her 11 total saves before Baldwin got on the board 11 minutes into the match. On a Baldwin rush, Baggio saved the Bears’ first shot, but the ball bounced off a Springside defender and back towards the goal. In a scramble for the ball, Baggio, one of her teammates and a Baldwin forward collided in the mouth of the cage and fell across the line together. It was ruled a goal by the officials, with credit going to the Bears’ Liz Schoenberg.

A pair of Baldwin corner kicks near the middle of the opening period were headed out of the box by Springside’s Griffin and Nan Weisel, and two attempts a little later on the Bears saw one shot saved by Baggio and the other carry over the crossbar. Near the end of the half, Springside defender Kira Theuer chased down a breakaway by visitor Haley Pearlstein and blocked the Baldwin player’s shot. It was still a 1-0 game at the interlude.

“Early on, I thought we didn’t have any intensity, but the girls stepped it up after we talked to them at halftime,” said Springside coach Gary Stephenson. “In the second half I thought we were a better team on chances, though they moved the ball around a lot better than we did.”

However, it was Baldwin which was able to capitalize on one of its early opportunities, ringing up a second goal with 31:57 remaining in the contest. This one went to the Bears’ Emma Hamm, who drove a hard shot from the right edge of the box across into the far side of the Lions’ cage.

Midway through the period, the hosts had several chances to break the shutout. On a corner kick from the right side by Petrillo, Grayce Selig sent a shot just wide to the right, and when Sfedu ran down a ball rolling laterally through the box, she fired over the goal.

At the opposite end, Baldwin shot a ball a little beyond the left post, and Baggio made a good stop on an outside shot aimed just under the middle of the crossbar by the Bears’ Char Damico. Springside started to get off some shots against Baldwin’s Henkel (eight saves), but she thwarted attempts by the Lions’ Nicky Lombardo and Maura Daddario as the clock dropped down through the final ten minutes. After Mary Trocky stopped a fast break by the Bears’ Pearlstein, Griffin provided Springside with a beautiful left-to-right cross in front of the Baldwin goal, but none of her teammates were in position to meet the ball.

There was only half-a-minute left to play at that point, and Baldwin wrapped up its 2-0 victory, having enjoyed a 7-1 advantage in corner kicks during the match.

Looked back at the season as a whole, Springside’s Stephenson commented, “Our actual soccer skill, the movement of the ball, was much better than it was last year, but we didn’t seem to have the hustle and the heart we had the year before. We went a long stretch without a win, and I think our confidence took a knock.”

He added, “We’re going to put some stuff together for the girls throughout the winter and the spring, to get them playing together as much as we can.”