October 11, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

CHA soccer blanks Episcopal, 3-0
by TOM UTESCHER

CHA keeper Chip Culp. For more CHA soccer photos visit www.chlocalphotos.com. (Photo by Pack Jr.)

While the Chestnut Hill Academy soccer team has performed well in many aspects, an inability to take advantage of scoring chances has been a disturbing shortcoming for the Blue Devils this fall.

After suffering a 1-0 loss to Delaware County Christian School early last week, CHA appeared to solve the offensive riddle last Friday, pumping in three goals in the first half and then holding that lead against host Episcopal Academy the rest of the way.

“The key is to take pride in how you perform in the final third of the field,” stated Chestnut Hill coach Mark Weinmann, who’d been running his team through extra shooting drills in recent practices. “I think they’re getting hungrier and it’s a good time for it in the league games. On a field like this [small, lumpy, dusty], it’s difficult to get consistent play, so it’s a lot about what you do with the opportunities that occur.”

The 3-0 win upped the Blue Devils’ overall record to 4-6-1, and kept them unbeaten in the Inter-Ac, at 2-0. Episcopal, which had dropped its league opener to Penn Charter, slipped to 0-2 in the league and 7-7-1 overall.

After a quarter-hour of back-and-forth maneuvering in Friday’s session, CHA began to press the attack more vigorously. About 16 minutes in, the Devils sent a ball across the Episcopal goalmouth, but a defender cleared it out for the Churchmen. An EA player tried to head the ball out of harm’s way following a Chestnut Hill corner, but visitor Joe Breen corralled the ball off the deflection and fired in the game’s first goal with 23:10 left in the first half.

Sam Lane had one head ball go off a post and another come back off the crossbar, and Mike Marino nodded a shot just outside the upper left corner of the Churchmen’s sanctuary. Later on, EA had a free kick at CHA’s end, but the Devils gained possession off of the restart and came up the left wing. Taking the ball in towards the box, Max Mitchell encountered several EA defenders, but kept battling through to get off a successful shot with 11:30 remaining.

As the first half entered its final four minutes, Chestnut Hill’s lead grew to 3-0 on a rip-roaring outside blast by Marino, who struck the ball a little to the right of the middle of the field, and curved it 25 yards into the left side of the cage. The question at halftime was, what would CHA do with its significant advantage on the scoreboard.

“We emphasized composure,” Weinmann said. “We’d had recent letdowns where we played like we thought we were finished with a game and we weren’t, so we needed to be steady and composed out there. I think we took some of the heart out of them in the second half by playing consistently and winning so many balls.”

A sure-footed ball control game executed by the Devils helped reduce the amount of pressure Episcopal could generate in the second stanza. Following several tumbles, CHA starting goalie Chip Culp was relieved by freshman Judd Hayne, who maintained the Blue Devils’ shutout for the final 12 minutes.