by Tom Utescher

With Mount St. Joseph Academy’s field hockey team playing on the road last Friday, the Magic’s soccer squad appeared in front of home fans on the all-weather artificial turf field that was installed at the school over the summer.

The Mount hasn’t found it easy to put the ball in the net this season, and the pattern reemerged last Friday in a 1-0 non-league loss to visiting Radnor High School.

In another home match earlier in the week, the Magic had chalked up their first victory – and first league victory – of the 2018 campaign, overcoming the Panthers of St. Basil Academy, 3-2. Juniors Madison Hornig and Caroline Kelly and sophomore Emily Friel were the MSJ scorers.

Less than five minutes into Friday’s Radnor game, Mount St. Joe suffered a personnel setback when senior Allie Prue had to leave the field with an injury and was unable to return. She is a team captain this fall, along with classmates Molly Kate McDonough and Rachel Shields.

Sophomore Emily Jones subbed in to replace Prue, and as in many contests this season, the Mount generated a number of offensive opportunities without being able to guide the ball between the goalposts. Off of a nice cross, junior Kate Tulane fired the ball a little above the crossbar.

A little later, the Magic had chances on back-to-back corner kicks taken by Kelly. On the first one a shot was tipped over the cage by the Radnor keeper, and the Mounties didn’t get off a shot following the next restart.

Midway through the first half, the visiting Raiders penetrated across the Mount 18-yard-line for just the second time in the game, but Radnor made this trip count as Sydney Wilson found the net from the left side of the box. Mount St. Joe had a chance later on with a corner from the left side, but the kick sent the ball too far out in the box and no shot was forthcoming.

Clinging to their 1-0 edge up until halftime, the Raiders protected their lead by spending more time on the attack in the second half. Their first serious assault, down to the left endline, was thwarted by the Magic’s McDonough. On another run, the Raiders got off a shot straight at the middle of the Mount cage, where junior goalie Gina Sassane made one of her four saves for the Magic.

Sassane made another stop later on when the visitors hit an outside shot from near the right corner of the penalty area.

As the clock wound down, the MSJ offense earned a corner kick, and the ball was served inside and deflected out over the endline by a defender. The Magic’s next corner got the ball in the box again, but while McDonough got a foot on the ball, she could not steer it in the direction of the cage.

At the very end, Radnor had an excellent opportunity to add an insurance goal, but when the Raiders crossed the ball from left right in front of the MSJ cage, they had no other attackers in position to finish the play.