The girls of Penn Charter began their second round of Inter-Ac League soccer games last Friday, traveling to Baldwin School to take on a Bears team that they'd beaten 6-0 in their league opener last month.

The rematch followed a completely different scenario, with a 1-1 tie on the board at halftime and with Baldwin going on to win, 2-1. It was the first league victory of 2022 for the Bears, who had not yet played Agnes Irwin and owned a 1-5 record going into the weekend.

Penn Charter, which received its lone goal from sophomore Jul Toomey, saw its record slip to 2-5. The Quakers had defeated Germantown Academy earlier last week, 3-2, but on Friday the team was missing regular starting goalie Bella Toomey (Jul's sister). A six-foot senior whose primary sport is basketball, the elder Toomey was away on a college visit.

As missing from the line-up, due to illness, was senior Gracie Shoup. Another multi-sport athlete, Shoup will sign with Ohio State to play lacrosse.

Penn Charter made some early attacks on Friday and posed a serious threat on a through ball chased by sophomore Tristan Raymond, but Baldwin had defender Katie Reed clear the ball out just before Raymond reached it.

It was the Bears who would get on the board first, after they were given a long direct kick on the left side of the field. Sophomore Bela Ahn's shot crossed into the upper right corner of the goal, eluding PC keeper Rosemary McNamee, also a 10th-grader. It was 1-0 a little over four minutes into the match.

With 15 minutes elapsed, the score had leveled out at 1-1. Baldwin goalie Megan Adelman advanced out of the cage to stop a PC charge up the middle, but the Quakers got the ball behind her and Jul Toomey herded it across the goal line.

Charter continued to attack. A few minutes after the goal, Baldwin's Adelman prevented the visitors from taking the lead, tipping a nice shot by junior Haley Lewinski outside the left post. Toomey sent a shot over the Baldwin crossbar, and later Adelman scrambled out to retrieve a loose ball in the midst of a crowd of Quakers in front of the cage.

On a free kick from the outside near the end of the half, the Penn Charter boot by junior Olivia Linus propelled the ball into the arms of Adelman.

Having survived a lot of offensive pressure by the Quakers to arrive at halftime with the game still tied 1-1, the Bears made more advances into PC's half during the second period. Ahn put a shot over the Quakers' goal four minutes after play resumed, but when she scored the eventual game-winner with 23:04 left to play, it would be on a restart, like her first goal.

Here, the hosts were awarded a kick well beyond the 18 on the left, and Ahn hit a ball that dipped just under the middle of the PC crossbar.

For most of the time remaining Penn Charter pressed for a tying goal. Senior Dani Shipon repeatedly brought the ball down the right wing and made a number of nice crosses. On one of these, with under five minutes to go, she had a teammate making a run toward the near post, but Baldwin defender Ana Naylor cut off the pass and cleared the ball out.

Toomey, along with Raymond, made a promising run down along the left wing, but Charter was foiled by an offsides call. As the clock cut into the final minute, Shipon made yet another centering pass from the right, and Lewinski could not quite get to the ball near the far post. Baldwin was soon celebrating its first Inter-Ac victory.