In their penultimate soccer game on their 2024 Inter-Ac League schedule, the girls of Springside Chestnut Hill Academy were unable to take advantage of one opportunity to close in on the league title, but quickly found out they've been presented with another chance.

If the Blue Devils had won last Friday's match at Episcopal Academy, they would've secured at least a tie for the league championship, owning a 10-1 record that gave them 30 points according to the ranking system (three points for a win, and one for a tie). Only Agnes Irwin, which had two losses going into Friday's round of contests, could have equaled that total.

Instead, SCH lost by a 3-0 score to defending league champ Episcopal, which improved to 8-2-1 for 25 points with one game to go. Back around the team bench after the game, the disappointed SCH girls perked up when they learned the results of Agnes Irwin's game at Penn Charter.

The PC Quakers, who'd lost to Irwin 5-1 in their first meeting, had beaten the Owls, 2-1 in Friday's rematch. While SCH had slipped to 9-2, Irwin now had a third league loss and could accumulate no more than 27 points.

Episcopal, with an 8-2-1 record and one game against Agnes Irwin left on the schedule, could finish with 28 points, but if SCH prevailed in this week's league finale against the Academy of Notre Dame, the Blue Devils would win the championship outright with 30 points.

Even though Notre Dame is not as strong as the top three teams, the Irish have an outstanding goalie and the Devils would need to play better against them than they had at EA.

Even though the Springside girls had a share of the 2024 championship dangling right in front of them last Friday afternoon, it was the Episcopal Churchwomen who displayed a greater sense of urgency.

The Blue Devils attacked at the outset, but the Churchwomen soon came back up the field and remained on offense until they scored just over 10 minutes into the game. Players from the two teams were scrabbling for the ball over near the right sideline, and EA managed to send a pass into the middle above the 18. Unmarked, senior Bridget Dempsey teed off on the ball and sent a high shot arcing down under the crossbar for the eventual game-winning goal.

Blue Devils such as sophomores Alex de Beaulac and Cali Smith and senior Zarin DeVeaux made runs into offensive third, but most of the time they were contained by the defense. The shots they were able to launch were off-target.

After the tally remained at 1-0 until halftime, the Blue Devils were looking to level the score early in the second period, but instead Episcopal went up 2-0 with just two minutes and 19 seconds elapsed. The Churchwomen had the ball down near the end line and centered it, setting up the strike by senior Quinn Whitaker from the middle of the box.

The hosts recorded their second insurance goal with 14:40 left to play. Dempsey got loose on a breakaway through the middle, drew senior goalie Gracyn Lee-Torchiana out from the SCH cage, and shot the ball by her.

Licking their wounds on the sideline after the game, the Blue Devils discovered that Penn Charter had done them a huge favor by pinning a third league loss on Agnes Irwin.

On the road in late September, the Quakers had lost badly to the Irwin Owls. Charter head coach Ashley Maher made some adjustments for her team's rematch against Irwin.

She noted that she moved junior Lucy Sokoloff up from her usual defensive position to form a midfield row with freshmen McKenna Myers and Parker Maher on the wings. Coach Maher also made sure that her backs always knew the whereabouts of the Owls' freshman high scorer, Dylan Ohm.

After the first half ended with the score still 0-0, PC struck quickly in the second period, as what looked to be a cross by freshman Alexis Reagan curved into the Owls' goal. Then, on a long free kick, senior Carly Lewinski lobbed a ball over the goalie and under the crossbar to make it 2-0.

The Owls got on the board late in the game, but Mia DiBenedetto, the Quakers' sophomore goalie, preserved the Penn Charter lead by fending off Irwin assaults in the closing minutes to finish with 11 saves.

Penn Charter, which had gotten bogged down with some injuries in the middle of the season, got back to the .500 mark in the league with Friday's win, with a 4-4 record. That put them fourth in the standings, ahead of Notre Dame, Germantown Academy, and Baldwin School.