Short a scorer, CHC women's soccer falls to Jefferson

by Tom Utescher
Posted 10/26/21

It was a short trip but a tall order for the women of Chestnut Hill College October 20, when they traveled to a soccer match against a league rival from the other end of Northwest Philadelphia.

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Short a scorer, CHC women's soccer falls to Jefferson

Posted

It was a short trip but a tall order for the women of Chestnut Hill College October 20, when they traveled to a soccer match against a league rival from the other end of Northwest Philadelphia.

The Jefferson University Rams were ranked second within the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (NCAA Division II) with a 6-1 record, while the CHC Griffins were a game under .500 at 3-4.

Considering that they lost their leading scorer less than 30 minutes into the action, it wasn't a bad outing for the visitors. Jefferson sophomore Carly Reighard scored later in the first half, then freshman Hannah Potocki added an insurance goal in the second period to produce a 2-0 victory for the hosts.

Both shots were well-placed and out of reach for CHC senior goalie Bri Hewlett. Also a veteran player on the Griffins' basketball team, Hewlett finished with six saves that Wednesday, while Rams sophomore Jackie Martino had to scamper out into the box to gather in a few loose balls, but had no official saves.

"Things got a little chippy and at times we got distracted and lost our organization, but overall we didn't play badly," remarked CHC's first-year head coach, Jonathan Geist. "We defended well, and they put in two great goals."

Geist was hired by Chestnut Hill last spring, after the CACC had cancelled its fall sports season entirely. For the better part of a decade, he had been assistant coach and then head coach at Archbishop Ryan High School, with its rich soccer tradition. He knows Springside Chestnut Hill girls' soccer coach Maria Kosmin and coaches club soccer with her brother, Archbishop Wood coach Tom DeGeorge.

CHC and its conference colleagues staged a truncated spring season, with some players not turning out due to COVID-19 concerns.

"We struggled in the spring, then we brought in nine freshmen and two transfers over the summer," Geist related. "With that lost season due to COVID, we have juniors who are just playing in their first college games, because they may not have played as freshmen [in 2019]."

Last Wednesday Jefferson was the early aggressor, generating several corner kicks and shots. CHC came back up the field and had a shot by senior Maddie Jimenez blocked by a Rams defender.

Jimenez came into the match as CHC's leading scorer, with nine goals and three assists. She went down briefly with an injury, but was able to continue playing after being checked out. She was hurt again 28 minutes into the game, and this time she was carried off the field. She was soon on her way to have her injured ankle x-rayed.

Jefferson scored about nine minutes later, when Reighard settled the ball out on the right end of the 18 and drove it across into the top left corner. The 1-0 count held up until halftime.

Chestnut Hill attacked early in the second period. The Griffins had a shot blocked in the box and then were unable to get off a shot on a corner kick.

Jefferson's second goal went up on the board about a dozen minutes into the trailing half. A sequence of passes led to the ball reaching an open Potocki (a Springfield High graduate) in the middle of the box, and she sent it past a leaping Hewlett into the upper left corner.

After that Chestnut Hill made a few offensive sorties, but Griffins only earned one corner kick the rest of the way and spent more of their time defending against the Rams. In the end, the hosts had the advantage in corners (10-2) and in total shots (19-4).

Given the overall situation, Geist was not really unhappy with his team's performance. For CHC, this definitely qualifies as a rebuilding year.

"We're just trying to get them to buy into the tactical stuff and do the work off-the-ball," he said. "It's coming along slowly, because we had a shortened pre-season and now we're playing at least two games a week."

UPDATE: Chestnut Hill won its next game, 3-1, over CACC rival Bloomfield (N.J.) College. Senior Olivia Medeiros scored twice for the Griffins, while freshman Abigail Galazka netted the other goal. In other Saturday action, Jefferson was surprised in a 2-0 loss to New Jersey's Caldwell University, which had come into the match two games under .500 in the CACC (3-5).

Chestnut Hill College, Jefferson University, Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference, Bloomfield College