Springside soccer hangs on for first win

by TOM UTESCHER

Completing a hat trick when she scored Springside's only goal of the second half, sophomore Jess Griffin propelled the Lions to their first soccer victory of the season, 4-3, in a home game on September 20.

Springside, 0-3-2 going into the match, appeared to be in control as it built up a 3-0 lead by halftime, but visiting Life Center Academy (1-3) scored three straight goals of its own in the second period before Griffin fired the gamewinner with 15 minutes remaining.

Earlier in the afternoon, the Springsiders milled around awaiting the arrival of their New Jersey rivals, and the Warriors finally turned up a full hour after game time. The halves were shortened from 40 to 35 minutes as a result.

For the first 20 minutes Springside controlled play and had a number of near misses on offense, such as Bunny O'Reilly's ball that struck the left goal post and Sophia Petrillo's shot the crossbar.

The Lions got on the board with 15:55 remaining in the first stanza, when O'Reilly's corner kick from the right was headed in front of the net by Griffin. The count rose to 2-0 on a nearly identical play less than three minutes later. With 8:16 left in the first period, eighth grader Lauren Morgan passed the ball from the right side of the box into the middle, where O'Reilly jammed it into the cage, creating a 3-0 halftime lead.

Life Center's Ashley Nyul had threatened to score several times during the first period, but the Lions still did not mark her tightly. At the start of the second half she made them pay, breaking loose to record a natural hat  trick in just nine minutes to tie the match at 3-3. The Lions' offense went back to work, and after near misses by O'Reilly and Grayce Selig, Griffin volleyed a shot into the net from a few yards outside the 18 with 14:59 on the clock. Springside keeper Nan Weisel (five saves) picked a served ball out of the air with about two minutes left to quell the last serious assault by the Warriors, and the Lions had their first win in the books.

UPDATE: On September 21 Springside doubled its win total by defeating visiting Friends Select, 8-2. Morgan rang up a hat trick for the winners, who also received single goals from Petrillo, Selig, Ali Mainka, Whitney Manly-Power, and Marilyn McCullough.