by TOM UTESCHER

Although the host Patriots of Germantown Academy spent much of the opening period in the offensive half of the field in last Wednesday's non-league hockey tilt, the visiting Germantown Friends School Tigers only trailed 1-0 at the intermission.

In the second stanza, however, the Pats did a better job of finishing off their scoring opportunities, and GA claimed a 4-0 victory. Four different players penetrated the Tigers' cage and goalies Mary Cate Cassidy (two saves) and Meredith Dean (three saves) teamed up for the shutout as the Patriots improved to 6-8 overall while remaining 2-1 in the Girls Inter-Ac League.

Germantown Friends, which had keeper Leigh Gerson pile up 15 saves for the afternoon, slipped to 3-6-3 overall, with an unaltered Friends School League record of 1-0-2.

Both teams were looking forward to important league games two days later, but they reacted differently to that stimulus.

Noting that her squad had struggled in the first weeks of the season, GA coach Ginny Hofmann said "We've just started to really come together the last couple of games. We wanted to be up for this game today to get ourselves ready for Agnes Irwin on Friday."

GFS had Friends Select waiting in the wings, and didn't seem focused during Wednesday's match in Fort Washington.

"We came out flat," admitted Tigers mentor Jackie Metz. "We never could get our passing game going, and things just weren't clicking today."

The Patriots clicked almost immediately, as Katie Frisbie scored from amidst a crowd in front of the goal with just 87 seconds elapsed in the first half. GA had some more chances, but no more goals, in the remainder of the opening period. The Tigers' opportunities were more limited. Abby Childs was carrying some momentum as she dribbled the ball into the Pats' circle with a dozen minutes left in the half, but she couldn't get off a shot.

GA made another early strike in the second half, with Kristen Holmes upping the count to 2-0 just one minute and 24 seconds into the period. With 20:23 left on the clock the hosts converted on a well-executed corner play. Frisbie hit the ball in, Sarah Warner stopped it just to the left of the top of the circle, and Christina Harris drove the shot home.

In the middle of the period, GFS enjoyed one of its longest stretches on offense, keeping the ball mostly inside the GA 25-yard-line for three or four minutes. It didn't end well for the Tigers, though, as the Patriots' Caitlyn McGovern broke downfield on a counterattack and scored GA's final goal with 11:45 remaining.

"A couple of things we've been practicing started to work for us today," Hofmann noted afterwards. "The stop that Sarah had on the corner was one thing, and Caitlyn's had several breakaways but hasn't always been able to get the shot off, and here she did."

"We weren't thinking out there," summed up Metz of GFS. "I was trying to get them to settle down and readjust, and it never worked."