Norwood hockey edged in final, 2-1
by TOM UTESCHER
A 3-0 semifinal win over Waldron Academy early last week put the Norwood Fontbonne field hockey team into the Girls Catholic Academies League championship game for the first time in seven years. Late in the first half of Friday's final at Rosemont College, Norwood seemed on the verge of claiming the crown when seventh grader Colleen Caldwell scored to give the Bears a 1-0 edge over two-time defending champion Gwynedd Mercy.
Gwynedd's roster includes eighth grader Julia Reinprecht, whose older sisters, Sarah and Katie, are standout players for Mount St. Joseph Academy. The older Reinprecht siblings captured the AACA title last month, and in Friday's game a bundled up crowd at Rosemont saw Julia seize her own league championship as the Mustangs rallied in the second period for a 2-1 victory.
Norwood's Caldwell had also scored in the regular-season tilt between the two teams, which ended in a 1-1 stalemate. In other matches, Gwynedd tied Rosemont and Norwood tied Villa Maria, and each team won all of its other GCAL games to finish 5-0-2 in the regular season.
The weather was sunny, but cold and blustery for last Friday's...
GA girls win soccer title, split in tournament
by TOM UTESCHER
Germantown Academy's booters ended their Girls Inter-Ac League campaign with mixed emotions last week. On Tuesday, a 4-1 victory over visiting Penn Charter carried the Patriots to their 15th straight league championship. The title goes to the team which posts the best win/loss mark in the regular season, and with a 6-1 record GA clinched the crown over runner-up Baldwin, which finished 5-1-1.
The accomplishment also earned Germantown the first seed in the Inter-Ac postseason tournament, but after knocking off PC again in the semifinal round, the Pats were edged out in the final match, 4-3, by third-seeded Shipley School. The Patriots had defeated Shipley's Gators, 6-4, in their previous meeting, and GA's lone regular-season setback in the league had come against Agnes Irwin, the fifth-place team in the final rankings.
For all three of last week's contests GA lacked the services of junior defender Maura Cusick, who'd beeb injured in a club game on the previous Sunday. In the semifinals of the postseason tourney on Friday afternoon, Germantown went up by a pair with markers from senior Kris Guynn and sophomore Nicole McCurdy. It wound up 2-1 thanks to a late score by tenth grader Jorie Dugan of Penn Charter. Shipley, third...
Travel soccer teams set tone for hard-fought matches
U-13 Boys
Keyed by their best offensive output of the season, the U13 boys won two games this weekend. On Saturday, Jason Symonette registered a hat trick as the Zipits beat Langhorne 3-1. Sunday's scoring was more balanced, with six different players getting goals in 6-3 win over Towamencin. In the first half, Chestnut Hill rallied from one-goal deficits three times on goals by Sam Mercuris, Michael Bilyk, and Dylan Ward. Going with the wind in the second half, Jordan Dean, Jason Symonette, and Patrick Resch scored as Chestnut Hill built a comfortable three-goal margin. The scoring bonanza was made possible in part by great ball distribution from Marcelo Osorio-Soto, Andrew Greenspon, and Ben Perelman.
U-10 Boys 2nd Division
The Blue Lightning faced off against the Lenape Valley Killer Bees in a battle for second place in the second division. In the teams' first meeting the Blue Lightning had come back to tie, using their foot-speed to foil the Bees' offense and capitalizing on a few opportunities to stay in the game. This time, however, playing on the small, fast field at the Crefeld School, the Bees' used crisp passing and strong...