After starting the season with a pair of one-goal games, defending Inter-Ac League champion Springside Chestnut Hill Academy began the second week of September with a less-intense outing as they hosted the girls of Lawrenceville School.

The New Jersey team is in a rebuilding mode this fall, and the SCH Blue Devils were able to utilize both varsity players and some JV athletes as they cruised to a 4-0 victory.

The outcome produced a 2-1 record for the locals in the young 2025 campaign. They opened with a 1-0 victory over Archbishop Wood, coached by former SCH mentor Maria Kosmin. Next, second-year head coach Aaron Tritch had his Devils deal with a nationally-prominent program from Ohio: Summit Country Day School. Here, Springside Chestnut Hill emerged on the losing end of a 2-1 decision.

Before the Blue Devils first took the field in late August, four players commited to Division I college programs. Seniors Jill Major and Lewe White committed to High Point University and Princeton University, respectively.

White is new to SCH, but her family isn’t; she entered the school after her family returned to the area from California. Her father is Chestnut Hill Academy alum Jason White (‘99) and her uncle Erik (‘01) also played for CHA. Both were goalies who went on to play for Princeton, where Jason was Ivy League Rookie of the Year and set the Tigers’ all-time record for shutouts.

Two current SCH juniors made verbal commitments: Ryleigh Bakley to Virginia Tech, and Cali Smith to the University of Florida.

The Blue Devils graduated five seniors from the 2024 squad, including two-year starting goalie Gracyn Lee-Torchiana. The vacancy in the cage has been filled by experienced keeper Anna Qawasmy, a junior who transferred from Methacton High School. She’s also a member of the strong FC Delco club program.

Two other experienced club players made the SCH roster as freshmen: forward Natalie DeLisle and defender Lillian Maloney. Maloney was invited to the U.S. Under-14 ID camp last fall.

In last Monday’s contest, Ella Thomson, a junior third-year varsity player, assisted on the first goal for the Blue Devils. Alex de Beaulac, one of last season’s top scorers, brought the ball over the middle of the 18 and slipped it in to her junior classmate, Bakley. Bakley, named 2024 Inter-Ac League MVP, scored to make it 2-0.

In the second half, White, the newly-arrived senior, figured into both of the other SCH goals. First, she sent in a corner kick to set up a goal by senior Saoirse Glennon, then she scored unassisted on a long outside shot.

UPDATE: On Friday, the Blue Devils traveled to Penn Charter to open the league season against a strong young Quakers squad. PC scored a little over a dozen minutes in and struck again less than three minutes into the second half. The Blue Devils got on the board with 30 minutes remaining, but the Quakers fended off SCH assaults in the last half-hour to secure a 2-1 win.

Last fall Penn Charter finished fourth in the league with a record of 6-4-2. Welcoming in their second strong freshman class in a row, the Quakers have performed well in the early weeks of the 2025 season.

PC actually fared a bit better than SCH against two common non-league opponents, defeating Archbishop Wood, 3-1, and tying Summit Country Day, 1-1. The Quakers won two other nonleague contests, and the only loss reflected in their 5-1 record came when Westtown School scored an early goal and lightning strikes in the area forced an early end to the contest.

Against SCH last Friday, the senior starters were Carly Lewinski, Cassidy McCusker, and Cailyn O’Brien. The first two already have their college plans in place; Lewinski will play for Catholic University, and McCusker is headed to North Carolina’s Catawba College.

Junior Ally Bradby was in the starting lineup, along with sophomores Cecelia Albbeck, Parker Maher, Mak Myers, Alexis Regan, and Nora Schmalbach.

Freshman Grace Straw performed well in goal for the Quakers, and another new ninth grader at PC, Grace Dorman, started at forward. Dorman is involved in the U.S. Youth Soccer U14 program, and already scored a hat trick in her second high school game with Penn Charter.

The Quakers have Ashley Maher back for her fourth season as head coach (she was an assistant for a number of years before that), and Dwayne Dove returned for his second season as assistant coach.

SCH was up in the offensive half for much of the game’s first 10 minutes. Nine minutes in, the Devils sent a well-placed cross into the middle of the box, but Maher cleared the ball out for PC.

With 29:24 still to go in the first half, Dorman suffered a knee injury and was helped off the field. She was unable to return, and replaced by senior Lucy Sokoloff.

The Quakers tacked their first goal on the scoreboard jtwo minutes later, when Regan’s well-struck long blast from the left wing angled over into the far side of the SCH cage. Over the next 20 minutes the Blue Devils had several scoring opportunities on serves into the box and a few shots, but Charter’s Straw responded well and kept a clean sheet until halftime.

In the final minute, PC junior Lila Marciniak led a charge down the field and the ball went out off of Springside. Albeck launched a corner kick from the right side into the box, but a header by Myers narrowly missed the mark.

In the second half, SCH looked to level the score, but the Devils soon found themselves trailing by two. PC’s second strike came just 2:27 into the new period. Maher made a dash up the middle and slipped through Blue Devils defenders on either side of her. Qawasmy charged out from the cage, but Maher got by her, too, and put away an open shot.

In a two-goal hole, the visitors pressed up on attack. A long free kick went way over the goal, and PC’s Straw made two saves on shots by de Beaulac.

Next, the SCH junior brought the ball up the left flank, eluding a defender to unleash a shot. Straw came out past the left post, and the ball rolled into the goal. It was now 2-1 with 29:45 left.

In the remaining minutes, SCH nearly netted tying goals, but the equalizer never materialized.

With 26 minutes left, White hit a long direct kick over the crossbar, and soon after, attacked together with de Beaulac. Again, the SCH shot was high.

On another restart from the outside, White’s ball struck the right post, and when de Beaulac maneuvered in to get off a shot a little later, PC’s Straw blocked the ball near the right post.

The Quakers’ Regan and Blue Devils’ de Beaulac left the field with injuries, but fortunately both returned.

As the clock cut through the final 10 minutes, another SCH serve arced into the box, but McCusker headed it out of harm’s way.

Both a free kick by White and a header by Smith tracked too far to the right, and before long time ran out on the Blue Devils.