The girls of Springside Chestnut Hill Academy got back above the .500 mark last Tuesday in the Inter-Ac League soccer standings, overcoming visiting Germantown Academy, 4-1.

The match was tied at 1-1 fairly late in the first half, then the host Blue Devils went ahead 2-1 before halftime and added another two markers after the intermission.

The league's top team since 2019, SCH began the 2023 Inter-Ac campaign by rolling over visiting Baldwin School, 8-0, but then lost on the road to Agnes Irwin School, 1-0, on September 22.

It was the Blue Devils' first league loss since 2018, but it was not really a fluke. Irwin had been responsible for one of the two ties in

SCH's 2022 league ledger (10-0-2). Springside graduated 13 players from last year's squad, and in another development, AIS athletic director Courtney Lubbe wisely hired Namit Deshpande as the Owl's new head coach. He had been an SCH assistant coach for two seasons.

"It's been awhile since this team has dealt with an Inter-Ac loss," SCH head coach Maria Kosmin said. "When I first started here, you never knew what was going to happen in the Inter-Ac because it was so competitive. It was more like regular high school soccer. I think that's what this year is going to be like; going undefeated is very hard to do."

After last Tuesday's contest in Chestnut Hill, the Blue Devils had a record of 2-1 in the Inter-Ac and 4-1-1 overall, while the GA Patriots were 0-2, 3-5.

Germantown Academy had lost its league opener to the Academy of Notre Dame, and had also stepped outside the league to tackle tough teams such as undefeated Westtown School and New Jersey's Pennington School. Like SCH, GA began the season with four freshmen in starting roles. The ninth-graders are Myree Jean-Brian, Arden Silver, Kaylin Trent, and Camilla Wright, and the four senior starters are Gianna Grosso and team tri-captains Izzy Casey, Elizabeth Scheid, and Kayla Sweeney.

The other starters are returning goalie Gabby Bowes and midfielder Jessica Kolecki, both juniors, and sophomore Anna Weber. Basketball is the primary sport for a number of the GA athletes. Chris Nelson, a member of the faculty at the school, is now in his 13th season at the helm of the Patriots' soccer program.

A little over two minutes into last Tuesday's match, an SCH corner kick by freshman Cali Smith resulted in the ball being grabbed in the air by GA's Bowes. However, the Blue Devils got on the scoreboard four-and-a-half minutes into the action, when freshman Ryleigh Bakley took the ball to the left endline and sent it across the front of the cage. Junior Lida Goloveyko homed in on the ball just past the right goalpost and scored.

GA went up the field on offense and earned a corner kick on the right side, but after Silver put the ball in play it wound up in the arms of the Blue Devils' junior goalie, Gracyn Lee-Torchiana.

The Patriots penetrated the SCH goalcage about nine minutes later, with 24:40 left in the first half. Kolecki settled the ball out near the right sideline and boomed a long shot high into the far side of the Blue Devils' goal.

With a little under 10 minutes left in the period, SCH crossed the ball inside and it briefly rolled loose in front of the Germantown cage, but the Devils had no one in position to punch it home.

The go-ahead goal for Springside Chestnut Hill came with 5:30 remaining in the half, on a play beginning with a corner kick from the right side by Smith. GA's Bowes jumped up and got her fingers on the ball, but could not hold it, and SCH sophomore Jillian Major was on hand to finish for the Devils.

They led 2-1 at halftime, but through much of the first period the hosts had not seemed as fired up as one might expect coming off of a rare league loss. Their intensity level increased as the game went on.

"I think we were a little frustrated at halftime," Coach Kosmin related. "I emphasized to them that it's important to win on your home field. We want to go out there and play good soccer, but there are other elements to high school ball; bodying up, winning 50/50 balls, and bringing a lot of energy.

"I asked them to do some things they're not used to doing all the time," she continued. "I think they were able to do that, particularly in the second half."

The Blue Devils did control more of the play in the second period, and senior Abby Udowenko (who will sign with Seton Hall) earned assists on both SCH goals. The first was scored by Bakley just a minute-and-a-half into the second stanza, and freshman Deus Stanislas put the 4-1 final on the board with 25:23 remaining in the game.

UPDATE: On Friday the Blue Devils secured their third league victory of the season, winning 3-0 at Penn Charter as Lee-Torchiana recorded her second Inter-Ac shutout. Stanislaus scored twice and Smith had two assists. Goloveyko scored the other goal and freshman Ella Thomson had one assist.