In two different ways, the girls' soccer team at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy finished first last Tuesday.

The Blue Devils finished out their Inter-Ac League schedule on that day, while each of the other six teams had one more game in the offing. SCH also finished first in the standings, with a 3-0 victory over visiting Academy of Notre Dame giving the Devils a final league record of 10-2 for 30 points in the standings and clinching the 2024 Inter-Ac championship.

Their two losses in league play were the result of home/away splits with Agnes Irwin and Episcopal Academy. After last Tuesday's round of games,

Episcopal had an 8-2-1 record and could score no more than 28 points, even with a victory in its November 8 meeting with Agnes Irwin. Irwin was 8-3, and if the Owls defeated Episcopal in that last game, they would max out at 27 points in the standings, where three points are awarded for each win and one for each tie.

SCH was 13-4 overall at the end of the regular season, with non-league losses coming against a pair of formidable opponents, Conestoga High School and New Jersey's Pennington School.

Springside Chestnut Hill was the undefeated Inter-Ac champion in 2022, and last fall the Devils wound up in a tie for second place with Agnes Irwin, behind league champ Episcopal.

For 2024, SCH had a good deal of talent returning, but the girls would be playing under a new head coach, Aaron Tritch.

The new mentor noted, "When you come in you try to get to know the team chemistry and the team character; you can't try to change it when you first get there. You try to find a way to build a relationship and to get to know each player individually."

He didn't attempt to fix things that weren't broken, saying "You don't want to shake things up too much. You try to make the good great and make whoever you can better."

After starting out with several non-league contests, Springside opened the Inter-Ac campaign with a 5-1 win at Baldwin School on September 17. The next day, the Blue Devils fell behind Agnes Irwin and never caught up, succumbing 3-1.

In Tritch's eyes, the SCH girls redeemed themselves in their next outing, a non-league road game at the Hill School. It was an unexpectedly hot day, and injuries had reduced the available roster to 14 players. The Blue Devils, some of them playing unfamiliar positions, gutted out a 3-1 win.

Back in the Inter-Ac, Springside Chestnut Hill would win eight games in a row. During the streak they defeated defending champ Episcopal, 1-0, and avenged their Agnes Irwin loss, falling behind early once more but then coming back to win, 3-2.

"That was impressive," Tritch said, "being down 0-2 and coming back to score those three goals. The last one came with about four minutes left."

The Blue Devils' championship dreams were put on hold when a determined Episcopal side handed them a 3-0 loss on October 25, but on the same day Penn Charter upset Agnes Irwin, allowing SCH to remain in first place.

The Devils' fate was back in their own hands (or feet), as a victory over Notre Dame in their last league match would earn them the championship.

At school last Tuesday, the team learned that sophomore scoring ace Alex de Beaulac was out sick and could not play. However, whatever bug was going around also afflicted Notre Dame senior goalie Sophia Hall, a three-sport standout who will sign to play soccer with the University of Delaware.

Her understudy, sophomore Jordan Hartley, held the fort for the Irish through much of the first half, although the Blue Devils were attacking almost the entire time. Finally, with 10-and-a-half minutes left in the first period, sophomore Ryleigh Bakley came across the 18-yard line on the right and fired a long shot into the far side of the visitors' cage.

Up 1-0 at halftime, the Blue Devils resumed their steady assault in the second half, with Hartley making some good stops to keep the game close.

The clock showed 27:52 remaining when senior Zarin DeVeaux put away an insurance goal for the Devils. Soon after that, at 26:49, freshman Nadia Bevan scored to put the final score on the board. Junior Jill Major had been involved in both of these scoring plays.

With SCH reserves filtering onto the field late in the game, the Irish came close to scoring a few times, but in the end, Blue Devil senior goalie Gracyn Lee-Torchiana held onto her shutout.