A highly successful soccer season for the girls of Springside Chestnut Hill Academy ended with a 1-0 loss last Tuesday afternoon.

After winning the 2024 Inter-Ac League championship, the Blue Devils had been seeded first for the Pennsylvania Independent Schools tournament, and victories in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds earned them a trip to Tuesday's championship match at Arcadia University.

The Blue Devils had a modest advantage in ball possession in live-action play, but the game's lone goal came on a restart. Second-seeded Westtown School, the Friends Schools League champion, scored on a long, high direct kick midway through the second half.

SCH and Westtown had played to a 0-0 draw in a scrimmage back in late August. The Blue Devils went on to win the Inter-Ac with a 10-2 record, and finished the season 15-5 overall.

The SCH team is made up of players from the surrounding area, while Westtown, which has both day and boarding students, has a farther reach. Not only do the Moose have soccer players from out of state, but also from Bermuda, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, and Tanzania.

On a direct kick from the right a few minutes into the match, the ball was punched over the cage by SCH senior goalie Gracyn Lee-Torchiana, and there was no shot generated from the resulting Moose corner kick. When Blue Devils senior Zarin DeVeaux attacked, an attempted clear by a Westtown back bounced off DeVeaux and back toward the goal. Lucy Smith, Westtown's junior keeper, was able to grab the ball before the Springsider reached it.

A little later SCH sophomore Cali Smith's shot from the left steered outside of the far post of the Moose pen.

In the middle of the first half, Westtown junior Avani Patton made an assault down the right wing and delivered a nice cross, but Blue Devils freshman Emma Schweizer cleared the ball away. A subsequent shot by Patton was saved by Lee-Torchiana, then a hard shot by sophomore Noelle Clabaugh tracked outside of the far post of the SCH goal.

Cali Smith booted a ball through into the box for Alex de Beaulac, but the fellow sophomore saw her shot rise over the crossbar. A diagonal shot by junior Saoirse Glennon went wide of the Westtown goal.

Springside Chestnut Hill sophomore defender Ashley Hughes made a nice clear on one of a series of Westtown corner kicks late in the half, and the intermission arrived with the score still 0-0.

For much of the first half, SCH had attacked facing into the sinking sun. Now the glaring orb had slipped below the treetops and the Devils were going in the other direction, into a moderate wind.

Still, they were the aggressors most of the time during the first 20 minutes, starting with a strong shot from the right by sophomore Ryleigh Bakley that forced Westtown's Smith to make an athletic diving save. When Cali Smith gonged a direct kick off the Westtown crossbar no other Devils could get a foot on the loose ball.

When the Moose galloped back up the field, a ball rolling near the mouth of the Springside goal was cleared away by junior Jill Major.

On an SCH corner kick a Devils' head sent the ball away from the cage instead of toward it, and when the ball was passed back inside de Beaulac was a few steps offside. After another offsides call on a Springside rush, Cali Smith's outside shot from the left was swallowed by Westtown's Lucy Smith.

Back across the midfield stripe for the first time in a while, Westtown earned a long direct kick from roughly 10 yards in from the left sideline. Moose junior Bri Bartsch launched a beautiful arcing ball that dropped down just under the middle of the SCH crossbar and past the extended fingers of Lee-Torchiana.

The winning goal, the only one of the afternoon, was on the board with 21:33 left to play.

On a promising Springside attempt by DeVeaux to tie the match, Westtown's Smith ran out and slid down to take the ball off of the senior's feet. Westtown blasted a long shot with about 16 minutes left, and Lee-Torchiana tipped the ball up out of harm's way.

A long Cali Smith shot went high and wide to the right of the cage, and just after that Lucy Smith was able to haul in the ball on a nice serve by SCH senior Jolie Kaoma.

In the final minute of the match, Lee-Torchiana charged far out of the SCH cage to stop a Westtown run on the right. There was no shot on the Westtown corner that followed, and the horn soon signaled a 1-0 win for the Moose.