TOWAMENCIN – After the North Penn Lady Knights (5-5) suffered a tough loss to CB West on the lacrosse field Wednesday afternoon, they used that loss as motivation, and continuously drove the ball into the back of the net against the Upper Moreland Bears (8-3) on Thursday. The Bears were just not able to keep up with some of the Knights’ faster players, and ultimately the Knights took the win 18-1.

Among the 18 goals scored by the Knights,  was junior, Brianna O’Donnell’s 100th. Since her freshman year she has been a varsity starter and a key scorer for the team.

“This is my 100th goal since freshman year. It was awesome I couldn’t do it without my teammates or my coaches. They gave me all the support I could have in the world. Today I think we played really well as a team. We went out here saying we really needed to pick up our game from the last couple of games we had, so it was really awesome that we could put it together for a win. We know we did not play a very good game, so as a team we came out harder,” said Attacker, O’Donnell.

The motivation in the Knights was clear after the first faceoff. Midfielder, Kaitlyn Phifer put on the pressure early on offense. Passes between Julia Keffer and Phifer put O’Donnell in the perfect position to receive a pass and score. Immediately after the face off, the Knights take control again and Victoria Braeunle scores a quick goal.

“The team played awesome. We really wanted it, and we were really motivated after the tough loss yesterday. Today we really came out strong and we played so good because we were super determined. We worked together really well, we looked up and had our eyes on the field and on our teammates. We saw the open girl and made perfect passes, so that’s why we played so good.” said Braeunle.

After a Bears penalty, the Knights yet again gained possession of the ball. Kristin Varilla took a hard push, and from the penalty she was able to score. Even when the bears gained possessions defenders Kaitlyn Varilla and Morgan Dyck played strong defense and prohibited them from scoring.

“I think there was a little reflection that had to be done, we played really poorly yesterday. I think we had to take a look inside each of ourselves and think what do I need to do to fix this. They are always saying ‘we need to do this, we need to do that’, but today they were thinking ‘what do I need to do’ and did it. I think they played fantastic today. We’ve been struggling the last couple weeks to really click, play two strong halves, and play all the positions well, but today we did it. Every single person out there played well and had a great game,” said North Penn head coach Heather Mellow.

Halfway through the half the Bears were able to get their first and only goal. Between Phifer, Braeunle, and O’Donnell, the Knights tacked on 8 more goals before the end of the half, putting North Penn up 11-1 at the mid-way point.

“I think we were really motivated today coming off of yesterday, we really needed the win. I think everybody came together and we played like we know how to play. I think we played really well, and we really saw each other out there today. We saw the open cuts and we really played like a team today. We talked in the locker room and after the game yesterday and we all just knew what we needed to do. We all did not want to have a game like we did yesterday, so we all just came on really motivated” said Phifer.

The second half was more of the continuous scoring, as the Bears had trouble gaining back any possession of the ball. O’Donnell had a couple more goals along with Braeunle, Heather Shannon, Kelly Macnamara and Grace Sacchetti. With all the shots on goal, the Knights had no trouble with the ball finding the back of the net adding 7 more goals to the total.

“We finally put it all together and played well on the field. There are many practices we play so well, then they come out on the field and I think ‘this is not the same team out on the field’. It was just a matter of applying what they’ve been doing at practice,” said Mellow