TOWAMENCIN- As the sun set on the turf field here at North Penn, the Maidens struggled early on in a league contest against the Titans of CB South. The Titans were able to acquire the momentum early in the game and with it came the victory.
“Them scoring a minute into the game definitely put us back on our heels. The difference is that we did not execute the simple, we tried to do too much. At times we are a team that will [enable] the other team to set the tone, it was true tonight. We can’t win when we give up twenty corners and only get one offensively. Especially when that’s CB South’s strongest advantage, it’s their corners, they have excellent corners. So we talked about that going into the game. Not giving up corners because we knew they had great corners but we did not execute our game plan tonight,” said Maidens coach Shannon McCracken.
The Titans began the game operating on all four cylinders scoring early in the first two minutes of the game off of a corner. The Titans continued to dominate on both sides of the game helping them score once more four minutes later. The Maiden’s defense along with a strong effort from senior defender Cassidy Barrow and goalie Chessa Kownurko prevented the Titans from scoring once more for the remainder of the half. The offense was unable to gain any momentum as the first half ended 2-0 Titans.
“As a team, we didn’t really connect with passes. I know we are capable of playing a lot better, we have shown it, we are just down in a slope right now but I know we can get back up. We have to shake this one off, get a lot of rest tonight and have a fresh mind going into tomorrow,” said junior Casey O’Donnell.
As the second half began, the Titans would once again capitalize early scoring off another corner to give them the 3-0 lead over the Maidens. The Maidens defense would end the game with a valiant effort keeping the Titans from scoring for the remainder of the game, despite the plethora of corners that the Titans were able to acquire. With a lack of production and momentum the Maidens would ultimately fall to the Titans 3-0.
“We struggled in making the transitions from midfield to offense. We have to learn from tonight – focus on the warm up. We want to win, we are sick of losing,” said senior Juliana Hill.
“The positives are that we know that we need to execute the basic skills, I think they [South] are a good team but they just do the basic things very well. So we just know moving forward that we need to concentrate on the little things because they make a big difference in the game. Tomorrow is a big game as well CB West, their only loss is to CB South so they are another strong team. Hopefully talking at the end of the game and the girls rallying tomorrow as well as tonight bothering them will put some fire in their eyes for tomorrow,” concluded McCracken.
The Maidens are now 2-3 conference and 4-4 overall with losses to Emmaus, Quakertown, Hatboro-Horsham and CB South. The Maidens continue their league play at home facing CB West.