TOWAMENCIN- As the rain continued to come down harder and harder, the difficulty for the Jaguars to comeback became harder as well.

The North Penn Knights (10-7-2) took down the Garnet Valley Jaguars (9-8-2) 3-0 on the turf field with heavy rains all through the night. This was just the start the Knights girls soccer team was looking for in the first round of district playoffs.

“In any playoff game, obviously all the teams are fighting for their lives and it’s important to start out strong and we did that tonight,” Coach Mike Rio said.

In the first half there was only one goal to speak of, and it came in the 8th minute as senior Olivia Urban got an assist to the North Penn’s goal leader, Emily Varilla, for a score that put up the Knights 1-0.

“We just thought it was important tonight, especially with the conditions, the rain and wind, to come out and get an early goal.  So we were able to do that and kinda put them on their back foot a bit and we just kept the pressure up,” Coach Rio explained.

In the second half, with 24:40 left in the game, Emily Schurr tacked on another goal to that lead with a long-range goal from way downtown.

“The ball was there, I took the touch, I picked my head up and basically it went in and I was pretty surprised it went in but it went in and I think that goal really kept our momentum going,” the senior captain, Schurr explained.

The Knights added one more goal to the scoreboard with a penalty kick from senior Tia Sheehy with 3:44 left in the game.  The Knights defense did their job all night as goalie Anna Fiore recorded the clean sheet.

“Anna and the four backs playing in front of her, they have just been playing fantastic recently.  Tons of smart play, just knowing their angles, reading the play in front of them really well, limiting any quality opportunities whether that’s shots from outside the eighteen, letting girls get passed them and getting breakaways.  And things like not giving up corner kicks and free kicks and our defensive third that can turn into scoring chances.  Just really smart play by them and they always give us good outlets as well,” Coach Rio said about his defense.

The Knights advance to the next round where they will face the Lower Merion Aces (13-2) on the road Thursday.