TOWAMENCIN- The North Penn Knight’s lady’s field hockey team advanced to the second round of the PIAA District One Tournament on Monday, October 24th.  Entering the first round, North Penn had a 12-6 overall  record while Wissahickon boasted an impressive 11-7 overall mark. After a competitive game, the Knights won with a score of 4-1,  moving them to the next round and ending Wissahickon’s season.

Junior Brianna O’Donnell played  good defense against Wissahickon and managed to take control of the ball. Nine minutes in, O’Donnell scored the first goal of the night. The first half of the game was mostly quiet after that, and at the break the score was still 1-0.

“The defense had it and I just tried to play defense on her and then snagged it. I was just looking out for my teammates. I didn’t see anyone so I just tried to shoot,” shared O’Donnell.

As the second half of the game began, the Knight’s got into their winning rhythm and netted 3 goals within 3 minutes. With 16:51 left of the second half, O’Donnell scored again, making the score 2-0. At 15:47 Junior Mikayla Barrow skillfully lifted the ball into the air, scoring an additional goal for the Knights. Senior team Co-Captain Amber Blackshear, made the score 4-0 with 13:48 seconds left. After the scoring flurry by North Penn, Wissahickon was able to muster their only score of the contest with an offensive score with 12:55 remaining, making the score 4-1. Senior Brynne Schoppe had a nice save to a corner shot against North Penn. The defense was stellar in a total team effort.

“I think we were nervous coming into the game getting the playoff jitters out and all that, but once we were on a roll and kept scoring we got out of our heads and we knew we needed to play this game to win,” reflectedBarrow.

The team celebrated their advancement in the playoffs.

“We were really looking forward to getting past the first round. We knew Wissahickon was going to be tough. They have a lot of tradition of postseason play, so the expectation was to go out hard today, play a consistent sixty minute game, make sure that we take care of the ball in the backfield, and make the most of our offensive opportunities,” shared North Penn field hockey coach Shannon McCracken.

Though the girls played well today, they still have things that they could improve on.

“I thought the girls played well. I think moving forward we need to make sure we win more 50-50 balls on the field. I think that the girls need to, moving forward, just need to play a more consistent game, but you know they were a tough opponent, we had a little bit of the Mondays today, we had a little bit of nerves today, and I also think the wind [made it] a little tough to communicate out there. I am really happy with the outcome today, we played well, and we’re excited to move on,” McCracken said.

The Knights success has derived from their hard work ethic. The girls love the sport and that drives them to train harder.

“Everyday at practice we just think about the game that’s coming up next. So we really just play game by game and we try to play as hard as we can together,” shared O’Donnell.

Blackshear then concurred with her coach’s assessments, “Coach always tells us to try to get better everyday than we were the day before, and I think all throughout the season every time we had a game or a practice we just tried to be better than what we had done previously and that’s how we got to this point,” she added.

Though the season officially started in mid August, the girls have taken time throughout most of their summers to prepare for their season.

“We’ve all been working all throughout the summer since May. We’ve lifted  all summer and conditioned all summer. We came out here August fifteenth ready to go and we’ve played hard the entire time until now.”

The Knights had a slow start to their season, starting at 0 and 4. However, the slow start didn’t discourage them, but rather encouraged them to work harder.

“We started the season 0 -4, but I honestly think it was a good thing for us to start out like that because it gave us the momentum for the rest of the season to keep getting wins,” shared Blackshear.

Senior Co-Captain Seema Sajjan added,“We knew we had to fight the whole season because all of these teams are good. So we had to come out stronger.”

Throughout the season the girls have improved in every area of the game including their passing, defensive communication, and marking offense.

“As the season went on we learned to trust each other more. In the beginning of the season maybe we would be holding onto the ball a second too long because we didn’t know whether we wanted to give it up. Now, it’s like we trust our teammates more than ourselves,” shared Blackshear.

“We are all like one big family, one big unit, and I think you can show that on the field too,” shared O’Donnell.

The Knights are aware of the stiff competition ahead and hope to continue their success all the way to a state championship. With one round under their belt, they are preparing for their game next Wednesday night against tough Council Rock South.

“My girls fight. Our team fights. Our team works extremely hard, so as we move forward I know that no matter what the outcome is I can always count on the girls to play hard and want to win. As we move forward, I know that Council Rock is going to be a tough opponent, but I think that we can give them a really strong game,” stated McCracken.