TOWAMENCIN- On Tuesday afternoon, field hockey was a game to watch to the very end. The North Penn Knights hosted the Central Bucks South Titans in a playback game to see who would be advancing to the State Playoffs. The Knights played their hardest to the last second, but in the end South won 1-0.

“The girls played tough today. Unfortunately, it was a little too late when we really turned it on in the second half. We didn’t get a break today either. The ball hit the post a couple times and went wide off the post, but I’m proud of our team.They had a great season and played hard today,” said Head Coach Shannon McCracken.

For the first half, both the Knights and the Titans applied an equal amount of pressure, but neither team was able to find the back of the net. North Penn senior defender Rachel Fischer came up strong on the defensive end, and senior goalkeeper Anissa Gardizy was able to make some crucial saves toward the end of the first half.

“I thought this game we didn’t play our best, but we always kept a positive attitude. Even though the outcome is not what we wanted, I’m grateful for the opportunity of making it this far and being with my best friends,” said senior Mikayla Barrow.

The second half started with South putting a lot of pressure on the Knights’ defense. Scoring off of a corner, South lead the Knights by one (28:03).

“South is a good team. Unfortunately, this is the third time we are playing them this season since they are in our conference. They were tough to the ball, they won a lot of the 50/50 balls, and they put up a good game against us today,” said McCracken.

Junior Emily Crawford had many crosses to the goal, but the South defense stopped any of the Knights from finishing them. The Knights’ offense fought until the end of the game, putting many shots on goal, but none of them made it to the back of the net.

“One thing we always say about our team is that we play a game of possession. Once we get started with our passing we get in a rhythm that is really hard for the other team to defend. Today we never started the passing sequences we usually do, which hurt us a lot, but all of us really wanted to win and we didn’t give up. We had a lot of opportunities to score that we just didn’t capitalize on and we ended up playing a lot in the midfield. It was a tough game and we are all very sad to see the season end, but we have a lot to be proud of,” said senior Erica Kelly.

North Penn’s run toward a state berth ended with an overall record of 14-7-1, (9-2-1 SOL).