TOWAMENCIN – The North Penn Girls Soccer team took to the turf on Thursday afternoon; following a tough loss to Souderton on Tuesday, with the hopes of recording their first win of the season.

North Penn (0-3-1) tied conference rival CB South (0-2-1) 1-1 on Thursday in a tight, hard-fought, physical matchup on the turf.

“I definitely feel like this was the most complete game that we have played so far as a team this season. We have been continuing to improve each game, and I feel like we are right there. Hats off to South, they played a great physical game. They were doing everything they needed to do and did not make it easy for us today,” said Co-Head coach, Mike Rio.

It only took the Titans 10 minutes into the first half to find the back of the net. A South striker was tripped up in the box, and awarded a Penalty Kick. Knights Junior Goalkeeper Anna Fiore guessed correctly and made the initial save, however she was eventually beat on the rebound, which gave the Titans an early 1-0 lead.

The Knights kept it close throughout the rest of the half via strong defensive play in the back from Seniors, Reagan Ertel and Landy Holt. East Stroudsburg Commit, Kloey Carminati played very strong in the middle along with Senior Becca Richardson, creating multiple chances which resulted in some quality shots on goal.

“My teammates were doing a really good job finding me in open spots. I had a couple good connections with Becca, and that led me to create more opportunities and put some more shots on goal,” Carminati said.

Towards the end of the half, The Knights were continuing to pile up quality scoring chances but could not seem to punch one through. This held true until the 35th minute when Sophomore Kayla Balisalisa hit a nice ball into the box that eventually found the head of Senior Alli Lindsay, who just pushed the ball past the goalie and tied the game at 1.

Throughout the entirety of the second half, both teams were having trouble timing their runs which resulted in a bunch of offsides calls. This slowed the game down, and caused it to become more and more tight down the stretch. The Titans got a couple quality free kicks in close late which forced the Knights to rely on Fiore to make some big saves to force Overtime.

“(Fiore) was playing really aggressive out there today, she made a couple big saves for us late and stepped up in a big way. She did a really good job closing down the angles on some of those balls that squeezed threw the defense in the back. It is great to be able to rely on her in big situations,” Rio added.

There was no doubt that South had the majority of momentum going into overtime, however the Knights came out strong and totally flipped the switch in the extra 20.

“We knew this could be a big turning point in our season, we wanted to come out strong and start to build momentum not only for this game but for the rest of the year,” senior Co-Captain Landry Holt said.

The Knights came out of the gate hot in overtime and generated a bunch of quality scoring chances. Vigorous play from Junior Riley Saxman and Senior Anahita Eshragi, helped keep the Knights involved in OT, but the girls just could not seem to find the back of the net.

“We wanted to get out there and go win the game, by keeping up the intensity and hopefully flipping the momentum. The girls did a good job coming out and working hard, but we just could not seem to punch one in,” Rio said.

The Knights picked up their first point of the season in the tie on Thursday, and are hoping that this will be the turning point they needed in order to get some much needed W’s.

“This is definitely the best game we’ve played so far this season, and I feel like we just have a couple of things we need to clean up. Oftentimes we are very intense when we go out there, so we just need to settle down and connect more passes and eventually the wins will come” Holt added.

Almost halfway through the shortened season the Knights are looking to turn it around in a big way and make a push for the playoffs. They will face off against CB South again on Tuesday October 20th.

The Girls however will be back in action Next Tuesday at 3:30 when they travel to play the first place Central Bucks East Patriots, in what should be a thrilling Colonial Division matchup.