FIELD HOCKEY: Gianna Radcliffe's goal sends Souderton past Plymouth Whitemarsh, into District 1-3A quarterfinals

FRANCONIA – Gianna Radcliffe’s persistent defense paid off a big way Wednesday night, enabling the Souderton field hockey senior to score the only goal in the Indians’ District 1-3A second round contest against Plymouth Whitemarsh.

“I’ve always been one to do that – pressure the ball, especially when it’s in their circle because you really never know,” Radcliffe said. “They could make a mistake and your ball and you’re right on the goalie.”

Radcliffe got her stick to the ball to create a turnover in the Colonials’ circle and after her initial attempts to get a shot past PW goalkeeper Carly Spinner were unsuccessful, Radcliffe regrouped, pulled the ball back and lifted a shot by Spinner and into the cage with 1:41 in the second quarter.

“My coach, Coach Sue (Casciato), she’s been telling me I need to pull back and shoot cause I’m always trying to force it in to goalie,” Radcliffe said. “And just, it came over me, I saw her on the ground, I was like ‘pull back and shoot’ cause I saw I finally got the ball away from her pads and out of her feet so it was easy and I was like she’s down, so I knew lift it right over, I wasn’t going to go around her.”

While eighth-seeded Souderton could not find a way to double its advantage after halftime, Big Red’s defense extended its shutout streak to four straight games with a 1-0 victory over No. 9 PW.

“We knew we weren’t going to get any easy goals off them and it was going to take a lot of hard work, ” Radcliffe said. “So I think that really helped us especially cause we weren’t able to capitalize on all our shots, it took a lot of hard work and pressuring them one on one to be able to get a goal like that.”

Souderton (15-4-0) advances to the district quarterfinals for the third time in the past four seasons and visits Villa Maria –last year’s PIAA 2A champ – 3:30 p.m. Friday. The top-seeded Hurricanes rolled past No. 17 North Penn 10-0.

Friday’s winner clinches a spot in the PIAA 3A tournament with the loser having at least two more chances to earn one of the district’s seven berths in states through playbacks.

“I think we really need to come out strong,” Souderton junior Hannah Cornes said. “I feel like sometimes we come out the first two quarters we’re like a little bit laid back, I feel like we need to come out strong because they’re going to be coming out strong. So we need to just make sure we’re swarming the ball and just trying our best and not going into the game with ‘Oh we’re going to lose this,’ we need to be ready and just fight with all we have.”

For Plymouth Whitemarsh, it was the second straight season the Colonials were knocked out of districts by Souderton. The teams met on the same date in 2023’s first round with the Indians earning a 2-1 double-overtime win.

“It’s unfortunate, I feel like we made kind of one mistake that killed us,” PW coach Charise Halteman said. “And I think that gave them a little bit more confidence to press us a little harder so it made our jobs harder coming out of the back field. “

Plymouth Whitemarsh (14-5-0), which shared the SOL Liberty Division title with both Wissahickon and Quakertown, had lost in the district opening round the past three seasons before Monday’s 6-1 win over No. 24 Perkiomen Valley gave the Colonials their first playoff win since 2020.

“They’re just a really great group of girls to coach and work with, I mean we have like no issues off the field so we really get to come onto the field and just focus on playing the game,” Halteman said. “And they love being together, they love being coached, especially we have a group coming back that they want to get better and they want to be coached, they want to be coached hard so that’s fun as a head coach to see that. But of course my seniors were a great group of leaders.”

Wednesday’s first half was mostly even before Radcliffe’s steal and goal gave Souderton a 1-0 edge late in the second quarter. After the break, Souderton’s defense limited PW’s chance to break out of its end of the field, allowing the Indians more possession and more chances as they outshot the Colonials 15-1 and out-cornered the visitors 12-3.

“I think we execute very well on our right side, it’s their non-stick side and we practice that all year, forcing the ball right down the right side cause it’s not their stick side,” Radcliffe said. “And we have our right mid Hannah Fuente and Autumn (Wagner) and Tatum (Andrews), our right forwards, they do a very good job of getting the ball and getting it into the circle so we put them in a lot of pressure and getting the ball down here I think helps a lot.”

Souderton has not allowed a goal against five of its last six opponents, posting shutouts in its last four games since a 3-0 loss to SOL Colonial champion Central Bucks West Oct. 7 snapped the Indians’ six-game win streak.

“I think we kind of spread out our lines a little bit and we swarmed to the ball more,” Cornes said. “And we knew that they were strong on the side and they just wanted to keep carrying it down the side so if we kind of pushed them to the sideline that we had better chance of our teammates coming back and getting the ball.”

Spinner helped the Colonials stay in the contest as the junior goalie finished with 12 saves.

“She was under a lot of pressure,” said Halteman of Spinner. “It got hectic in there in the second half but she remained composed and kept us in the game, I mean a 1-0 game is always surmountable and she kept us in there in the second half so that was good.”