The Archbishop Carroll Girls’ soccer team took down Cardinal O’Hara 4-0 Thursday afternoon in the first round of the Philadelphia Catholic League Playoffs.
Carroll won the coin toss, and Cardinal O’Hara started with the ball on the first kick, but wouldn’t hold on for long with the fast-paced offenses going back and forth. The Patriots kept the ball in their offensive zone for a majority of the first few minutes, rarely allowing the Lions to keep grasp of the ball for seconds, and it was only a matter of time before the Patriots broke through in this ball game. Carroll strung together a few good passes, and quickly the Pats had tons of room with two seniors, Ashlee Rose and Colleen Lloyd, charging the net. Rose fired a quick pass to Lloyd, who fired from outside the box and found the net for a Patriots goal in the third minute. With that goal, the Lady Pats easily had all the momentum, and the rest of the game seemed to follow that trend.
“I think we played really well as a team,” said Colleen Lloyd. “Definitely fixed what was wrong last time I played them, and we were able to score a lot more goals.”
The Patriots and Lions would go back and forth with the ball for more than 20 minutes following the goal from Lloyd, but Cardinal O’Hara was rarely in their offensive zone and got little to no shots off on net.
With time winding down in the first half, the Patriots pushed up in hopes of finding the net once more before the half came to a close, and they would do just that.
The Lions booted a pass out of bounds in their own territory, and it led to a throw-in for the Lady Pats. Kayla Eberz was set to take the throw, and with that, the Lions expected a pass into the box with Eberz’s strong arm. Eberz launched the throw and got it into the box. Abbie McFillin handled it, passed off to Ashlee Rose, who put a shot on net, which was saved and deflected back to Lloyd with a put-back shot that was blocked by the keeper but trickled into the net for another Patriot/Lloyd goal. The score was 2-0 Patriots just before halftime.
“My game plan was definitely just know what I’m capable of and my teammates are capable of,” said Lloyd.
There was still time before the halftime buzzer sounded, and the Patriots wanted another goal on the board to give them a comfortable lead to hold on to in the last 40 minutes. The Lions began to push up with a few minutes before halftime, and it was taken away by the Patriots. Ashley Sincavage drove up left and found Lloyd. Lloyd dribbled through the legs of one defender, continued to drive into the box, went through the legs of yet another defender, and crossed the ball into McFillin in the box. McFillin fired and scored; 3-0 Patriots. The clock ran out, and halftime commenced.
“I think we did what we could do against O’Hara,” stated McFillin. “We did what we should do, scored right away, and then just kept the momentum.”
Coming out of the halftime break, the Lady Pats continued to put on the pressure. Four minutes into the second half, the Patriots strung together some fantastic passes, and Sincavage was breaking down the sideline once more in hopes of leading another surge. Sincavage crossed the ball in, it touched off of Lloyd but was put in the back of the net by McFillin. The score was 4-0 Carroll, and the girls were left with nothing to do but hold the Lions from scoring.
The Lady Pats held off the Lions for the rest of the game and even got to empty the bench, allowing everyone to touch the field in the Patriots’ first playoff victory since 2017.
“Our girls did fantastic,” said assistant coach Paige Mastripolito. “They knew that this game was everything that they worked for, and just the beginning of our PCL journey.”
The Lady Pats will move on to play No. 2-seeded Saint Hubert’s Academy on Tuesday night at Gwynedd Mercy University.
“We just have to play our game, play feet, and just play hard,” McFillin said.
