Steady offensive pressure will usually translate to the scoreboard, and that’s what played out Friday, Sept. 30 in a girls soccer tilt between visiting Quakertown (6-5) of the Suburban One League Liberty Conference and SOL Freedom member New Hope-Solebury (2-10-1).
Playing a large part of the game in the NH-S end and firing a lot of shots at Lions’ goalkeeper Margaret Tresler, Quakertown rode two goals from senior Callie Abel and a solid defense to a 3-0 win.
“I was really satisfied with the work that we did today,” said Abel, who has five goals for the season. “We did a really good job with our possessions and keeping our composure, and it got better as the game went along.”
Abel noted that she has learned to go more with the team’s offensive flow and let the game come to her as the season has progressed.
“I was goal hungry at the start of the season, but learned that to be a selfless player, you can’t be like that,” she said.
Quakertown’s Mackenna Calabria opened the scoring less than three minutes into the game when her left-footed shot from a rather difficult angle got past Tresler.
After NH-S managed to hold off the Panthers for the rest of the first half, Abel made it 2-0 early in the second half off a direct kick when she was able to get a foot on the ball despite a crowd in front of the goal and nudge it past Tresler.
Abel finished the scoring left footed about three minutes later when she converted a deflection off Tresler from a shot by Ashlyn Calabria.
“Ashlyn did a lot of the work on that one,” Abel said.
Quakertown was set to make it 4-0 with 3:45 remaining but Tresler made a nice save on a penalty kick off the foot of Kelly Kreuz. Darby Vail got the shutout in goal for Quakertown.
“I thought we were very dominant today,” said Quakertown coach Jon Gingrich. “We had great possession time. We’re trying to keep the team confident going forward, and that seemed evident in all aspects of the game today.”
First-year New Hope-Solebury coach Matt Duffey said the Lions couldn’t match Quakertown’s ball possession and consistent offensive pressure.
“Margaret is a very good goalkeeper,” he said. “She keeps us in a lot of games for a long time, but she faces a ton of shots, and when you face that many shots, sooner or later you’re going to give one up.”
In addition to Tresler, Duffey said Nina Meixler, Elena Shire, Meeghan Griffith and Riley Marschall also had good games for the Lions.
“I just felt like our team didn’t really come out with enough intensity,” Duffey said. “We’ve been trying to get the girls to be faster and more aggressive right off the tip, and we had been doing it.
“We do some nice things with the ball occasionally. We’re just not consistent. We string some passes together, and then on the last pass, when we really need it to be a good quality pass, we don’t put it in the right spot.”
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