It was Pottsgrove's stadium, senior night and electric bill, but it was Spring-Ford's game. Backed by a small but vocal bunch of Rams' boosters, Spring-Ford played spoiler by defeating the Grove 4-0 on Senior Night.
Forward Sammy Stipa put the Rams on the board first, scoring early at the 37:20 mark. Spring-Ford played an aggressive and up-tempo first half, pinning the Falcons in their defensive end and limiting their attacking opportunities. The Rams dominated one-on-one, slicing through the defense to set up numerous scoring opportunities. Pottsgrove goalkeeper Allie Neel kept the Falcons in the game, making 13 saves on the night. The senior made stops from up close, beyond the box and on set pieces in a desperate bid to keep the Grove in the game.
Spring-Ford controlled the midfield and effectively silenced Pottsgrove's Tori Coyle. Seemingly surrounded by at least two blue shirts at all times, the lightning quick Coyle could never quite get an open look. The only times the Falcons threatened at all was when Coyle could get loose.
"When you go against the bigger schools, you've got to change a little bit," said Falcons head coach Stephen Mellor. "We were trying to defend a bit more, so Tori was on an island. She battled and she got a couple balls … we we're just a couple half chances away from getting on the board."
The Falcons' first half woes continued. Hannah Steffenino went down with a little over 12 minutes to play, and the makeup of the Maroon and White changed noticeably with her absence.
"On the field, it made a huge difference," Mellor said. "She kind of controls the tempo of the game. When she's in there, she's able to get the ball and find space and put players in … she has experience, she's our captain. So her going down certainly effected us, both on leadership and playing wise."
Without Steffenino to place the ball and with the Rams getting on the board early, Mellor's defend-counterattack game plan began to unravel. The Falcons attempted to slow the pace at the end of the first, but to little avail as Jordyne James banged home a shot to put Spring-Ford up 2-0 at the half.
"When we go down early, we want to try to keep it at 1-0, or 2-0 there, and the longer we can keep it like that, the more players we can push at the end of the game to try to get a couple back," Mellor said. "But they got behind us a couple times and, credit to them, they pushed it, they have some good players."
Pottsgrove opened the second half on the offensive, pushing hard for the first six to seven minutes. Spring-Ford weathered the storm and struck back, as Stipa scored again to increase the lead to 3-0 with 26:08 left to play. Megan Giannoupolis put the final shot past Neel for the 4-0 margin.
While a disappointing result for the Falcon's 11 seniors, Mellor is ready to move forward after reflecting on what they mean to the program.
"This is my first year, so I've only known them since August 15," Mellor said. "But they're a tremendous group, and the've shown through hard work and effort and commitment what it means to be a senior, and to lead the way for the underclassmen. It was nice tonight to honor them. I wish we would have came out with a better result, but a lot of them got to see some time on the field and I'm proud of them. And I hope that we can turn it around and move forward and build off our 2-2 record tomorrow."
