Girls Soccer: Lady Cardinals Blank Upper Merion, 6-0, Remain Perfect

A combination of overwhelming defense, along with the inexperience of a young Upper Merion team, led to a 6-0 shutout win for the Upper Dublin girls’ soccer team Friday afternoon.

The Cardinals improved to 2-0 (2-0 SOL American) with the win, riding strong defensive play in the back. Head coach John Topper had nothing but praise for his ladies on the back line.

“We have a great, solid defense that played today,” Topper said. “(Erin) Lafferty was a big factor in that. She’s been great playing back there and has been phenomenal with her defensive timing. She is just a top notch 4-year starter for us.”

Along with Anna Petrucci and Carolyn Meier, those three saw a majority of the time holding down a defense that didn’t let up a shot until the final minute of play. 

The Lady Flying Cardinals had goals come in early and often on the pitch Friday afternoon, as it all started with a left-side cross from Courtney Boudwin to Aimee Dubin. The two seniors seemed to be well in the zone as they had multiple points each in this game.

Ten minutes later, the crowd saw Tia Wisdo and Dominique Greene-Coleman hook-up on the same exact play from the left side. Wisdo powered her shot past the Upper Merion keeper to make it 2 – nil. Greene-Coleman turned a lot of heads in this match, including Coach Topper.

“(Dominique) gained a lot of confidence today. She found her stride and had a great game all-around,” said Topper. “This is her first-year up with us this year as a sophomore but she really came to play today.”

Greene-Coleman would continue her fast ways by scoring her own goal in the 28^th minute by going top-shelf on Merion’s keeper to keep it at 3-0.

Senior Ryann Noe had the goal of the match when she dazzled through three defenders and put a blazing shot in the back right corner of the net. Coach Topper contributed that goal to the simplified attack that Upper Dublin offers.

“Once we were able to keep control and spread it out, we didn’t want to work our legs more than we needed to. We played patient and waited for our chances to come. Making simple passes is what got us this win.”

Half time saw a 4-0 score and much needed rest for every player. Both teams saw every player get some game timebut a majority of it was due to the heat in the stadium in Fort Washington. The temperature didn’t stop the UD scoring wave though.

After the Cardinals sent in Layla Budin for Alexis Rama, who didn’t see a shot, Upper Dublin made sure this game was theirs by sending in Wisdo for another assist. This time she crossed a ball into sophomore Molly Harpel, who had an easy toe-in for the 5-0 lead.

In the 69^th minute, Courtney Boudwin got back onto the score sheet when she swept down the sideline and managed to make a nice cut-and-shoot play for the final goal of the game. During post-game interviews, Boudwin explained how much the center game is vital to them.

“Our middle is really strong,” proclaimed the junior striker. “Usually when we can get a cross into the middle, we can get one in.”

UD converted on six of their ten shots taken on goal as well as getting one corner, which happened to be the only one of the game. No cards for either team were issued.

Next on tap for the girls is a Tuesday match-up with Plymouth-Whitemarsh, who is also undefeated and at the top of the SOL American Conference.