Parkland wears down Tigers in girls soccer

OREFIELD — One of the toughest challenges for a Colonial League team when it faces a bigger school from the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference is to handle the depth that EPC teams can throw at them.

The Northwestern girls soccer team found that out against Parkland in a 3-0 loss Monday night at Parkland High School.

Northwestern wore down as the game went on, and Parkland was able to send players in and out of the game without much of a dropoff in the talent level, while the Tigers just didn’t have the numbers to compete.

In the first half, Parkland got a goal on a free kick by Brooke Schutter that found the upper corner of the net just out of the reach of goalkeeper McKenna Amey.

Throughout much of the first half, Parkland (14-0-0 EPC, 16-0-0 overall) controlled play and fired some tough shots at Amey, who was up to the challenge, having to dive for many of the saves that she made.

“Kenna had a great game tonight,” said Northwestern coach Kelly Bleam. “It was nice to see her challenged as much as she was and it was great to see Kenna so focused and stay in the game all night.”

At the half, Bleam was able to make some adjustments and the Tigers (9-1-1 Colonial League, 14-2-1 overall) came out on the attack, putting much of the play in Parkland’s defensive zone early in the half. Just 25 seconds in, a shot was fired toward the upper part of the net, but Parkland goalie Julia Buchman was able to tip it over the crossbar. Northwestern, which got its first corner of the game on the play, continued to keep pressure on Parkland.

“I wish we had a little more depth, but I feel like the girls made some awesome adjustments at halftime that we were able to implement. Unfortunately, we ran out of steam and some things fell apart,” said Bleam.

The falling apart came when Helen Flynn was able to fire a shot past Amey with 17:55 left to play to put Parkland up 2-0. The goal put the Tigers on their heels, and just over two minutes later, Gabby Wilby scored to put the Trojans up 3-0.

“We had a hard time matching up with some of their size and strength in their defensive end of the field versus our attacking players, which I’m sure that everybody would say that their size and strength is tough to match up with,” said Bleam. “Our inability to keep some fresh legs on the field was tough, but being a small school is one of the things that we have to overcome to be a successful team in the postseason.”

COLONIAL LEAGUE MATH ... Northwestern has one regular season game remaining. The season ends Wednesday afternoon at Catasauqua. The Tigers have wrapped up a spot in the Colonial League playoffs and could be seeded as high as first, or as low as third.

BIGGER AND BETTER THINGS ... Bleam was glad to give her team the challenge of playing against a team like Parkland, especially late in the season. The game coming at this point on the schedule gives the players the opportunity to tune up for both the league and District 11 tournaments.

“It was a great challenge for us going into the postseason next week, and good for us to see a team that does all of the little things right all the time in Parkland,” she said. “It reminds the girls of what those little things are and what we have to do to be sure that we’re effective in the postseason.”