(Photos & Video by Mark Zimmaro)
BY MARK ZIMMARO
PHILA. -- Abby Fog picked the perfect time for her first career goal.
The Moorestown Friends freshman deposited her first tally of her young high school journey into the net four minutes into the game at Germantown Friends on Friday Oct.14th, and the defense made it stand in a 1-0 Foxes’ win.
“I’m very happy that my first goal was a game-winner to win 1-0,” Fog said. “It was really exciting.”
The victory raised their Friends School League record to 3-3, keeping them in the middle of the pack. Moorestown Friends has played a tough non-league schedule, compiling a 4-8 overall record.
“We’ve had an interesting season,” Fog said. “We’ve been doing well in the Friends League, but public schools are pretty hard for us because we’re a smaller school. But our team has been working really hard and I’m proud of everybody.”
The Foxes have just three seniors on their roster including Cordelia Glos, Shelby Noel and Tia Obermeier and have been finding their way after replacing a large chunk of their starting lineup from a season ago. In 2019, Moorestown Friends was the league champion.
“It started off a little rough,” Obermeier said. “It was challenging. We didn’t know how to work together, and we lost a lot of our starters from last year. But we’ve been learning how to play with each other, and it’s been a lot better.
Moorestown Friends has won three of its last four league games, which includes victories over Friends Select and Friends Central.
Moorestown Friends School's Abby Fog talks about her first goal and game winner. (video/ Mark Zimmaro for PSD)
Moorestown Friends School's Tia Obermeier talks about her team's Strengths. (Video/ Mark Zimmaro for PSD)
Isabella Didie was the hero in a 1-0 win over Friends Select. Obermeier recorded a hat trick in a 4-1 win against Friends Central. The Foxes seem to have a little more energy against their rivals.
“For our big games, for our Friends League games, we do theme days,” said Obermeier, who has five goals on the season. “Today, we did a black-out, so we all wore black clothes to school, and sometimes we do crazy socks, just something so everyone knows you’re on the field hockey team.”
The field hockey team is making a name for itself and Fog will be a piece of the success for years to come. Her first goal will provide a little confidence moving forward.
“I’m pretty confident,” Fog said. “Especially going into the end of the season and we have (playoffs) coming up.”
For Germantown Friends, the rebuild continues as the Tigers have zero seniors on their team. Building blocks of fundamentals are being put into place with the hopes of recapturing glory for a storied program. Germantown Friends has won 14 Friends League field hockey championships — the most of any school in the league. Their last championship win was in 2003.
“We have a really young team and we’re building on basically everything,” said sophomore co-captain Anna Pendse. “Every week during practice, we’re getting better and we’re working harder, which is really exciting.”
Germantown Friends is winless in league play this year but did scratch out a 1-1 tie against Friends Central earlier in the season. The Tigers last league win came in 2016, and they are building from the ground up with a young team.
“We’re trying to build as a team,” Pendse said. “We’re going to do some stuff in the winter so the goal is to come tougher so we are ready to come out harder next year."
