Photos: Lennie Malmgren
BY ADAM FINE
PHILA. --Springside Chestnut Hill Academy (SCH) is on top once again
Springside Chestnut Hill girls’ soccer finished their season 10-0-2 clinching the Inter-Ac title for the third year in a row by defeating Academy of Notre Dame 3-0. This game also included SCH head coach Maria Kosmin’s 100th career win.
“The seniors now have been here for four years and never lost an Inter-Ac game. That’s a big part of that 100th win,” said Kosmin. “They’re just gamers.”
Kosmin received the post-game flowers and recognition for her milestone. But senior Bella Brown (Binghamton University) was the star of the show in between the lines. Brown netted two goals to cap off her incredible regular season career.
“I came in with really high energy… and it being our last Inter-Ac game it was really important to me, so I think that’s what helped me,” said Brown.
The Inter-Ac title is something the Blue Devils are used to. However, the road to get there held some adversity that wasn’t present in previous years. Two Inter-Ac ties and a loss to Conestoga ended up being a good thing for Springside Chestnut Hill.
“Adversity is to me, what makes you better. And losing sometimes makes you better,” said Kosmin. “I think the ties were the best thing that could have happened to us.”
Springside Chestnut Hill Academy - 2022 Inter-Ac Champions - PSD Photo by Lennie Malmgren
SCH head coach Maria Kosmin celebrates with her team after securing her 100th victory - PSD Photo by Lennie Malmgren
Senior Lisa McIntyre (University of Maryland) had the same mentality. The losses didn’t alter any confidence, they just sharpened the focus.
“When we got to practice the next days, we knew that we had to give it our all,” said McIntyre. “This is a new younger team, so we just had to start clicking and towards the end of the season we brought it all together and it ended up right.”
It was clear the Blue Devils knew how to handle adversity simply from how the game against Notre Dame went. The Blue Devils had a few good chances early that didn’t convert, and the time of possession favored Notre Dame much more than Kosmin may have liked.
Senior Abby Fitzmaurice did an excellent job on defense. Any time it looked like Notre Dame could get numbers down field, she was there to boot it away.
This included a play late in the game where Fitzmaurice, fooled a Notre Dame defender with a backwards kick that perfectly facilitated an offensive push. The Notre Dame defender got caught running the opposite direction in the process, and you could hear the crowd’s oohs and ahhs.
SCHA head coach Maria Kosmin talks about her 100th victory and lauds her team & coaching staff - PSD Video by Adam Fine
The shutout was led by SCH’s gatekeepers senior Ellie Stratz and sophomore Gracyn Lee-Torchiana.
Springside Chestnut Hill’s dominance continued going into the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association (PAISAA) state playoffs as the No. 1 seed. The Blue Devils defeated the Baldwin School 4-0 in the quarterfinal round on Tuesday Nov. 8th.
Springside Chestnut Hill is now poised to face No. 5 seed Westtown in the state semifinal's today at 2:30 p.m.
