NORTHEAST PHILADELPHIA – This afternoon, No. 2 St. Hubert’s squared off against No. 7 Conwell-Egan in the quarterfinal round of the Philadelphia Catholic League girls’ soccer playoffs. It was physical, it was thrilling, and it ultimately ended in the Bambies favor.
In the 27th minute, Maria Hagan scored a goal off a corner kick from Ava Pizzaro to put the Bambies on the board 1-0. A little over 10 minutes later, Hagan set up teammate Dominique Doebley for a short goal to increase their lead to 2-0 before heading into halftime.
Five minutes into the second half, the Bambies began their offensive attack once again. Senior, Ashley Andels, along with Doebley, assisted Kylie Bowers on her first goal of the afternoon, creating a 3-goal deficit for Egan. But the Eagles were not willing to go home without a fight of their own and quickly responded with a goal from junior mid-fielder, Carly Bonfig.
St. Hubert's vs. Conwell-Egan (56 Photos)
In the end, the Bambies had the last hoorah at River Field with Julie Bagnell adding in her teams final goal in the 67th minute to seal a 4-1 Hubert’s victory.
Kylie Bowers scores to make the score 3-0
Dominique Doebley addresses what attributed to St. Hubert’s 4-1 victory
“It was a typical, catholic league, up in your face kind of game. Some calls I didn’t agree with, but it’s the game of soccer, you aren’t going to get all the calls your way,” said Conwell-Egan head coach, Andrzej Adamiec. “In the long run, we got a little disorganized, and gave up two bad goals which put us behind coming into the second half. We started to press a little bit more, I changed our formation to 4-4-2. But we didn’t get any good chances at the net.”
Next Tuesday (Oct. 25), St. Hubert’s will face No. 3 Archbishop Wood in the PCL semis at the United German Hungarian Club in Feasterville-Trevose, PA. On September 9th, the two teams met in their first PCL match of the 2016 season, with the Bambies taking home a 1-0 victory. The game is scheduled to start at 7:30PM following the match-up between No. 1 Lansdale and No. 4 Archbishop Ryan.
As for Egan, the team will prepare to play in the District 12 Class A Championship in two weeks. Coming into this game, the Eagles were rolling on an 8-game win streak. Egan’s scheduled remained untarnished in PCL play since they won 3-1 vs. Bonner-Prendie on September 26th. Senior captain, Lindsay Straka, noted the secret to her team’s success.
Eagles senior, Lindsay Straka passes along advice for her returning teammates
Bambies senior, Kylie Bowers leaves words of advice for her team next season
“I think when we won one really important game, after that we just realized how good it felt to win a game and we didn’t want it to end,” said Straka. “We kept going and going and we just communicated. And we played with heart, that’s why we went on that streak."
Although Adamiec’s team was unable to secure a semifinal spot this year, the Eagles future looks bright for seasons to come.
CEC celebrates after Carly Bonfig's goal - PSD Photo
“We are young, we only have two senior starters. Carly Bonfig is one of our players who really stands out. Mackensie Michaels is phenomenal. My whole defense pretty much is filled with juniors. Ally Wojton, Erin Rottloff, Alexis Hyska and Melanie Dykes, our freshman who starts on the left, those are the girls you’re going to have to look at for next season,” said Adamiec.
“Lindsay (Straka) is our superstar, but she’s a senior. So I’m going to have to find another Lindsay for next year.”