Right at the start of the second half, one of the Principia soccer coaches yelled out to his girls: “You’d better get out on top because they (Villa Duchesne) are going to throw everything at us.”
He must have been a mind reader. In the space of three minutes, the Saints kickers turned a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead, en-route to a Metro conference 4-1 win over the visiting Panthers.
The Saints looked lethargic in the first half, allowing Principia to get the go-ahead goal. That was a high bounder that went over the head of keeper Hannah Benben. As it turns out, less than two minutes into the game, that was the last time Principia would score in the contest.
Senior Megan Hillermann quickly turned things around for Villa, scoring the tying goal with less than two minutes into the second half.
Two minutes later, Gabbie Menendez quickly scored on a perfect assist from Hillermann from the goalies far left side. Anne Marie Murphy, a hard working sophomore defender iced the cake with a perfectly placed assist again by Hillermann for the fourth goal of the game. The shot from less than 10 yards out was easy.
“I was a little worried about the first goal of the game,” said Mendendez. That goal came quickly off the foot of Sara DeNicholas, a Principia sophomore. “That was one of the best goals I’ve ever seen,” said Menendez.
Halftime was a turning point for the 10-3-2 Saints (4-0) in conference. Whatever coach Tim Twellman said to his team must have worked. Were the words GP rated? What ever is said in the Saints huddle stays in the Saints huddle.
Athletic Director Dory Smith figures they got a good “talking to.”
“The coach talked to us. The captains had some words. We just played a lot better in the second half,” said Menendez.
Twellman had his take on the halftime speech. “I just told the girls to forget about that first half, and just move on.”
Just seems like Villa really stepped up their energy level in the last 40 minutes of play.
Hillermann, who recorded 1 goal and 2 assists was happy to tuck away the win. “The girls know what they’ve got to do to win,” said Hillermann. Winning felt good for all of us.” Hillermann agreed wingers Cara Scozzafava and Kaitlin Springer are playing exceedingly well, and not getting the headlines.
“Headlines don’t matter a great deal this season. It is more important that we win these games. We’ve been working hard and have had a good season so far,” said the senior midfielder.
No doubt, Villa, a ranked team will be contenders come district time. Twellman, their coach would like to see a bit more consistency through 80 minutes of play.
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