Central Bucks South celebrated Week 0 for sure.
The Titans opened their soccer season by posting consecutive shutouts – a 5-0 blanking at Souderton and a 1-0 hard fought win hosting rival CB East.
South’s defense is anchored by Brooke Hall, Haley Helsel, Alana Peev, keeper Brooke Rosica and Bella Smouse. “We have put an emphasis on communication in our back line. All four of our backs have done such a good job of communicating,” explained second-year head coach Gabbie Nolan. “Not everything is right every time but they are communicating enough so that they take care of business back there. The other thing about our back line is that they work so hard, they don’t take a play off and they won’t let anyone get anything easy.”
“The whole team really wants it. We all want to make playoffs and we’re all working really hard together and for each other,” forward Riley Karpinski added. “We’re all working together since we obviously can’t play each other’s positions. We’re connecting really well.
“Also, we’re scoring a lot off of crosses, which we’ve been practicing a lot. That is showing in games,” Karpinski concluded.
Offensively, Kila Kienzle tallied a hat trick in South’s opener. Kienzle “has the ability to play anywhere on the field. She is so selfless that she doesn’t care where she plays,” Nolan observed. “She just wants to help the team as best she can. She played center back for us last year and she was phenomenal back there but in her first start up top, she scored three goals.”
Karpinski punched in a first half goal that stood against East. “Brooke Cummins got a throw-in and Lily Black won the ball and dribbled down the sideline close to the end. She put it across. I ran in, got around the goalie and curved it in,” Karpinski described.
A dynamic sophomore, Karpinski was one of just two freshmen named to an All-SOL Colonial team last year. “Her speed is insane. But we’ve been working with her on building other skills and assets so she doesn’t have to rely solely on her speed,” Nolan pointed out. “She has done such a good job improving mixing up crossing, cutting it back and shooting. Mixing up her types of crosses too. I don’t even think she is at her full potential yet. She gets better and better because she is so coachable.”
A solid South side dropped five of its final six games last season but the Titans turned that into motivation this fall. “They used it as fuel all offseason,” Nolan said. “When they go into games and every single practice, their goal is to have a better outcome this year than last year. They are the type of team that won’t take no for an answer and will put up a fight.
“It has been awesome because our captains have done a good job of keeping that mindset and all of our girls have bought into that mindset,” Nolan added.
The Titans will attempt a first round CB sweep when they host Central Bucks West in a Wednesday late game. “We are a really young team this year and we’re OK with some early games not being our best technical games,” Nolan said. “We’ll make the adjustments as they come. Our team got the result they wanted early in the season. We’re really happy and the girls are excited.”
CB East (2-2) got back to its winning ways on Saturday when it defeated Hatboro-Horsham 3-0. Sofia Mignon had a brace by halftime and Kiera Sleicher added her first goal of the season.
The Patriots, district finalists last year despite entering as a 14 seed, had a tough out on Wednesday at Pennridge. Results were unavailable at press time.
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