Girls soccer: Pasquale, St. Francis come out strong

Kendra Pasquale and the St. Francis girls soccer team are fast learners.

Playing Fenwick to a tie on May 2, Pasquale and the Spartans knew exactly what they had to do in order to pull out a victory in the Class 2A sectional championship at Fenwick.

"We knew that we had to come really strong," Pasquale said. "Scoring early would really set the tone early for the game."

They scored early - 2 goals in the first 10 minutes - and controlled the tempo en route to a 5-0 win over Fenwick. The Spartans advance to Tuesday's supersectional where they'll play Benet.

"We were really excited to come out and prove and show what we had," Pasquale said.

Pasquale helped get things started. Just five minutes into the game, Pasquale played a ball that Erin Peck got on the end of and buried for a 1-0 lead.

"That was big," Pasquale said. "It was huge because the minute that went in I knew we could take a little bit of a breath."

But they also were cognizant of their situation.

"We had to keep pummeling them and not give up because once you score one, the momentum could change at any moment," Pasquale said.

Five minutes later, St. Francis (15-4-3) doubled its lead. Claire Hensley played a corner kick into the box that Jill Ditusa pounced on and scored.

But something took the wind out of St. Francis' sails.

It wasn't Fenwick or the Spartans themselves. With the high temperatures the officials had water breaks at the midway point of the first and second halves to allow the players to cool off.

"That kind of took the air out of us a little bit," St. Francis coach Jim Winslow said. "We (had) got off to a good start."

Fenwick used the break to tighten up its defense. The Friars slowed the Spartans' forwards - Pasquale, Peck and Hannah Rittenhouse - and got under their skins, too.

"I was so frustrated the first half," Rittenhouse said. "They did a really good job of defending."

St. Francis didn't want to let up.

"When it's 2-0 our coaches always tell us that's the most dangerous score," Rittenhouse said.

And Fenwick nearly went into the half down a goal. With 25 seconds left in the half, a deflected shot fell to Fenwick's Shannon Ehrhardt, who was open and alone just inside the 18-yard box, but her shot went just over.

So at halftime, St. Francis was focused on starting the second half like they started the first: scoring quickly and controlling the tempo.

It turned into déjà vu for Fenwick.

Eight minutes into the second half, Rittenhouse collected the ball on the right wing, played a low cross into the box and Pasquale finished it into the left side of the goal to make it 3-0.

"We always talk about (the third goal) so we knew we had to get another one," Pasquale said.

Rittenhouse made up for her first-half frustrations two minutes later. The junior grabbed the ball just outside the 18-yard box, dribbled through a defender and ripped a shot to the left side of the net that made it 4-0.

"It felt really good to score," Rittenhouse said. "I worked hard those first 20 minutes, busted my butt and just tried to get under the goal."

Bella Defeo found Christina Fasana for a goal with eight minutes to play that finished off the scoring for the Spartans.

And, more importantly for the Spartans, the defense held and kept a clean sheet.

"I think our defense did awesome tonight," Rittenhouse said. "With those big throw-ins that they had and with a bunch of fouls that they had and free kicks, I think we played amazing in the back, just communicated, played together, so I think that was really good."