Defense wins games, too, was the mantra at Landis Field on Saturday in the 2023 District 3 Class 2A championship.
At the end of the day, it was Palmyra’s younger tested backfield that was able to thwart Northern’s near misses to take the 1-0 win. Palmyra has won the district championship two years in a row.
While there was some physicality to the game – a few body pushes and stick obstructions – overall, the game was exceptionally clean. Clean on transitions from offense to defense, where Northern wouldn’t over commit or stick obstruct Palmyra. Or, Palmyra worked its midfielders passing the ball in and out of the center of the field.
Palmyra earned its goal on a corner. The insert was passed to Keely Bowers at the top of the circle. Bowers ripped it to Mallory Hudson, who was positioned in front of the goalie. Hudson received the scorcher on her stick and went to spin around to shoot, but dumped it to Jovie Weaver, who finished the shot.
Jovie Weaver packs it in on a Palmyra corner. 1-0 Cougars over Northern in the third pic.twitter.com/6JDM3X67gB
— FemaleAthleteNews (@Female_FANews) November 4, 2023
The goal was scored in the third. Up until that part of the game, it could have gone either way. In fact, it still could have gone either way after the goal was scored as Northern had two solid chances of punching in a goal.
Northern, in the fourth, was able to send a cross ball in front of Abby Bennett’s kickers, Palmyra’s goalie, but couldn’t get the final touch on the ball.
Palmyra 0-0-1-0: 1
Goals: Weaver, 1
Assists: Hudson, 1
Shots: 4
Penalty Corners: 9
Saves: Bennett, 2
Northern: 0-0-0-0-: 0
Goals: 0
Assists: 0
Shots: 2
Penalty Corners: 2
Saves: Lauryn Hose, 3
