It was a long week, but the Pennsbury Falcons got the job done, tallying a three game sweep after beating Abington Friday afternoon. The game was supposed to be played at Pennsbury, but due to unavailability of the turf and doing anything they could to avoid a grass game, the PHS coaches agreed to travel to Abington's Memorial Field so they could compete on the more favored turf surface. The Falcons have not faced the Ghosts in a few years so this non-conference match-up was a guessing game from the start. What was not a guessing game was how daunting a long bus ride on a Friday afternoon can be for a team playing three games in a week. The orange and black came out flat and paid for it when Abington connected four minutes after the starting whistle making it a 1-0 game. PHS has been the first to score in four out of five games to start the season, but now it was time to dust the rust off of the "come from behind" mentality and figure things out. It took longer than the coaches wanted, but with three minutes left in the first quarter, Pennsbury earned a penalty corner and capitalized on the chance. Abby Iacona took a strong shot from top, Mallory Harrison got a touch on it for redirection, and Regan Rodriguez cleaned it up off pads and sent it past the goalie. It was a great effort by everyone in the corner unit helping to tie it up 1-1. That score held until that first set of 15 minutes expired. With a 1-1 game going into the second, the heat was on for both sides. PHS coach, Traci Curtis, says of the second quarter, "We were not loving the energy level of our girls and the lack of communication and connection. We were one second behind on receiving a lot of passes and couldn't seem to adjust to the timing of the ball on their very fast turf. We sent a lot of balls over sidelines and endlines, missing the pace required for the surface. It was taking us too long to get comfortable and settle into our game." Both teams had a penalty corner opportunities, but no one finished. The score remained 1-1 at the start of the third quarter. Then the Falcons got a spark of hope six minutes into the quarter when they earned another penalty corner. Senior, Abby Anderer inserted to Abby Iacona and Iacona nailed the backboard on a beautifully executed straight shot. "It was one of the best corners we have finished on this season. From the insert to the sound of the ball hitting the backboard it was perfect," said Curtis. The Falcons went ahead 2-1, but it was not time to exhale. In the third quarter Pennsbury had two players get penalized with green cards putting them in a very vulnerable spot for several minutes, but the team held strong and worked together to survive the penalties. The Ghosts earned an attacking corner in the final seconds of the quarter, but the orange and black defense had a huge stop to keep it a 2-1 game at the start of the fourth. Abington was showing no signs of panic. If anything they were fighting harder and smarter and forcing PHS to work for every moment. Pennsbury dominated possession in the fourth, but Iacona's goal in the third quarter proved to be the game winner. With PHS receiving two more cards in the final quarter the intensity level was off the charts. The Ghosts had a penalty corner opportunity at the end of the game, but the Falcon's defense denied it and ended the game pocketing the win. "It took us way too long to play our game today, but we will take the win and focus on the next step. We are proud of how our team handled the card situations and compensated during those "man down" minutes - that's how South scored on us in the game before and we were better on that today," explained Curtis. "It was nice to score off of two attacking corners and it was great to see our defense work hard to save us many times on breakaways and plays coming from the middle that seemed to move in slow motion. Abby McCole earned the win in goal for us and made the stops she needed to in order to keep it in our favor." Pennsbury is now 5-1 and will host CB East on Monday at Falcon Field.