High School Soccer:
Kravitz Gets Four As East Beats West

Friday, October 1, 1999

By Forrest Robleto
SJSports Staff Writer

Marissa Kravitz put in three unanswered goals in the first 12 minutes of the game and Cherry Hill East never looked back. Jen Padlo, the rock of the Cougars defense, was outstanding. Padlo's defense allowed only one shot on goal in the first half and she got a foot on that one just too late. A poor offense can make a defense look good, but today a great defense made a good offense look bad. Coach Murray's Lions played reasonably well and keeper Amanda Lomberg had only one very soft goal. The combination of the very strong defense of Jen Padlo, Mary Daly, Perry Brenner (the keeper's twin sister) and Kelly Perkins keeping the ball out of the East defensive end (West had three shots in the game) and strong offense (Kravitz, Kravitz, Mullen) made this a very lopsided game.

Marissa Kravitz opened the scoring at 12 minutes with a pass from Rachael Sterling. Marissa scored again when her sister Amanda set her up at the 15-minute mark. Less than two minutes later Marissa stole the ball from a defender and put the game out of reach with a shot that gave Amanda Lomberg no chance at all. The Lions never gave up and kept pressing as best they could. At the 34-minute mark on a corner kick from Amanda Mignano, Laura Heenan banged one in. Jen Padlo covering the far side of the net got a foot on the ball and kicked it out, but the official ruled that the ball had crossed the line and the goal stood. The shots on the first half were 7-1. East keeper Carolyn Snyder only had one shot that she never got a chance to touch and it went in.

At the 54-minute mark Christine Mullen took a nifty pass from Amanda Kravitz to make the game 4-1 and three minutes later Amanda assisted Marissa with a centering pass they had recently practiced. At this point Coach Dombrovsky took out Marissa Kravitz, Meredith Sobel and for the first time this year Jen Padlo. Apparently looking forward to next year, Coach Dombrovsky put Amanda Kravitz all the way back into Padlo's position. These changes evened the play considerably but at 67 minutes Christine Mullen took a pass from Christine Hummel to make it 6-1. Eleven minutes later Christine Spivak combined with Nicole Thurston to make it 7-1. To their credit, West continued to play to the end. With less than a minute to play Jen Sapp took advantage of Amanda's inexperience on defense, stole the ball and went in on Emily Brenner all alone. The shot went just wide but was a great effort.

East goes to 3-0-1 and West to 3-3 on the season.

Photos by Forrest Robleto