FPD girls get hat trick from Bowen Matthews to put away rival Stratford 3-1

FPD head coach Seth Berkebile would like to have won by more, but he couldn’t complain.

Stratford head coach Kate Blankenship would have liked to win, but she couldn’t complain much either.

As battles go, FPD-Stratford girls soccer was fairly normal: energetic, aggressive, physical, occasionally a little chippy — and, of course, there were a few discussions with referees.

Equally unsurprising was the fact that FPD rode three goals from sophomore Bowen Matthews to take a 3-1 win Tuesday evening over the visiting Eaglettes in their first battle of the season.

Stratford suffered its first loss of the season while FPD remained undefeated.

“I expected it to be competitive,” said Berkebile, in his first season succeeding longtime FPD boys and girls coach Josh Trieste. “The game means so much to players from both teams. It’s a time when they get to play against their club teammates, and they come back out here and get to battle against each other.”

Blankenship is a veteran of these showdowns.

“This is going to be a game of inches, you know?” she said. “It’s going to be about who puts away those chances. Tonight, they were the better team on that. But I think for us, we know that we belong.”

There were more than a few collisions, leading to four yellow cards for Stratford and one for FPD. Matthews was involved in a few, one in particular in the second half that stood out. She headed to the bench, stopped, threw up, then proceeded to the bench. She returned to the pitch less than two minutes later.

“That’s Bowen,” Berkebile said. “That’s a testament to the kind of player she is. She came off and was like, ‘Give me a second, and I’m ready to go back in.’ That was a hard hit, but she was not going to sit over here for a while.”

Indeed. Matthews put the Vikings on top early, with a pair of goals three minutes apart midway through the first half on assists from Elcee Leslein and Katelynn Jackson.

Eva Morehead got the Eaglettes on the board less than four minutes later with a precise direct kick that just slipped in under the crossbar and out of reach of FPD keeper Hannah-Claire Kelley.

Stratford started putting a little more pressure on FPD the rest of the first half, though the Vikings still managed more shots on goal.

Possession remained fairly even in the second, as Stratford keeper Tessa Morehead turned in a quality performance in a losing effort with eight saves.

“She had basically a season-ending injury last year,” Blankenship said. “But she’s a very talented goalkeeper. She’s got the one thing you can’t teach in goalkeeping, and that’s guts. She made a lot of saves because she’s got guts.”

Stratford got lucky when Morehead was out of possession and an Eagle came up with a deflection at the edge of the net. Matthews was just off on a few other shots. But the Eagles couldn’t quite put the same pressure on Kelley.

“They’ve got some super talented players that have the ability to score goals,” Blankenship said. “We’ve got to figure out a way to combat that defensively, and then on the other end, finish the opportunities we created for ourselves.

The teams battled back and forth. A Stratford goal to tie it was nullified by offside with 19 minutes left, a ruling that sped up the blood flow of Blankenship, who jawed with the far-side official.

A little more than six minutes later, Bowen got control on the left side, cut hard to the middle and drilled in a goal for a 3-1 lead, all but sealing it.

“When she gets the ball at her feet, and her teammates know this, too, she makes special things happen,” Berkebile said. “And she’s got a good supporting cast around her. If we didn’t have Elcee and Katelynn and Abee (Leslein) putting in shots, and players we can play wide (with) … We’re not a one-dimensional team.”