Agnes Irwin prep for season with win over Downingtown West

With the always difficult Inter-AC schedule awaiting, Agnes Irwin hosted defending PIAA Class 4A champions Downingtown West on Friday and passed the early test with a 2-0 win.

Bryn Kozloff opened the scoring late in the first half when she picked off a pass near midfield and snuck a shot in under the crossbar. Another giveaway, this time inside the 18 led to the second goal as Jen Kelly was the beneficiary of a great play by Olivia Bongiorno to win the ball and play it quickly back to her in front of goal.

Downingtown West had multiple chances to find the back of the net and looked strong going forward but Agnes Irwin goalkeeper Tatum Quinones did well to command her box while Macie Osunde was unlucky to hit the crossbar on a near equalizer and chances that fell to Ava Reddy and Cam Bayly were denied from close range.

For a team that lost multiple players to graduation, the preseason contest was an opportunity to challenge the new look back line against a technical Agnes Irwin side that was able to find space between the lines and unsettle the back line in transition. The score line, however, was not indicative of the match, which was hard fought and back and forth for much of the early evening. With ECNL players filling both team’s rosters, the game was an entertaining display of talent and technical ability throughout.

Neither team was playing with their full complement of players either with Agnes Irwin missing star midfielders Dylan Ohm and Colby Costa to injury and Downingtown West without forward Amyah Alston.

“Getting to play against the 4A state champs was going to be a good opportunity to see where we stood and making sure that we kind of clean up some things,” said head coach Namit Deshpande. “We love the way they played; they were moving the ball really well, they competed the whole time and and I think the goals were the cherry on top.”

Agnes Irwin has matches against Radnor High School and Spring-Ford High School on their schedule before a weekend tournament in Maryland and the Inter-AC opener in September but the confidence boost is one they’ll be able to build on as they look forward to battling to be one of the top teams not only in the conference but in the PISAA, which was won last year by conference rivals Westtown School.

“It’s such a competitive league where we can’t take anything for granted,” said Deshpande, who was an assistant at Springside Chestnut Hill for four seasons before taking the head job at Agnes Irwin in 2023. “Our season last year went from 6-0 very quickly to a place where we were 6-3 and things not going our way. So for us it’s not only just being able to compete against these kinds of teams, but to have the kind of team that can bounce back from tough losses.”

Downingtown West will officially kick off their season on Wednesday night at defending Class 3A PIAA champions Strath Haven.