Cardinal Newman's Alexa Barnes skirts the sideline as Ben Lippen's Abi Kania pursues. The Cardinal Newman Lady Cardinals moved one step closer to a regular season SCISA Region I 3A championship with a 3- 1 victory over the visiting Ben Lippen Lady Falcons Tuesday, April 21.

Alexa Barnes started the scoring for Cardinal Newman in the tenth minute. She outran a Ben Lippen defender and unleashed a right footer that found the back of the net.

The Cardinals struck again 24 minutes later with a goal that looked almost accidental. Julie Davies appeared to make a perfect centering pass, from the right corner of the field to Maggie Campanaro, who was waiting at the back post of the Ben Lippen goal. However, the ball sailed over the Falcon defense and into the back left corner of the net to put the Cardinals up 2- 0.

In the 56th minute, Barnes passed to Meredith Peter on a breakaway. Peter shot a hard left footer that eighth grade Ben Lippen goalkeeper Merry Anna Cates was somehow able to deflect. But Barnes continued to trail the play booting the deflected shot into the empty net to give Cardinal Newman a 3- 0 lead.

Cardinal Newman's Sophie Cobb forces Ben Lippen's Carrie Settle out of bounds. The Falcons continued to fight and finally hit pay dirt in the 63rd minute when Sammi Osman collected a pass from Carrie Settle just outside the Cardinal Newman box. Osman made several nifty moves to shake the Cardinal Newman defense and blasted a right footer to the left corner of the goal to close the gap to 3- 1.

The Falcons nearly struck again two minutes later when Lauren Jones booted a high blast, but Cardinal goalkeeper Molly Rainwater was able to leap and make the deflection with her fingertips.

Cardinal Newman's Maggie Campanaro heads the ball downfield.