Girls Soccer: Peden’s goal worth more to Haverford than scoreboard lets on

RADNOR >> When Cece Peden lunged into the tackle in July, she heard a pop and feared the worst.

The midfielder had endured the physical and psychological brunt of a ligament injury after tearing her left ACL in April 2016, which wiped out her junior season at Haverford High. But in the last club tournament of the summer with FC USA, Peden trudged off the Tuckahoe Turf Farms in South Jersey nursing a limp on her right leg and the worst of suspicions.

Barely eight weeks on, Peden’s quandaries now include which of her cranky knees most requires a brace on a given day. But that problem on the soccer field is better than most others off of it. And as Peden’s goal in the Fords’ 3-0 Central League win over Radnor Tuesday showed, it’s an easily solvable one.

Peden snapped a perfect header off a corner kick by Rebekah Cunningham in the 68th minute, the Fords’ second tally and a back-breaker to Radnor’s resolve. Peden wriggled loose of her marker and planted a downward header that left a sprawling Anna Gurian no chance in the Radnor net. The goal was Peden’s second of the season, the first coming in a lopsided win over Upper Darby last week. But the situation and the stakes of Tuesday’s tally imbue it with special significance.

“I felt like maybe this was the time (a goal) would come, and then I made sure I saw where the goal was and tried to just keep it down,” Peden said with a beaming smile. “Offensively, we always say, ‘head it down,’ and usually I get it wide. So I was so happy seeing it go in and I was so surprised.”

Sophomore Maya LeBlanc opened the scoring in the first half, and Annalena O’Reilly capped it with six seconds to play via a stunning chip from near midfield. Peden’s emotions Tuesday seemed distant from the worry of that July afternoon. Peden’s ACL tear the previous spring cost her a special campaign with the Fords, who qualified for the District 1 Class 4A playoffs and won the program’s first playoff game, all with Peden as a bittersweet spectator.

“That was the most challenging thing I’ve ever done,” she said. “… It’s just so hard to not feel like — I know I was a part of the team but to not feel like I was helping out at all when they were being so successful. I felt so bad and was just like, I wish I could play and be able to help them out.”

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