Central Bucks East saw its season come to an end in the state quarterfinals Saturday when the Patriots fell to Mechanicsburg 1-0.
HAMBURG – Endings are never easy.
As his teammates silently prepared for their final bus ride after Saturday night’s 1-0 loss to Mechanicsburg, Booker Farrior allowed himself the trace of a smile.
“It’s been an honor to play with these guys and to grow with these guys,” Central Bucks East’s senior co-captain said. “Not many people expected us to even win our league, to even win the district and to even be here.
“Proving people wrong is what we do best. I’m sad that it has to end, but it’s been great.”
The Patriots spent the season repeatedly proving people wrong, but that didn’t make Saturday night’s ending in a PIAA Class AAA quarterfinal contest at Hamburg High School any easier to swallow.
“We just couldn’t get the final touch,” said senior co-captain Julian Klokner. “Everyone was playing hard. I don’t discredit any of the boys – they played very hard. It was just an unlucky night.
“It was a fantastic ride. It was an honor to be here. No one expected us to be here.”
But the Patriots were there, playing in a state quarterfinal game, and a break here, a bounce there, and they would still be playing, but for the first time during what has been a magical postseason, the Patriots could not muster a comeback after falling behind in the 36th minute on a goal by Mike Fowler on a restart.
“With all the teams that we played – to come in and just not have a really strong game for us tonight wasn’t great, and we leave with a little bit of a bad feeling because of that,” coach Mike Gorni said. “But once we get past the next 24-48 hours, then they’re going to realize it’s a really difficult thing (to do what they did).
“At the end of the year, we’re going to be 21-3 and be in states. That’s why it’s bittersweet. We exceeded expectations, but we went out in a game where we didn’t play at our best.”
The Patriots certainly didn’t lose for lack of effort. They battled to the end, and despite playing shorthanded for the final four minutes because of a red card, they came within inches of knotting the score when a shot by Justin Chomik – with a minute remaining – went off the crossbar.
“It was a great shot,” Klokner said. “Unlucky – that sums up the game for us. It was a great run.”
And what a run it was for the Patriots, picked by most ‘experts’ to finish no higher than second in the SOL Continental Conference standings. They did better than that, winning their first 12 league games and capturing the conference crown with a near-perfect 13-1 mark.
When the postseason rolled around, the Patriots were seeded fourth in the District One Class AAA Tournament, but behind the dazzling offensive performance of Evan Vare – who had seven goals and one assist in the district tournament – and a stingy defense, the team captured their program’s first district title since 1991.
“(Evan) was the best attacking player in the district and through states,” Gorni said of his junior striker. “He’s just had a magnificent all-around year, and he’s been complemented by a team that’s been very unselfish and good. We needed someone maybe to finish a ball tonight, and we didn’t get that.”
The veteran coach tipped his hat to his senior class, led by captains Farrior and Klokner.
“Booker and Julian have been terrific,” Gorni said. “We have a number of seniors on the team that don’t get a tremendous amount of playing time, and they’ve been great. Every program needs all of your players regardless of how many can play.”
For the seniors, Saturday’s ending was especially disappointing.
“We believed we could win the whole thing,” Klokner said. “That was our goal.”
“It’s so hard,” Farrior said. “Freshman year we were in the same place except I was a freshman, and I saw the team lose in the same game in states (1-0 to Conestoga).
“I never wanted it to end like this, but you win some, lose some. You can’t win them all.”
Although the Patriots were young – they started just two seniors, Gorni issued a word of caution.
“You never know if you’ll be back,” he said. “We tell the kids that all the time. We’ve had just a great run, and that makes this even a little more difficult because we’ve played so many good teams through the district and had a great win the other night against Central York.
“We told them you don’t necessarily have the right to expect to be back, so we wanted to make use of it, and we did all through the district and winning a first round state game.
“Mechanicsburg did what they needed to do tonight. I don’t think we had our best effort, and at the end of the day, we all had responsibility in that. I don’t think I had them ready to go in the first half tonight, and 40 minutes wasn’t enough. The second half I thought we were very good. You have to score the ball, and we didn’t. It’s an unforgiving game when you don’t.”
The Patriots – who suffered just their second shutout – closed out a memorable season with a 21-3 record overall.
Mechanicsburg 1-0 1
Central Bucks East 0-0 0
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