Pennridge boys edged Quakertown in double OT. On the girls’ side, Pennridge & Quakertown were winners. Check the recaps.
Boys
Pennridge 6, Quakertown 5 (2 OT)
In a battle of the neighboring rivals, this was a game for the ages.
Granted, it didn’t look as though there would be anything especially memorable about it when the visiting Rams opened up a 5-2 lead midway through the second half, but someone apparently forgot to tell the Panthers they were supposed to go down quietly.
Quakertown reeled off three unanswered goals in a six-minute span late in the game, setting the stage for overtime where – with 6:46 remaining in the second OT period – Marco Granda buried a shot in the back of the net for the dramatic game winner.
“I told the guys – you’re going to remember this the rest of your life, and you’re fortunate you’re on the winning end,” said coach Pete Valimont, whose team had been shut out in back-to-back losses to Souderton and Faith Christian. “This was a heck of a game. Even if we lost, I couldn’t be mad at my guys – the effort that was given. We’re just fortunate.
“Quakertown played a phenomenal game. I’m happy with the result, but it’s a game you walk away win, lose or tie, and say ‘Man, that was something.’”
Quakertown coach Kevin Woulfe had high praise for his squad as well.
“I’m very proud of how hard the boys continued to fight throughout the game,” the Panthers’ coach said. “Playing Pennridge is always a fun, rivalry game.
“Pete Valimont is a class act, and I always look forward to playing his squad. I would’ve loved the win, but for my young squad, this was a huge step forward.”
Early on, it looked as though the Rams would be in for an easy time after they put a pair of goals on the board in the opening 15 minutes of the contest. Sebastian Terkowski – who led the Rams with the hat trick – turned a Nick Dunn pass into a goal, and then it was Dunn finding the net on an unassisted goal.
The Panthers answered with back-to-back goals of their own. First it was junior Brandon Strecker scoring with an assist from junior Evan Kemp, and senior Ben Wackerman followed with the equalizer.
“Quakertown hit two beauties from about 30-35 (yards) out,” Valimont said. “Our goalie was a little high off his line, and before you know it, they’re in the back of the net.”
That 2-2 score stood until senior captain Evan Freed scored off a Terkowski corner kick to send the Rams into halftime with a 3-2 lead. Terkowski gave the Rams what looked to be an insurmountable 5-2 lead when he scored a pair of goals midway through the second half, the first with an assist from Jack Taplett and the second assisted by Matt Stevenson.
“We’re sitting 5-2, and we’re feeling pretty good about ourselves,” Valimont said. “We put a handful of subs in, and Quakertown, to their credit with coach Woulfe, never quit, and before you knew it, it was a tie game.
“I know we’ve struggled, but with five goals, I thought this would be a no brainer.”
It was anything but a no brainer as the Panthers scored goals with 12:35 remaining, 11:29 left and the equalizier with 6:59 remaining in regulation. Scoring goals were Kemp (Caleb Rudloff assist), senior Joel Welliver (junior Andy Munsell assist) and Strecker, this one assisted by junior Nate Besch.
For Valimont, the comeback evoked memories of a similar Panthers’ comeback on Sept. 13, 2013.
“I had nightmares of when coach Woulfe’s son, Kyle, was a senior,” said the Rams’ coach of that 2013 contest. “We were beating them 3-1 and ended up losing 4-3 in overtime, and his kid had a hat trick.
“His kid was just an absolute stud. He was the one kid we had to mark the whole game, and he had a hat trick and won the game in overtime. That game haunts me to this day, and I was having nightmares in my head. I didn’t say anything or make it seem like a big deal, but my assistants and I started to look at each other, and we knew it was a big deal.”
There would be no reruns of that game four years earlier, although it looked as though the Rams might have to settle for a tie when the score was still deadlocked with time running down in the second OT. Marco Grenda, however, made sure that didn’t happen, delivering the game winner.
“Matt Stevenson drove the ball down the left flank by our bench, crossed it in,” Valimont said. “There was a little bit of a scrum, and the ball popped out to Marco. He was composed, settled it and just buried it in the back of the net. All we could do was literally walk down and shake hands and take a big sigh of relief.
“I’m just glad I bought a couple of extra batteries for my camcorder. If you’re going to tell me between the two of us we were going to have 11 goals in this game and double overtime – Quakertown played really well.”
Terkowski led the Rams with three goals and an assist.
“We moved him up to forward tonight, and he played really well,” Valimont said. “He had a bunch of chances, he created some chances.
“One of them was a set piece, he just ripped upper 90 – you practice it. Now you just hope they do what they do in practice, and he did.”
The Rams’ coach went on acknowledge the play of several other players.
“Matt Stevenson was lights out all over the field, and Aidan Link, one of our holding center mids, didn’t come off the field,” Valimont said. “We had a lot of chances that we didn’t capitalize on. This is the first time I’ve seen my guys really get pressed and put up against the wall, and they battled back really well and took care of business.
“For us, with playoff expectations, a tie or a loss really would have hurt that moving forward. Their goalie played really well. He made a handful of saves that we were literally ready to jump up and thought they were in the back of the net.”
Pennridge (3-3, 1-2 SOL) will travel to Lansdale Catholic on Saturday for a non-league game at 2 p.m.
“I’m a little nervous about tomorrow,” Valimont said. “LC is a really good team, and I’m good friends with their coach, Billy James, so there’s a friendship there.
“Their assistant coach is the club coach for my juniors, so he knows every one of them and there’s 12 of them. I’m shaking my head – we were supposed to rest everybody – that was the whole plan with 12 minutes left, and Quakertown just wouldn’t stop, and the next thing you know it’s 5-5 and putting everybody back in.
“We have a tough game tomorrow, we have CB West away on Monday, we have William Tennent home on Tuesday, and we have North Penn on Thursday at their place. These next six days will basically determine our season.”
Quakertown (1-6-1, 1-4) will be on the road at Upper Perk on Monday for a 3:45 p.m. contest.
“We had a hectic week, having played three games, and next week will be the same, so hopefully, we’re carry some momentum into those games,” Woulfe said.
QUAKERTOWN 2 3 0 0 – 5
PENNRIDGE 3 2 0 1 – 6
SOUDERTON 0, SOUTHERN LEIGH 0 (2 OT)
One hundred minutes could not determined a winner in a contest that saw Souderton keeper Mitchell Race collect six saves.
Souderton (2-3-2, 2-2 SOL) will host Boyertown on Monday at 7 p.m. in a non-league contest.
SOUTHERN LEHIGH 0 0 0 0 – 0
SOUDERTON 0 0 0 0 – 0
Girls
Quakertown 2, Southern Lehigh 0
Players like Katie Moyer are the reason why Mike Koch enjoys coaching high school soccer so much.
Friday afternoon, Moyer scored both goals for the Panthers. This was significant for two reasons. First, it gave Quakertown a quality win over a good team that should pay off for district seeding.
Second, it was a moment three years in the making for the senior. Prior to this season, Moyer had been part of the Panthers roster but never stepped foot on the field in a game. Three torn ACLs, each coming at some point prior to the season, were responsible.
"This is the first chance she's gotten to actually play, and she's done a lot of good stuff for us," Koch said. "She sits in behind the forwards a little bit, almost like a false nine. She plays a lot of great balls, she's clinical."
Koch said prior to her injuries, Moyer was on track to play at the college level if she had wanted to. Three serious knee injuries have taken some of her speed, but they couldn't take away her vision or technical skill.
In fact, Moyer's lack of pace is exactly what the Panthers need sometimes.
"She slows us down, we need that player that slows us down and calms us down, who knocks the ball back so we can get someone else forward," Koch said. "Her direction on the field is a huge piece. I'm very fortunate that I have some players out there who really understand the game."
Moyer isn't alone in her battle against her own knees. Senior Grace Kave has been playing on an injured ACL that will require surgery, her second time injuring the ligament, but Koch said she elected to push it off and not miss her final season. Kave is a super-sub for Quakertown, as her injury prevents her from playing long stretches and she does so while fighting through pain at times.
"The two of them to me, they're kind of what it's all about," Koch said. "Their perseverance and their love of the game lets them fight through that."
Moyer suffered her first injury during a tournament prior to her freshman year. After rehabbing, she was cleared to do non-contact work and went right to it. An errant hit sailed over a fence and when Moyer hopped the fence to retrieve her ball, she re-injured the same knee prior to her sophomore year. Before her junior year, she tore the ACL in her other knee during Quakertown's summer league.
"She became like another coach on the bench because she sees the game really well," Koch said. "That's why she's able to compete now. She's not back athletically where she was, but when you see the game well, you can save yourself a lot of steps and she sees things quicker than other people would."
Koch also noted the play of Haley Hangey, who assisted on one of the goals, and central defender Melina Jagiello, who has taken ownership of the back line. Ashley Gluck also provided an assist.
Koch said Moyer was very composed after her first goal, which the natural right-footer scored with her left from about 18 yards out. Her second came on a composed finish with space against a solid keeper.
"I think she was really satisfied at the end of the game but she's a competitor so she just kept competing," Koch said. "I think I was probably more excited than she was."
Quakertown (6-2, 4-1 SOL) will host Springfield Township on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.
SOUTHERN LEHIGH 0 0 – 0
QUAKERTOWN 0 2 – 2
Pennridge 4, Lansdale Catholic 0
The message at the half was pretty direct for Pennridge.
Shoot the ball more.
So far this season, the Rams haven been searching too much for "the perfect shot" instead of the shot that goes in the back of the net.
Once the message sank in, the Rams took off.
"They say 'I'm always waiting for the perfect opportunity' and for a lot of these girls, they think that's what it is," Pennridge coach Audrey Anderson said. "It's not until they take the shot they say 'I can score from there.' We're trying to get them to shoot a little bit more."
Pennridge got a header from Abby Groff, her third straight game with a tally, late in the first half. In the second half, the Rams parlayed three balls off the foot of Ashley Groeber into goals, with three different players scoring each one.
Groff's goal was just the kind of gritty, less-than-perfect marker Pennridge needed.
"We worked on corners a lot yesterday," Anderson said. "I'm very happy for Abby. She's one of the hardest-working kids I know. For her, three games, three goals, she's a player that people have to look out for."
Groeber’s assists went to Chance Hendricks on a long-distance shot, Meghan Kriney on an angled take from the right side of the box and Lauren Plezia after Groeber's initial shot was saved and rebounded out into space.
"She's creative, she's able to keep the ball in tight spaces," Anderson said. "She has such good vision of the field, she just had to understand what the coaches wanted and what the team needed her to do."
Pennridge (5-0-1, 3-0-1 SOL) will be on the road at William Tennent on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. contest.
PENNRIDGE 1 3 – 4
LANSDALE CATHOLIC 0 0 – 0
Goals: Abby Groff, Chance Hendricks, Meghan Kriney, Lauren Plezia
About the Author
