CB East, PW, Wissahickon & CR North were winners in District One 4A soccer action on Tuesday. Jarrad Saffren recaps all the action. CB East/West Chester East photos provided by Keith Clemens Photography…CLICK HERE to go directly to the Boy's Soccer Gallery.
By Jarrad Saffren
The District One Class 4A boys’ soccer playoffs opened on Tuesday. Six Suburban One League teams played in first round games, including two all-SOL games, Council Rock North at Upper Dublin, and Abington at Plymouth Whitemarsh.
Two other SOL teams—Central Bucks East and Wissahickon—played non-SOL teams, West Chester East and Methacton, respectively. Three other SOL teams—North Penn, Hatboro-Horsham and Central Bucks West—will open their playoff runs on Thursday, in the round of 16, after earning first round byes.
Tuesday’s results and recaps are below.
Class 4A
#10 Central Bucks East 2, #23 West Chester East 0
CB East was dominating the first half. Patriots defenders were clearing out every ball, and Patriots attackers were generating chance after chance. They just couldn’t put one across.
“We got a lot of shots but missed a lot of sitters, and a few one on ones with the goalie,” said CB East coach Jeremiah White. “That’s been the story of our season, in terms of finishing.”
But then, in the 14th minute, the Patriots finished. Brenden Leasoff kicked the ball down the right sideline to Stephanos Panos, who settled it, dribbled around a defender and beat the diving goalkeeper to the left corner of the net.
“To score early on, it took a lot of stress off for the rest of the game,” Panos said. “Especially cause we’re strong defensively.”
“It’s like a second chance because even if they put one in, the worst that can happen is a tie,” said East defender Will Eisold.
CB East went into halftime up 1-0, and with an 8-2 edge in shots. They were playing their brand of technical, ball control soccer, and the Vikings were trying to counter with a more straight ahead, dump and chase style. They just didn’t have the dynamic scorer who could break through East’s elite defensive wall of Eisold, Gabe Ortiz and Luke Schloffel, who are all long, athletic and unafraid of contact.
CB East was controlling the game so well that White pushed up his defenders to create more offense. Eisold is especially good at that, and early in the second half, in the WCE box, he blasted the ball over the goalie’s head and into the net.
Ortiz started the play by booting a restart toward the goal. Then Dylan Maund tapped a bouncing ball across to Eisold.
The Patriots had a 2-0 lead, and they are pretty much unbeatable with a 2-0 lead. They gave up 10 goals in 18 regular season games, and never lost when they scored more than once.
“When we score, we’re tough,” White said. “We’re not having to chase the game and can focus on shoring up the defensive side.”
“The pace of the game slowed down at that point. It wasn’t down to the wire, where the last shot mattered, the last run mattered,” Eisold said. “Which helped because it rested us for our next game.”
Late in the second half, in desperation mode, West Chester East did move guys up and generated more shots. But CB East goalkeeper Jordan Geller, who faced one shot in the first 60 minutes, was ready, stoning four in the last 20 minutes.
“He made nice saves,” Eisold said. “There was one where No. 16 or 18 hit one and Geller came up and stuffed it.”
“It’s fun for me because as a goalie, I don’t really want action, but I love it,” Geller said. “I have to dive, get a good save.”
CB East (13-6) advanced to the round of 16 to play archrival CB West on Thursday night at seven, at West’s War Memorial Field. The rivals split their regular season series.
“We have to play our A game to get a result against West,” White said. “They are one of the best teams we’ve played.”
“Now this is for everything,” Geller said.
“I’m excited. It’s a great rivalry. I’ve known some of those guys since the fourth grade, so it’s always nice playing against them,” Panos said. “We just have to stay organized.”
Central Bucks East 1-1 2
West Chester East 0-0 0
#15 Plymouth Whitemarsh 2, #18 Abington 0
This was a battle of high scoring teams, as both averaged almost three goals per game in the regular season. Both teams, not surprisingly, took a lot of shots, Abington 14, Plymouth Whitemarsh 11.
But each goalkeeper—PW’s Patrick Corpus and Abington’s Nick Brownholtz—kept the opponent below its scoring average, making 14 and nine saves, respectively. PW just managed to get two by Brownholtz.
Gavin Hendrick scored both goals, in the 23rd and 40th minutes, respectively. Alex Lefkowitz assisted on the first goal.
“Gavin and Alex and our midfielders had several chances that he (Brownholtz) stonewalled on us,” said PW coach Jeff Heaton.
Corpus just stonewalled more shots, and that was the difference in the game.
“He was the player of the match for us,” Heaton said. “Patrick has done that all year long. Any breakaway they had, Patrick timed perfectly and made himself nice and large, and blocked everything that came at him.”
PW’s sophomore center back, Max Lubas, and its defensive midfielder, Tommy Hoy, also played well.
“It’s taken a while to become a complete unit, but tonight everybody did what they were supposed to do, and we came away with a nice clean sheet that was well-deserved,” Heaton said. “Abington played a lot of long balls into the box. We aren’t the tallest team but we got up and defended them well. Max Lubas and Tommy Hoy did a good job making sure no one could get through and all the shots were contested.”
Heaton employed a specific strategy against Abington’s big goal-scorer, Sean Touey, and it worked.
“The defense keeping their shape and communicating well was key, and we tried to front Touey so he didn’t have much time with the ball at his feet,” Heaton said. “He’s a very talented player.”
PW (13-5-1) will play No. 2 seed Lower Merion in the round of 16 on Thursday. That one will start at three.
Abington’s 2017 season is over. The Galloping Ghosts finished 13-6.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 2-0 2
Abington 0-0 0
#11 Wissahickon 3, #22 Methacton 0
Wissahickon played a complete futbol game and advanced to the round of 16.
Eddie Fortescue’s unassisted first half goal gave the Trojans a 1-nil lead at the break. Liam Weiss and Jacob Cohen scored after halftime, with assists from Christian Vorchheimer and Fortescue, respectively.
“We played really well for the first 20-25 minutes, hit the post a couple times and just couldn’t find the net,” said Wissahickon coach Stuart Malcolm. “In the second half we continued to put pressure on their goal, and Liam came up with a big goal that was bouncing around in their area. We got the third with two minutes to go, so the final score was a little more lopsided than the game. But we did more than enough to win with all the opportunities we created.”
Wissahickon keeper Jun Yu made three saves. The fact that he only had to make three was a testament to Wissahickon’s backline.
“Methacton moved the ball well, but when they tried to penetrate, the backline did a nice job. There weren’t any situations where they had breakaways. The shots were always into a crowd of players. The best chances were long throws and a couple of corners,” Malcolm said. “The whole backline played well, Justin Ryan, Gabe Kessler, Michael Steitz and Matt Om.”
Wissahickon (14-4-2) will travel to Spring-Ford, the sixth seed, on Thursday night for a 7 p.m. start.
“We were the higher seed and were supposed to win tonight, and we did. Now the pressure is on Spring-Ford,” Malcolm said. “Hopefully tonight didn’t take too much out of us and we can keep the pressure on them.”
Wissahickon 1-2 3
Methacton 0-0 0
#14 Council Rock North 1, #19 Upper Dublin 0
Council Rock North, in the words of coach Joe Stackhouse, “Stole one.” Upper Dublin played well on all areas of the field, firing eight shots and only allowing two. But one, with only minutes to go, went in.
Sean Finneyfrock scored and Kyle Dearies got the assist. CR North keeper Ed Mancinelli stopped eight shots.
“He kept us in the game. The whole defensive unit all year has been getting all the shutouts,” Stackhouse said. “Ryan Pave, Akash Shah, Jeremy Smithline and TJ Grube played well as a unit.”
North’s backline may have played well, but its midfielders and forwards did not execute as well as Stackhouse would have liked.
“We were messing around with the ball too much,” Stackhouse said. “They pressure up the field and you can’t play Real Madrid type soccer against them.”
“We played tremendous, had the majority of possessions, a significant amount of chances, and we just weren’t able to put one away,” said Upper Dublin coach Andy Meehan. “We needed a little bit of luck and we just weren’t able to grab one.”
“The standouts were in the back, Ryan Huggins, Colin Asper. In the middle you had Kevin Devlin and Matt Yoon, and Quinn Middleton, Max Adams and Jerry Bardol all had very good games,” Meehan added. “If you look at the performance of our team, you can’t say anybody had a bad game.”
Meehan was proud of his players for their effort on Tuesday night, and throughout the season.
“The boys worked hard, at practices and games and we started off well. I felt like from the way we worked and how skilled we were, we could have gone further,” Meehan said. “But these boys gave 100 percent, and as a coach that’s all you can ask for. They should hold their heads up with pride. Sometimes games come down to luck.”
But he was also quick to credit CR North.
“North was very good on set pieces and played very well in the middle,” Meehan said.
CR North (12-6-1) will play No. 3 North Penn on Thursday.
Upper Dublin finished the season at 12-6-1.
Council Rock North 0-1 1
Upper Dublin 0-0 0
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