Central Bucks West, Council Rock North and Wissahickon were winners in Thursday’s second round of the District One 4A Tournament. NP/CR North photos provided courtesy of Keith Clemens Photography. CLICK HERE to go directly to the BOYS' SOCCER GALLERY.
By Jarrad Saffren
Going into Thursday, seven Suburban One League boys soccer teams remained in the District One Class 4A playoffs. Coming out of Thursday, only three are still alive and going to the quarterfinals.
Find out what happened below.
CLASS 4A
#7 Central Bucks West 3, #10 Central Bucks East 2
Central Bucks West took a 1-0 lead in the seventh minute. Tarin Morris blasted the ball over the leaping goalkeeper’s fingertips. Reed Sturza got the assist.
Central Bucks East tied the game nine minutes later on Keegan Cannon’s goal. CB West regained the lead 12 minutes after that, when Carson Snyder scored off an assist from Bailey Moyer.
Yet, early in the second, East again had an answer. Will Eisold slammed a rebound into an open net.
Finally, in the 49th minute, from the left flank, Luke Fehrman floated the ball over the East defenders. Moyer streaked in and tapped it past the diving keeper.
“We have areas we want to attack, a little bit into the wider channels, you get your guys running,” West coach Stefan Szygiel said. “It puts the backline under pressure.”
“To go in and get that last goal and win, it felt amazing. It was awesome,” Moyer said. “He played it across and I just took off and hit it as hard as I could into the back of the net.”
West held that lead for the last 31 minutes, even during a late onslaught of East shots and corner kicks. In the final seconds, a West defender kicked the ball downfield, toward the East goal, and clinched the win.
The Bucks ran over to their student section and got mobbed by adoring classmates. It was a huge win for the burgeoning program, which is now one win away from the first state tournament appearance in the five-year tenure of Szygiel.
“I can’t even explain it. It’s just phenomenal,” said Snyder.
“This is probably the greatest game I’ve ever been a part of,” said Morris.
West keeper Dylan Smith made two saves. East keeper Jordan Geller made five.
“Both sides were going to score because there is so much energy and emotion,” Szygiel said. “It was a second round playoff game, but then you add in the West vs. East factor. Everyone got what they asked for.”
CB West (15-4) will play No. 2 seed Lower Merion on Saturday. CB East ended the season at 13-7.
Central Bucks West 2-1 3
Central Bucks East 1-1 2
#19 Council Rock North 3, #3 North Penn 0
Ryan Pave scored once and Conor O’Donnell scored twice to lead Council Rock North to an upset win. CR North keeper Ed Mancinelli made five saves.
“Everyone played well tonight, our forwards, midfielders, defenders and goalkeeper,” said North coach Joe Stackhouse. “The kids really executed our strategy tonight, more than they did on Tuesday.”
North stole a first round win from Upper Dublin on Tuesday, in a game the Flying Cardinals controlled. But Stackhouse thought it might serve as a wakeup call, and it did. “Yeah I think we just needed to get that first one out of the way,” he said.
The Indians are the SOL National champions, and a very dangerous 19 seed.
“We like our position, and we really feel like we can get rolling and make a run,” Stackhouse said.
CR North (13-6-1) will play No. 11 seed Wissahickon in a quarterfinal on Saturday. The winner clinches a state tournament berth.
North Penn, the SOL Continental champion, finished the season at 15-3-1.
Council Rock North 2-1 3
North Penn 0-0 0
#11 Wissahickon 4, #6 Spring-Ford 3
Jacob Kaffey scored with 2.7 seconds left to lift Wissahickon to an upset win. Eddie Fortescue threw the ball into the box and got the assist.
The goal gave Wissahickon its fourth lead of the game, and the last one it needed. Jacob Cohen and Liam Weiss also scored for Wissahickon. Kaffey scored his first goal in the first half. Fortescue had two assists.
“It was quite a game. The pressure was on them as the higher seed, and we played very well. It was an even game. They possessed the ball a little better than we did, but in the end we kept fighting and managed to get a win,” said Wissahickon coach Stuart Malcolm. “We tried to do what we did on Tuesday, control the ball in the midfield and play the ball out wide. Outside of the first 15-20 minutes, we did it well.”
Wissahickon (14-4-2) will play CR North on Saturday, and the winner will earn a state tournament berth.
Wissahickon 2-2 4
Spring-Ford 1-2 3
#13 Kennett 2, #4 Hatboro-Horsham 1
In the fourth minute, Nick Hatzenbeller gave Hatboro-Horsham a 1-0 lead. Will Kemp assisted. But the Hatters could not keep Kennett off the board, and could not net another goal.
“We didn’t put in the type of 40-minute effort that we needed to win the game,” said Hatters’ coach Kyle McGrath. “I think the eight-day layoff may have hurt us. You get used to playing two, three, four games a week, so a long time off has an impact.”
McGrath was still pleased with his team’s 2017 season, in which the Hatters finished 14-3-2 and won their first league title in 15 years.
“It’s hard to look at anything but the loss right now,” McGrath said. “But in a few days, and even years from now, we’ll look back on it as a successful season. The league title is a significant accomplishment, and these guys will always have that.”
#2 Lower Merion 1, #15 Plymouth Whitemarsh 0
Plymouth Whitemarsh hung in against the second seed, but was not quite able to pull it out. The Colonials finished the 2017 season at 13-6-1.
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