CB South & Abington earned state berths and advanced to Tuesday’s District One 4A semifinals. North Penn/CB West photos provided by Keith Clemens Photography. CLICK HERE for a gallery of photos.
#1-6 CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 1, #1-3 NORTH PENN 1 (3-2 PKS)
Dylan Smith is the definition of grace under pressure.
Ask the West senior goalkeeper to come up with a clutch save, and he’ll deliver. Ask him to make a penalty kick with the game riding on the line. No problem.
With the score in PKs deadlocked 2-2 in Saturday’s epic battle between the two Continental Conference powers, Smith – on his team’s fifth and final PK of the opening round – found the back of the net.
“We prep for PKs towards the end of the year, and I take part in that,” Smith said. “I hit them last year, I hit them earlier this season.
“I definitely have worked on them before. It’s no different than the other guys. You just step up and do it. I love that moment, having things on the line.”
Smith – who finished with 11 saves in a stellar outing – delivered a huge save on the Knights’ final PK, and the electrifying win was in the books for the Bucks.
“Penalty kicks are certainly something we pride ourselves on as a team,” Smith said. “For the guy shooting, the mindset is to bury them, and for me, the mindset is to do the opposite. I don’t really think much of it. I just do it.”
Smith, for one, wasn’t the least bit surprised that 110 minutes could not determine a winner in the third meeting between the conference rivals.
“(Coach) Stefan (Szygiel) had pointed out that in our last three years we have been 3-3 with them, including our games this year, so this was like the game seven of it all, and that’s a fitting end,” Smith said.
Ignoring the inclement wind, rain and chill, fans packed the stands and sidelines for a game that coaches from both sides would have undoubtedly preferred playing one round later.
“Last week when all the playoff brackets came out, we saw Pennridge, which was an absolute bear on Thursday,” Szygiel said. “They played their hearts out, and we end up coming out on the right side.
“Then North Penn – we kind of looked at it and said, ‘What else is new? Why wouldn’t we be playing teams from our own (conference)?’ It’s not like we’re playing Suburban National or American. We’re playing teams we’ve already played twice and three times now. Six of our games have been against Pennridge and North Penn.
“The great thing is from a preparation standpoint- whoever was going to come out of this is very prepared for whatever comes next.”
Central Bucks West (17-2, 11-1 SOL) – with its spot in states secured – will travel to second-seeded Spring-Ford for Tuesday’s District One 4A semifinal.
The penalty kicks didn’t exactly start on a promising note for the Bucks, and West fans might have been squirming when North Penn goalie Brett Schwengels stopped the first two PKs by the Bucks.
“We have been in that situation before,” Szygiel said. “Last year in the state quarters, we went down two on PKs. We try and live by the credo – ‘Hey, we’ve been there before, let’s show some maturity and let’s lean on our experience and just try and stay calm and collected, try your best.’”
Smith delivered a diving save on Aidan Jerome’s penalty kick, and the Knights led by just a 1-0 score, thanks to Luke McMahon’s PK to open the round for North Penn. Colin Burn knotted the score when he buried his penalty kick, and that 1-1 tie stood when North’s Penn’s third PK attempt sailed over the crossbar.
West’s Kyle Holt and North Penn’s Carter Houlihan exchanged PKs, and then it came down to Smith, who nailed the go-ahead kick and then delivered the game-saving stop.
“Similar to last year – he’s our fifth shooter,” Szygiel said. “It’s no secret at this point, but to have a guy as special as that who can make a save or get scored on in a PK shootout, then take one, then save one is what makes him so special.”
Early in regulation, Jared Huzar turned Luke McMahon’s cross into a goal and a 1-0 North Penn lead that held until midway through the second half when Jimi Leder’s free kick found the back of the net. The stage was set for two riveting 15-minute overtime periods.
“Particularly the first overtime – they created some fantastic chances,” Szygiel said. “We had a couple of shots blocked, you see white shirts diving. Everyone was putting their body on the line to make sure that it didn’t go into the back of the net on our end.
“We just didn’t take care of business on the other end, which we have to keep working on.”
Szygiel made no secret of the fact that he attempted to change things up in the third meeting of the conference co-champions.
“We tried to make it weird,” the Bucks’ coach said. “What else are we going to do at this point? They know us, we know them. We have to try something weird. Different lineup combinations and different things – we can’t go toe to toe with them in terms of a short passing, quick combination play game, so we have to do other things. Today it was enough to take it the full 110 and get it done in PKs.”
North Penn coach Paul Duddy tipped his hat to the Bucks.
“If a team comes here and beats us twice, they deserve credit,” the Knights’ coach said. “The conditions certainly lent itself to maybe not as good a soccer game as we can play or they can play, so you have to manage it.
“Both teams had chances during regulation – post, crossbar. That’s just the breaks of the game.”
North Penn’s season is not over. The Knights (18-2, 11-1 SOL) will host seventh-seeded Radnor in a playback game Tuesday. Four teams are vying for one state berth.
“We’ll still be out here Monday and play Tuesday in the playbacks,” Duddy said. “I would have preferred it the other way, but so be it. A lot of sad players now, but they’re resilient, and they’ll come back.”
Central Bucks West 0-1-0-0 1
North Penn 1-0-0-0 1
#1-4 ABINGTON 2, #1-5 LOWER MERION 0
On a day when the weather – especially the high winds – had an undeniable effect on the game, the Ghosts decided to let the elements work in their favor. A wind-blown goal four minutes into the game by Nevin Baer stunned the visiting Aces and gave the Ghosts momentum they would not lose.
“The conditions definitely were a factor because it was pretty much one-sided the way the wind was blowing,” Abington coach Randy Garber said. “We were fortunate enough to win the coin toss. We took the wind.
“The first goal came about – Nevin (Baer) hit a ball from midfield, and it just caught up in the wind, the goalkeeper came out, it bounced around between the 18 and the 12, and the way (Baer) kicked it – it hit the turf and literally bounced over his head and went into the goal where there wasn’t anyone within 35 yards of him.
“(Baer) could have been on the other side of midfield, but the wind was so heavy that the ball traveled that distance. The ball went into the back of the net, and they were totally stunned and shocked – did that just happen?
“They were pressing at the time. As soon as that ball went in the goal, we got our feet on the ground, and we started doing some good things.”
Fourteen minutes later, the Ghosts struck again – this time it was sophomore Bryce Lexow with the header.
“We pressed pretty much the first half,” Garber said. “Nevin Baer served the ball in from the left side, and Bryce Lexow heads ball into the back of the net, and they’re down 2-0. Needless to say, they were in shock.”
Garber pointed to the home field advantage as key.
“They’re traveling from Lower Merion in these conditions, and they’re not used to that,” Garber said. “They never really got into their passing game and possession game because of our high pressure, as big and as physical as we are.
“It was 2-0, and as the game went on, they thought we would sit back and play all defense, which actually we didn’t. We just kept on high pressuring them, and then they started to play balls over the top, and that’s not their game. They’re a possession build-up type of team that’s used to dictating what’s going to take place and we kind of disrupted that.”
The Aces – unable to capitalize on the wind at their backs – sent one ball after another over the end line.
“If we had one, we probably had 15 or 20 goal kicks because as soon as they played the ball over the top and it hit the turf – it just skimmed out of bounds,” Garber said. “As the game went on, I think they got a little frustrated because they tried to keep a little bit of possession, but the bottom line is no one likes to play under pressure.
“It just seemed every time they had the ball there was one of our players close enough that they had to rewind it and go back or the next ball we intercepted because of the pressure. They’re a well-organized, well-coached team. That team is probably not used to being down 2-0. If you look at our team, we scored a lot of goals this year.”
The Ghosts also throw some serious defense at their opponents – they have 13 shutouts and have allowed just 12 goals. Six of those came in one game, a 6-0 loss to Wissahickon.
“Our defense is very stingy,” Garber said. “We have (Sean) Touey, who plays up top and has 25 goals this season, and he’s a handful.
“You have Reese (Gibbs) who plays in the back, and he doesn’t let too many things get behind him, and then you have Nevin Baer who’s on everybody’s radar as far as a D-I player. Nevin Baer and Jack Failing pretty much control a lot of our midfield play. Our back four – you have Reese Gibbs and Vincent Carosella, a big strong kid in the middle that wins all the head balls. Our outside backs are Liam Campbell and Nathan Rose – they’re both quick and tough kids. I wouldn’t say we have the whole puzzle, but we have a lot of pieces to the puzzle.”
The win vaulted Abington into states for the first time since 2012.
“In the beginning of the season, our first goal was winning the American Conference and try and get the highest seed we possibly could,” Garber said. “Our second goal was to get the highest seed and compete at the district level, and we’re doing that. The third goal was to make states and go as far as we can.
“It’s crazy because we switched from the National Conference to the American Conference – we’ve got a good team, and we could have competed extremely well in the National Conference, but the American Conference allowed us to be where we’re sitting now because of the amount of wins and the amount of points we accumulated to be able to be sitting fourth in the districts. All the cards are falling in the right place right now.
“The kids played extremely well today. We said – we’ll take the wind, we’ll pitch a goal or two, we have 13 shutouts – we’re not going to let anyone in our house, and that’s pretty much what they did.”
Abington (19-1, 13-1 SOL) will host Unionville in Tuesday’s semifinal round.
Lower Merion 0-0 0
Abington 2-0 2
#1-9 UNIONVILLE 1, #1-16 COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 0
Two days after winning something close to its Super Bowl when Rock North knocked off two-time defending state champion Conestoga in penalty strokes, the visiting Indians fell to Unionville in a district quarterfinal contest.
“We didn’t bring our ‘A’ game, for sure,” coach Joe Stackhouse said. “We tried to keep them grounded, and we said this can’t be your Super Bowl.
“To a man, we did not bring our ‘A’ game until the last 15 minutes of the game when we had them under deep pressure. I think a lot of them don’t understand how every one of these nights has to be high energy.”
Unionville’s Tommy Kelly scored a goal that turned out to be the game-winner 18 minutes into the game.
“It was a beautiful goal,” Stackhouse said. “They were the better team in the first half by far.
“The second half we made the adjustments and we played better. We switched Sean Finneyfrock back up top, we took a guy out of the back and moved him up to the midfield. From there, we started to create opportunities. We had them on their heels. Their goalie made some very good saves with less than two minutes to go.”
It didn’t help North’s cause that they were without Vinny Colon.
“The problem we had tonight was we lost one of our better players overnight,” Stackhouse said. “We lost Vinny Colon who has an athletic hernia – I got a text at 5:30 this morning from his father saying he’d been taken to the emergency room overnight. We went light in practice yesterday, and he wasn’t participating. He told me he was in pain, but I didn’t think it was that bad.
“Vinny held the ball for us and created things, and we just don’t have that right now. We have a sophomore and junior playing there right now that don’t have a lot of experience.”
Council Rock North (15-5-1, 11-0-1 SOL) – one of four teams battling for one state spot – will travel to fifth-seeded Lower Merion for a playback game.
“We have a tough road ahead of us,” Stackhouse said. “We’ll give it our best.”
Council Rock North 0-0 0
Unionville 1-0 1
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