North Penn advanced to the District One 4A title game. CB West remains alive in its quest for a state berth. NP/Conestoga photos provided by Keith Clemens Photography. CLICK HERE for the gallery of game photos.
#1 NORTH PENN 3, #5 CONESTOGA 2
The jubilant celebration when the final horn sounded on Tuesday’s win told the story. Memories of disappointments past were erased. The Knights will be playing in their first District One 4A title game, thanks to an electrifying win over the Pioneers in front of a partisan crowd at Souderton Area High School.
“This just means so much,” Jamie Stewart said. “I’ve been at the games, I’ve watched us basically choke two years in a row. Having tears on our home field is not a fun time.
“Being here today and winning this game in this fashion, it’s surreal, and it means so much to the whole team. We’re all so happy to be here, and we’re not taking anything for granted right now.”
“The past two years we’ve had early exits from districts, and it was crushing,” senior Carter Houlihan said. “But coming back from that and making it to district finals – the first time in North Penn’s history, it’s amazing. I’m on top of the world right now.”
Houlihan personified the Knights’ refuse-to-lose mentality of this postseason, scoring the equalizer after the Pioneers rallied from an early 1-0 hole to go on top 2-1 just over 12 minutes into the second half.
The Lafayette-bound senior – with a pair of defenders draped on him – tracked down a ball over the top from Jack Durkin and somehow managed to win the battle in the box, finding the back of the net with the equalizer with 14:20 remaining in regulation.
“Honestly, I tried to hit it the first time, but I whiffed,” Houlihan said. “I think one of their guys whiffed. There were a couple of whiffs in there. The ball just fell to my feet after that and I buried it.”
“He’s a pretty incredible player,” coach Paul Duddy said. “As we all know at this point.”
“Whenever anyone scores on our team, it’s always a huge uplift,” Ryan Stewart said. “We were kind of sitting back a little bit on our heels, but after that goal, we knew we could get it in. It gave us that confidence to go at them.”
Five minutes before scoring the equalizer, Houlihan delivered the kind of hustle play that won’t show up in a box score, racing the length of the field to the far corner where he swiped the ball from a Conestoga player intent on going to goal.
“We’ve put in too much time, we’ve put in too much effort to come out here and lose,” Houlihan said. “When we went down 2-1, I was kind of disappointed for the first couple of minutes, but we came back.
“I knew if they got a third goal, the outcome would have been a bit different. We had to prevent that.
“Carter’s been a spark for us all season,” Jamie Stewart said. “He’s been amazing for us. We couldn’t have done this without him. He’s really just fueled the team, got us all hyped up when we needed to be. Him putting that goal in really put us in the mentality that we were going to win this game.”
Just 64 seconds after Houlian scored the equalizer, Ryan Stewart turned a Josh Jones header into a goal that put the Knights on top 3-2 and turned out to be the game-winner.
“Josh won the header on the free kick, which is what we’ve been talking about – getting it to the back post, heading it across,” Ryan Stewart said. “It was a little deeper than we thought, but I saw that and I dropped off. I just knew what I had to do and took care of it.”
Earlier, the Knights went on top 1-0, thanks to their twin connection – Jamie Stewart headed Ryan Stewart’s corner kick into the net just over 11 minutes into the game.
“Actually, we talked about it before the game,” Jamie Stewart said. “I told him to play one near post, just a driven ball because they weren’t marking the far post, and I scored a few like that this season – just flicked it in.
“He hit a perfect ball, I got my head on it and put it in the net.”
It looked as though the Knights would take that 1-0 lead into halftime, but the Pioneers’ Elijah Brown had other ideas, connecting on a goal with 7.9 seconds remaining in the first half.
Conestoga took a 2-1 lead 12 minutes into the second half when Jacob Albertson found the back of the net.
“There was no doubt on this bench that we wouldn’t get the equalizer, and at least then we could see what happens after that, so it worked out for us tonight, for sure,” Duddy said. “I’m just very proud of the group.
“(Conestoga) kept pressure on us in front of that goal, and they’re known for that. They’ll run on corner kicks and, of course, their big throw-ins and just get a number of guys in there. They’re good at it. They’re a very quick team, and they played very well, very smart, so it’s a credit to this group of guys that they still managed to pull it out.”
Extra shots: With the Knights trailing 2-1 in the second half, keeper Sawyer Meade delivered a key play, stonewalling a Conestoga breakaway to keep it a one-goal game. “Another momentum shift was Sawyer’s save on the one breakaway,” Houlihan said. “It was a tremendous save. I think the momentum from that save carried into our attack. We got in our heads that we needed to come out and win this game, and I think it showed on the field.”…Tuesday’s district semifinal win, according to Ryan Stewart, wasn’t just for this year’s squad. “Last year was probably the closest team I’ve ever had – we were all such good friends,” he said. “Every day I come out and I do it for those boys who didn’t get this experience, especially Aidan Jerome. He was my best friend last year.”…North Penn will take on third-seeded Boyertown in Saturday’s District One 4A title game at Spring-Ford at 6 p.m. Boyertown notched a 1-0 overtime win over second-seeded Lower Merion in Tuesday’s other semifinal.
Conestoga 1-1 2
North Penn 1-2 3
Playbacks
#23 CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 2, #11 NESHAMINY 1 (OT)
Grinding it out.
Listening to coach Stefan Szygiel tell it, that’s exactly what his 23rd-seeded West squad has been doing during its remarkable playoff run, and that’s why they’re one of just six Class 4A teams still alive. One win separates the never-say-die Bucks from a berth in the state tournament.
“This team this year – they continue to impress me, and it’s been a lot of fun to watch this team evolve together this season,” Szygiel said. “It was never going to be an easy situation. No one really knows what goes on except us – just like any program. The players and the coaches are the only ones really in the know.
“I love this team. You think they’re down and out, and they’re like,’ No, we’re going to keep fighting and then after that we’re going to keep fighting some more.’ I hope that carries us one more game because I’d love to see them get that result on Friday. I’d love to see us move on. Again, it’s going to be an absolute grind.”
Nothing came easily in Tuesday’s playback game. The Redskins got on the scoreboard midway through the first half.
“It was probably a little against the flow of the play,” Neshaminy coach Tom Foley said. “We got a corner kick. Cole Jackson knocked it across, and it kind of hopped out to Gavin Rowan at the top of the 18, and he clipped it off the bottom of the crossbar and in.”
“It was one of those games where set pieces were paramount for both sides,” Szygiel said. “Halfway through the first half they were able to get one. It was on a set piece, a second-chance ball. Their kid hit a great shot. They’re quite good, and we knew that coming in.
“In the first half, we maybe had one or two decent chances, but I do think in the second half we kind of dug in and said, ‘Hey look, we’ve been here before. We certainly have a lot of practice being down 1-0. Let’s stick to the game plan and keep grinding,’ all the usual things you say to high school kids. We were able to pull ourselves back in 1-1.”
With 15 minutes remaining, Alan Zlotin turned an Ian Munoz pass into the equalizer.
“Ian Munoz was able to play a ball from about midfield and was able to get it behind their back line,” Szygiel said. “It bounced and Alan Zlotin and the keeper – it was a 50-50 situation, and Alan went in with total bravery, headed the ball, the keeper collided with him. Luckily Alan got to it first.
“It was a clean play on both sides. That’s a veteran play by a veteran forward. He’s been in that situation before, and he knows he’s going to get hit, and he just doesn’t care. He says, ‘I’m getting to this ball, I don’t care.’ Love to see that from him.”
The Bucks, according to Foley, may have had the advantage in play in the second half.
“In the second half, we were defending pretty well,” Foley said. “In the flow of the game, they were out-hustling us a bit.
“A sequence that led to their goal – the West kid got a yellow, and one of our kids didn’t use his head, kind of pushed back and got himself a yellow. In that time they come off for five minutes, they got a goal. A ball kind of split the defenders in the back and was bouncing. Our keeper got caught in non-man’s land, and they headed it over his head.”
Trailing by one, the Redskins turned up the pressure, and according to Foley, West keeper Ryan Van Pelt (six saves) delivered a stop that saved the game for the Bucks.
“He made an absolutely unbelievable play with about three minutes to go,” Foley said. “It was ticketed to go in the net, and he just got his fingertips on it, knocked it wide. There was a guy even there if it wasn’t going in just to bounce off their chest – it would have gone in, and he made this incredible save.”
The Bucks won it early in overtime when Jimi Leder scored, thanks once again to a Munoz assist.
“Ian Munoz was able to put a ball back in probably from about 30 out,” Szygiel said. “He put it in that danger area between the last recovering defender and the goalkeeper. The goalkeeper is coming out, Jimi was able to slip through, and he just got a toe on it and was able to put it away.”
“All in all, it was one of those games where the better team won tonight in overtime,” Foley said. “We just didn’t have our best effort.
“As well as we played on Saturday (in a 3-1 loss to Boyertown) and didn’t get the result, we were a little flat from the jump, and we had some spurts where we generated some opportunities and had some energy, but overall, it was probably not our best effort of the year.”
The Redskins’ coach lauded the play of Rowan.
“Gavin Rowan was a man possessed tonight,” Foley said. “He did a lot of good things for us, but we just didn’t have the energy we needed to compete with West. They’re a high energy team, and we didn’t match it tonight. That’s what did us in.”
The Bucks continue to revel in their role as underdogs.
“I was happy to see that we kept our foot on the gas,” Szygiel said. “We kept knocking on the door, we hung in there, and that’s what we’ve been doing – we just try and hang in there, keep it tight and stay within a goal.
“If we keep it within a goal, we feel like we have a shot to do anything. I think we came out of halftime and played the whole second half and the first overtime with a lot of energy. I saw a lot of desire. They wanted to win. If it would have gone the other direction and we wouldn’t have come out with a result, I do think they would have left it all out there. That’s all we ask them to do, especially in an elimination game. If you’re not going to leave everything out there, I don’t know why we’re going to do this.”
The Bucks’ coach tipped his hat to the Redskins.
“Neshaminy is a storied program,” Szygiel said. “I love what Tom is doing with them. This particular team returns a lot of guys next year, and they gained a lot of experience this year.
“I respect all the programs obviously, but I respect a lot what they were able to do this year.”
Central Bucks West (10-7-5, 5-4-3 SOL) will travel to fourth-seeded Unionville for Friday’s fifth place game. The winner earns a state berth.
“It’s the third year in a row that we’re playing in November,” Szygiel said. “We don’t want to just play on the first day of November. We want to play well into November.
“They don’t want it to end – none of us do. I genuinely think that absolutely everything left in this team’s tank is going to be put into Friday.”
Neshaminy (8-4 SOL) closed out its season with a 14-8 record.
“The last eight games we played very, very well,” Foley said. “We bought into the team concept of playing defense together. We did really, really well.
“A couple of the games we deserved better results. Saturday (in the loss to Boyertown) we deserved a better result. Against Bensalem, we had most of the play and we dropped one. Overall, I’m thrilled to death. The kids bought into it. They really dedicated themselves to the team concept. It was a great season. Any time you can win 14 games and play four games in the postseason, that’s a pretty solid season.
“I was telling my son – there are 43 teams that wish they were playing tonight, win or lose. At least we had an opportunity. Overall, it was a fantastic season. Our seniors, particularly Alex Daeche, who was the anchor of our defense – I felt really bad for them, but they have nothing to be ashamed of. We had a great, great season. We’re losing one starter and five all together. We have some work to do. We’ll sit down with them and tell them what to do in the offseason, but if these kids get stronger, the sky’s the limit next year.”
Central Bucks West 0-1-1 2
Neshaminy 1-0-0 1
#4 UNIONVILLE 2, #9 ABINGTON 1
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