Check out the recaps for SOL boys’ soccer teams in action. Abington/Quakertown photos provided courtesy of John Gleeson. Check back for a gallery of photos.
SOL Patriot Division
Neshaminy 6, Bensalem 0
Neshaminy went out and scored three goals in the first half and dominated from start to finish on the way to a convincing win that makes a strong case for a spot in the upcoming District One Class 4A playoffs.
According to the district power rankings, Neshaminy – now 9-5-4 and with a final SOL record of 8-4-4 – entered the day 28th, just outside of the 24-team field. The tournament seeds will officially be announced on Sunday.
“It was a good way to end,” said coach Tom Foley. “We finished the season 5-0-2 in our last seven. We struggled getting goals, and it’s probably going to be our undoing. We’ll watch the power rankings. We have maybe a glimmer of hope to get in if everything works to our favor. When you have to have five different things happen for you, you’ll get four and that fifth doesn’t happen. We’ll see. At least we won, and we can monitor what goes on this weekend.
“We know it’s a slim chance, but it was a good way to end the season, going unbeaten in the last seven. It’s a shame we couldn’t score some goals earlier this season because we certainly didn’t play like we weren’t a playoff team. It’s just taking care of business in the last third, and that was our bugaboo all year. We either hit the crossbar or post, missed a PK. It’s just a whole litany of things we didn’t get done. We’ll just hope and see what happens. Stranger things have happened, you never know.”
Neshaminy did a lot of things well Thursday.
Dan Lowman scored off a header on a free kick from AJ Rivera in the third minute of the game. Later in the half, Jonathan Lopez scored, assisted by Josh Anderson and AJ Rivera scored off a corner kick.
Neshaminy added three goals in the second half, by Wassem Jawadeh after a nice move at the 18, Tim Trapp on a breakaway from Ethan Roney and Andrew Shapprell (from Kaleb Raymond).
“Kaleb Raymond sent Andrew Shapprell down the right side,” Foley said about the final goal.”He’s our right back. He just kept dribbling and taking all the space they gave him. He got to about the 16-yard line and buried it. It was a real nice goal for him.
“Overall, it was a good day. We got everyone on the roster some time today. Logan Glidea and Casey Foley combined on the shutout. Logan did a nice job managing the box, and Casey managed the box well and had a couple of decent saves to preserve the shutout.”
Bensalem finished its season at 4-13-1 overall and 4-12 in SOL play.
Neshaminy 3 3 – 6
Bensalem 0 0 – 0
Pennsbury 3, Council Rock North 1
The Falcons scored early and played well to pick up the win, their second straight to wrap up SOL Patriot Division play.
“Everyone played well,” said coach Tom Stoddart. “I was just very pleased that the boys are keeping their heads in it and finishing strong despite a tough season. It’s excellent stuff.”
It didn’t take long for the Pennsbury offense to start clicking on Thursday.
“We scored in the first three minutes of the game,” Stoddart said. “Our forwards connected. Allen Ibric found Josh Rodriguez, and Josh slotted the ball in, so it was nice to get off to a quick start, something that we definitely haven’t done much of.
“Justin Brown held them off with a couple of nice saves in the first half, so we were 1-0 at half.”
The Falcons continued their strong play in the second half, going up 2-0 with a Ben Bostian goal.
“We switched up our goalies,” Stoddart said. “Henrik Boekamp did well to keep them off the board early, and we were able to get a 2-0 lead when Josh Rodriguez knocked a cross over to Ben Bostian, and Ben was able to finish the ball with the head, ripping it off the back post. It was nice to have a 2-0 lead.
“North benefited off of a restart and were able to get the ball back into the net pretty quickly after that and brought it back to a game.”
But Reese Jones scored Pennsbury’s third goal on a penalty kick later in the half to put the game away.
“Saad (Williams) got loose and got taken down in the box,” Stoddart said. “Reese Jones stepped up and finished the PK to give us our third goal, so it was really nice. It was only the second time we’ve scored more than two goals in a match, so it was good for us. It was a good match.”
Pennsbury (6-9-2, 6-9-1 SOL) has one more game, nonleague against Holy Ghost Prep Saturday night at Macclesfield Park in Lower Makefield. Council Rock North finished its season at 6-10-1 and 6-9-1 in the SOL.
Pennsbury 1 2 – 3
CR North 0 1 – 1
Council Rock South 9, Harry S. Truman 0
The Patriot Division champions put the finishing touchdown on a memorable regular season, honoring the team’s seniors with a no-doubt-about-it win.
“It was a really nice night where my seniors were honored for a great season and had a great celebration in front of the home crowd,” Rock South coach Alan Nicholl said.
Scoring goals for the Golden Hawks were Gavin Hagan, Stepan Kovalev, Lex Lenoir, Josh Nikolaevski, George O’Brien, Frankie Rafferty, Josh Rowlands and Paul Velter.
Kieran Barry and Evan Zawodniak combined for the shutout.
Council Rock South (12-5-1, 10-5-1 SOL) is 19th in the latest District One 4A power rankings. Harry S Truman (0-17, 0-16) will host MaST Community Charter School in a non-league game on Saturday.
SOL Colonial Division
North Penn 1, Central Bucks East 0
The Knights clinched at least a share of their sixth straight league championship with the hard-fought win at home over East on Thursday night. They can win the league title outright Saturday at home against Souderton.
“We’re thrilled to have a chance on Saturday to take it outright and hopefully get a bye in districts if we can do it,” said North Penn coach Chris DePeppe. “We talked about it before the game. It was years and years that we were second place in this conference to Central Bucks East. I had a lot of respect for them, they were great champions. We did finally get over that hump.
“We now realize how hard it is. Everybody is after you every year in this conference. I argue with people that I think it’s the toughest conference in possibly District One. It shows in what these teams do in districts and states that it’s a very competitive league. This year more than ever, there’s not much between the teams in this conference.”
Early in Thursday’s game, North Penn took a lead it would never surrender.
“We are fortunate tonight to have gotten a break very early,” DePeppe said. “Thirty seconds into the game, and I feel bad – their keeper (Casey Prajzner) played solid all night. He stoned us on two or three point-blank opportunities.
“Hunter Stites picked up a ball, took a touch, and it was an off-balance left foot volley that just had a very strange ball flight. I thought it was over the goal, a couple of the kids on the bench thought it was going to bounce. It was sort of doing a slow fade. I didn’t see the keeper’s initial position, but I can’t imagine he thought it was going in. It was a strangely flighted ball, and it got in. We were very fortunate it did because after that we didn’t do much.”
The win was the eighth shutout for North Penn and the back line of keeper Gabe Kemp and defenders Ryan Mindick, Brian Scott, Achilles Traintafyllos and Stiles.
But it didn’t come easy, as East played well and had its chances.
“We were not very sharp,” DePeppe said. “That often happens. We’ve seen that this year. We go down a man and play great. Tonight, we score in the first 30 seconds, and it’s hard to restart the engine.
“East played very well. I give them credit. They outplayed us in a lot of ways. We did have some chances but not very good finishes.
“They were organized as they always are. Josh (Isaacsohn) is a good coach. That program is solid. I’m happy obviously to get the win, but that was a good performance by them. They deserved better probably. It’s crazy that 30 seconds into the game (we scored), and with 30 seconds remaining in the game, they hit the post.”
North Penn (13-4, 12-3 SOL) sits at No. 9 in the district power rankings and can earn a first-round bye if it wins on Saturday and the power points push them up in the rankings.
CB East (10-5-3, 9-4-3 SOL) wrapped up its regular season. The Patriots are unofficially ranked No. 14 in the district rankings.
North Penn 1 0 – 1
CB East 0 0 – 0
Pennridge 2, Central Bucks South 1 (OT)
It was an emotional Senior Night win at Pennridge, which wrapped up its regular season being edged out for the Colonial Division title but is now off to the district playoffs where it should get a high seed for the 24-team tournament.
“At the end of the day, we finished the regular season 13 wins, two losses, three ties,” said Rams’ coach Pete Valimont. “Technically, if you break it down by the division statistics, we would be the division champs, two points ahead of North Penn, but due to the fact that we’re counting the crossover games, we’re going to be potentially ahead in the division but lose due to crossover.
“Fourteen years I’ve been doing this, they’ve never decided to do it this way. This year they did, and what do you know, we could have potentially been division champs. But at the end of the day, we’re happy with what we did. If you would have told me we’d go 13 wins – that’s the most wins I’ve had in my career in a season and that’s counting playoff games – so to have that in the regular season is a credit to my guys and how much they worked.
“Now we sit back and we wait. We’re on the scouting trail. We’ve done our due diligence. Now we’re going to rest. Fingers crossed we’ll get a bye, and we will absolutely be ready to go next Thursday hopefully.”
Pennridge jumped up 1-0 late in the first half, with a Jake Saville score.
“It was a great ball through, Jake was able to get by their last guy and he was actually able to hit it with his right, which was a fantastic strike from him,” Valimont said.
CB South tied it with about 15 minutes left in the second half on an AJ Peev goal.
In overtime, the Rams finished the game off.
“It was a great combination from Jared Hess from his middle position up the field to Jake Saville who was able to slot a ball to the back side,” Valimont said. “Our boy Aiden Castle was able to collect it and bury it for the overtime win. Just a fantastic combination and a great finish for Aiden. I know he’s been working so hard, and everywhere he goes he gets followed. He did a fantastic job in that moment.”
It was a fitting way to finish it, especially on a night when Pennridge honored its seniors –
Ryan Bogle, Nicky Williams, Jake Saville, Aiden Castle, Jeff Stritzl, Ryan Saville, Jared Aller, Dylan Najerian, Gabe Kerzman and Joe Curran.
“Our guys battled, all of our guys got in,” Valimont said. “I feel so bad for Jared Aller who got a bloody nose within 40 seconds, and it bled the entire game. He couldn’t get back in. He’s been a heck of a player coming off the bench and helping us out. Every senior was in, every senior contributed, they all did a fantastic job.”
Pennridge (13-2-3, 11-2-3 SOL) currently sits in the No. 7 position in the unofficial district power points and awaits official word on Sunday.
As for CB South (9-8-1, 7-8-1 SOL), it may be on the outside looking in on a playoff spot, at No. 25, unofficially, after Thursday’s games.
“Hats off to Joe (Coscia) and his CB South staff,” Valimont said. “This was a huge game for them, and unfortunately, I think this puts them out of the district playoffs. They’re a fantastic squad. AJ Peev, Sean Rieber and Logan Campbell, their center back, are absolute chores. I’m not upset that two of the three are graduating.
“CB South was really good. They do their off-sides press, and they caught us, I don’t know, 15 times. We’re doing our best. They’re just really good at it.”
Pennridge 1 0 1 – 2
CB South 0 1 0 – 1
Souderton 1, Central Bucks West 0
Twelve seniors played their first regular-season home game for Souderton and they ended it in style with the shutout win over CB West.
“They are all really high quality, class character kids,” said Indians coach Matt Benner of his seniors. “We were really happy that we could get them all in tonight. Everybody got some time on the field. It was a good sendoff for them. Hopefully, that’s not our last game in the stadium. We’ll see how the playoffs shake out. It would be neat to get another game in the stadium for them.”
Souderton seniors honored included Dillon Barberi, Tyler Bovell, Brandon Fornwall, Sean Healy, Owen Kearns, Mason Kostick, Park Kuman, Ben Lare, Aidan McClure, Joel Molina, Thomas Smith and Elijah Yoder.
“We really wanted this one,” Benner said. “It was Senior Night, a great crowd out, and we always have great games with CB West. We knew what we were getting into, we knew it was going to be a tight game, probably a one-goal game, and both teams were going to have limited chances. It was just a matter of who could put a ball in the net.”
Two of those seniors combined on the only goal of the game in the 35th minute.
“We were able to get a real good goal before halftime,” Benner said. “Thomas Smith played a really, really good service into the box, and the ball got knocked down. Brandon Fornwall, like he has done many times this year, popped up at the right place and put a really good finish on it, so we had some good momentum going into halftime.”
Souderton (10-4-3, 8-4-3 SOL) is currently No. 17 in the District One Class 4A power ranking and concludes its regular season Saturday at North Penn.
CB West wraps up its season with a 5-12-1 final record, 5-10-1 in the SOL
Central Bucks West 0 0 – 0
Souderton 1 0 – 1
SOL Freedom Division
Lower Moreland 1, William Tennent 0
After an emotional win Tuesday at home against Springfield, Lower Moreland still had one last piece of business to take care of in the Freedom Division and did so with a shutout win at Tennent Thursday afternoon.
“Our back line was solid today and after a big win Tuesday I was glad that we were able to secure another win,” said Lions coach Bob Barnhart. “I think our guys thought Tennent would just be going through the motions today, but they definitely came out to win and had us back on our heels a few times.”
The only goal of the game came off a corner kick, as Temur Temirov scored for the Lions.
“We were able to get a bunch of our bench guys in today which was nice,” Barnhart said. “Tennent is well organized and well coached. They had a lot of chances in the send half and a few that rang the posts.”
Barnhart also credited sophomore Aidan Linus in the midfield and his seniors playing their final regular season game.
For Lower Moreland (12-2-2, 12-2-2 SOL), it will next play in the eight-team District One Class 3A Tournament, which starts on Tuesday. The Lions are currently No. 2 in the most recent district power rankings and will find out their opponent on Sunday. Tennent concludes its season with a 7-9-2 record, 7-8-1 SOL.
Lower Moreland 1 0 – 1
Tennent 0 0 – 0
Upper Moreland 2, New Hope-Solebury 1
Propelled by a pair of Max Gerlach goals, the Golden Bears celebrated their team’s seven seniors – Logan Taylor, Declan Cummins, Liam Crawford, Michael Kane, Ryan Lawler, Michael Soroka and Alex Emmell – in a hard-fought win in a contest with district playoff implications.
“We needed to win, and I found out they needed to win to get in,” UM coach Justin Allegra said. “We came out ready to play. We had a couple of opportunities we didn’t connect on, and then it was back and forth.”
With 10 minutes remaining in the first half, Gerlach – who had a hat trick in the initial meeting between the two teams – put the Golden Bears on the scoreboard.
“Logan Holman takes a left-footed shot from about 20 yards out, it hits off the crossbar, and Max Gerlach comes in and heads it in and cleans it up for the 1-0 halftime lead,” Allegra said.
Gerlach’s second goal put the Golden Bears on top 2-0.
“It was a through ball in from about 40 yards out, and he just pretty much one-on-one found the back of the net,” Allegra said. “With about 10 minutes to go, we gave up an own goal, and it was 2-1. They just had an all-out press the last 10 minutes. We were just trying to fight them off. This was a huge win.”
The Golden Bears coach credited the strong play of seniors Declan Cummins and Liam Crawford.
Upper Moreland (9-6-3, 7-6-3 SOL) is eighth in the latest District One 3A power rankings. New Hope-Solebury Solebury (2-15, 2-13) will travel to Cheltenham on Friday.
New Hope-Solebury 0 1 – 1
Upper Moreland 1 1 – 2
SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP 4, CHELTENHAM 0
Riley Martin and Grant Williams each connected for a pair of goals in a contest that saw the Spartans open up a 2-0 halftime lead and double that in the second half. Jack Hasson and Peter Schmidt both contributed an assist.
Springfield Township (13-4-1, 11-4-1 SOL) is fourth in the latest District One 3A power rankings. Cheltenham closed out its season with a 2-14 record (1-14 SOL)
Springfield Township 2 2 – 4
Cheltenham 0 0 – 0
SOL Liberty Division
Plymouth Whitemarsh 4, Wissahickon 3
Both teams badly needed a win to keep their playoff hopes alive, and Plymouth Whitemarsh needed to rally from two goals down on Thursday but did so and likely punched its ticket into the District One Class 4A Tournament with the exciting win.
“It seems like we are in a playoff position for now after the win today,” said Colonials’ coach Rich Kessler. “It was a wild game.”
According to the most updated district power rankings, PW (10-7, 10-6 SOL) is at No. 23 for the 24-team tournament. It will find out its official fate when the seedings are announced on Sunday.
Trailing 2-0 at halftime, the Colonials scored four straight goals in the second half to take command of this one.
Zach House opened the PW scoring, followed by Mason Clatterbuck on a penalty kick. Clatterbuck cononected on his second goal to put his team in front for the first time at 3-2, and Brendan Corpus scored late on a rebound to up the lead to 4-2.
Wissahickon scored late to get it to 4-3 but could get no closer.
Wissahickon slipped to No. 31 and out of the field with the loss. The Trojans finished the season at 8-9-1 overall, 8-8 in the SOL.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 0 4 – 4
Wissahickon 2 1 – 3
Hatboro-Horsham 3, Upper Dublin 0
A Jack Elwell goal in the 25th minute got Hatboro-Horsham started and it went on to an impressive 3-0 win, likely cementing a first-round home playoff game for the upcoming District One Class 4A Tournament.
“Tonight we started the game well,” said Hatters coach Kyle McGrath. “We knew what was on the line for us in trying to get a home playoff game next week. Similar to Tuesday, we created good opportunities, half chances, but we weren’t finishing again.
“(On the first-half goal), Jack Elwell pressured their center back, turned him over and went in on goal. He was able to beat the goalkeeper on the ground with a finish on a breakaway.”
H-H added two second-half goals, in the 61st minute as Nathan Scavo finished off the cross from Jake Freedman, who nine minutes later scored himself assisted by Nick Katherine.
“Freedman scored a really nice goal in the 70th minute,” McGrath said. “Nick Katherine played him a ball. Jake had a defender on him, he created a little bit of space and shot a perfect curling ball into the far post to give us a 3-0 lead.”
The Hatters’ coach credited the efforts of several players.
“Freedman is one of our center midfielders who’s our engine, and he was all over the place tonight, which was good to see because he missed a few games last week because of illness, so he was really good tonight,” McGrath said. “(Freedman), Ryan Toporowski and Tommy Harmon – my three center midfielders – were active and got us into the attack.
“I can’t say enough about Jack Elwell. He’s a kid that doesn’t start for us, but he’s constantly finding the goal and creating opportunities for us. It was good for him to get another goal tonight.”
H-H wrapped up the regular season with a 12-6 overall record, 11-5 SOL. It currently sits at No. 13 in the unofficial District One Class 4A power rankings. The tournament gets underway on Tuesday. Upper Dublin finished its season at 8-10 overall and 8-8 SOL.
Hatboro-Horsham 1 2 – 3
Upper Dublin 0 0 – 0
Abington 6, Quakertown 0
Thiago Danielle is a game-changer.
The dangerous senior forward was not in the Ghosts’ starting lineup for Thursday night’s regular season finale but wasted little time before making a difference when he entered the contest.
“The first 10 minutes it was 0-0 – they were tough and frustrated the heck out of us,” coach Randy Garber said. “We couldn’t get behind their defense, and everything we shot, their goalkeeper saved.
“Thiago didn’t start – he had an ankle wrapped, and it was too tight. He went up to the trainer, and it took them 10 minutes before he came back down. We put him in the game the 10th or 12th minute, and in the next eight minutes, he had two goals.”
Assisting on the goals were Liam Hartman and Brady Hartman. The Ghosts took that 2-0 lead into halftime and added four goals in the second half – one each from Liam Hartman, Thiago Danielle – who completed his hat trick, Simeone Paek and Michael Siravo.
“The great part about it – we got 27 players in the game,” Garber said. “We had three different goal scorers, and everybody got to play.”
Abington (15-2-1, 13-2-1 SOL) is fourth in the latest District One 4A power rankings. Quakertown closed out its season with a 2-16 record overall (1-15 SOL), but listening to Garber tell it, the Panthers’ fortunes should change in the not-too-distant future.
“Quakertown played tough, they didn’t give up, and at some point, they’re going to be good because they have two very good coaches that know what they’re doing, and it’s just a matter of time,” the Ghosts’ coach said.
Quakertown 0 0 – 0
Abington 2 4 – 6
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