Eight SOL boys’ soccer teams were winners in Tuesday’s opening round of the District One 4A Tournament. CB East/CB West photos provided courtesy of Tracy Valko. Check back for a gallery of photos. All SOS photo galleries for BOYS’ SOCCER can be viewed by clicking HERE.
PIAA District One Class 4A – First Round
#6 Upper Dublin 4, #27 North Penn 1
An early North Penn goal was a sign that a big first-round upset could be in the cards, but Upper Dublin answered six minutes later and reeled off four straight goals to pull away for the home playoff victory on Tuesday.
“The game started off very frantic and crazy, and we started off a little flat,” said Flying Cardinals coach Noah Johnson. “We tend to freak ourselves out at times, and what I mean by that is we overthink things in the first 5, 10 minutes of a game. It’s not something that happens all the time, but every once in a while, we have those moments where we freak ourselves out, and we don’t just get comfortable and relax.”
In the 11th minute, the Knights got on the board first, as Brian Scott headed one in, off the assist from Nate Kim.
Six minutes later, however, UD’s Tommy Clayton tied it up, assisted by Elias Abebe.
“After North Penn scored, everyone looked at me, and they knew,” Johnson said. “They just put their heads up. That’s that moment, no reason to yell, we’ll fix it. I knew from that moment – we’re good, we’re fine. We know what our strengths are, we know what our weaknesses are.
“After we settled down, we started to really, really dominate the game. Just finding simple little passes, simple little adjustments. We made one little adjustment, and off that adjustment, immediately, that’s where that goal from Tommy and Elias came from.”
Later in the half, Campbell Heckler made it 2-1 off the assist from Clayton.
With 25:28 left in the game, Zach Gallagher scored from Reilly McLaughlin.
“Zach Gallagher scored off a free kick that Nick Fiore put in,” Johnson said. “Reilly McLaughlin headed it back across the goal, and Zach, who just got subbed on, scored. That was his first touch of the game (and he) put the ball in the back of the net. What a start.”
Later, McLaughlin scored with an assist from Fiore to round out the scoring.
All in all, it took some time, but once the Cardinals got started, they looked very much like a confident team.
“At times, you’re going to make mistakes,” Johnson said. “It’s going to happen, and we know that. We’re going to make a mistake, but once we make that mistake, it’s game on. You have to ball out. Seeing my boys mature a little bit and knowing that when they make mistakes, they’re not yelling at each other or putting their heads down and thinking it’s over. For us, it’s definitely staying composed, relaxing and just enjoying the game.”
The Cardinals are playing with a purpose in the postseason.
“For us, it’s more than a championship on the line,” Johnson said. “For us, this is our boys’ last year. We have 16 boys that for three years now haven’t gotten a chance to win it. They’re really hungry and they really want it. We’ve got some juniors that really want these seniors to get it, so everybody is really chipping in to make sure that our seniors go out with a bang.
“Like I said at the beginning of the year, it’s more than just a championship. We’re playing for our school. It’s not about us, it’s not individualized. We know that we’re going to make mistakes, but as long as we keep fighting and we keep fighting hard, and as long as the fans keep cheering and supporting us, our guys will keep grinding it out and doing the best that we can.”
Upper Dublin (15-2-2) will host #11 Pennridge in the second round on Wednesday. North Penn finishes its season at 7-10-2.
North Penn 1 0 – 1
Upper Dublin 2 2 – 4
#26 Council Rock South 3, #7 West Chester Rustin 1
Reid Vandermark scored two goals, including the clincher late in the game as the Golden Hawks went on the road and pulled off the first-round upset, sending the tournament’s seventh-seeded team home for the season.
“Scoring that third goal before (Rustin) even finished celebrating (its goal to make it 2-1), was the perfect response,” said CR South coach Alan Nicholl. “We just didn’t give them a chance to get back into the game. We worked extremely hard and were exceedingly focused all across the pitch. Rustin just couldn’t match our energy, and that was the difference.”
Vandermark’s first goal, from Frankie Rafferty, put the Hawks up 1-0 in the first half, and then in the 60th minute, Everett Kurtz knocked home a header off the cross from Colin Conway.
“We were dominant and looked dangerous, and if I’m being honest, we should have been up more,” Nicholl said. “Rustin scored with 15 minutes left off a clearance that ended up back in behind us. We were late clearing our lines, and the kid slotted it behind my goalkeeper.”
Eleven seconds later, Vandermark scored his second goal to seal the Golden Knights’ fate.
“We saw the game out really well,” Nicholl said.
The Golden Hawks’ coach also credited defenders George O’Brien, Andrew Lindros, Farid Ganiyev, Alex Bloom, and Garrett Cohen, as well as goalkeeper Evan Zawodniak,
“Evan fielded a lot of set pieces into our box,” Nicholl said. “It was the only time Rustin looked dangerous and we looked very confident addressing those big balls.”
With the win, CR South (10-7-1) moves on to Thursday’s second round against #10 Spring-Ford, which won in penalty kicks against Neshaminy on Tuesday.
CR South 1 2 – 3
West Chester Rustin 0 1 -1
#8 Central Bucks South 2, #25 Boyertown 0
Brian Schmidt broke a scoreless tie at the 15-minute mark of the second half, and CB South was on its way, blanking visiting Boyertown to advance on to Thursday’s second round.
“We came out very strong the first 10, 15 minutes,” said Titans coach Kyle Pettican. “We had a bunch of chances but couldn’t put it away. From the 15-30-minute mark, it became a little more even and the ball found itself in the air more. We calmed it down for the last 10.
“We broke the scoring at the 15-minute mark in the second half, with Brian Schmidt crashing a scramble in the goal.”
Boyertown pushed to get the tying goal, but the Titans’ defense held strong. Colin O’Hara then put the game away with three minutes remaining, beating the keeper on a 1v1.
“I give a lot of credit to Boyertown,” Pettican said. “They defended with everything and kept us away a decent amount of times.”
With the win, CB South (13-4-2) will host #9 Downingtown West on Thursday (time TBA). The Whippets beat Plymouth Whitemarsh 3-1 on Tuesday.
Boyertown 0 0 – 0
CB South 0 2 – 2
#11 Pennridge 1, #22 Wissahickon 0
Jared Hess scored a second-half goal, and Pennridge shook off a tough final week of the season with a shutout win over Wissahickon on Tuesday at Helman Field.
“This would have been really rough to have our season end, but it looks like it’s going to be our last time potentially to play at Pennridge,” said Rams coach Pete Valimont. “It’s just a matter of can we refocus, go on the road and play a really good Upper Dublin team (in the second round on Thursday). I think and believe we will. I think we’re battle tested enough between our conference and non-conference crossover games that we should be ready to go.
“It was a great night for us. Family and everybody was there. The boys got to be in the locker room and experience it one last time. Fingers crossed that we can keep it going.”
Tuesday’s opening round win wasn’t easy by any stretch, as Wissahickon came to play.
“It was pretty even throughout,” Valimont said. “The first half was pretty evenly played in the sense that they had a couple of chances on restarts from fouls early on. We had not too much threatening stuff in the first half really, just getting our feet underneath us and just letting the play come to us instead of chasing it.
“(In the second half), it opened up just a little bit. We had probably the better chances. One they saved right off the line. We had another one, a tough call when a guy was falling before he got fouled, and we thought it might be a PK, but we had to play on with it.”
The game-winner came with 30 minutes, 18 seconds remaining in regulation.
“Shane Velez put a ball through from just in front of our 18 all the way through to Jared Hess on the wing, and he was able to just hit a rifle of a shot in the back of the net to make it 1-0,” Valimont said. “Fortunately for us, we were able to weather the storm. It started to rain a little bit the last 5, 10 minutes which didn’t help, so the ball was skipping a lot more.
“They had a couple of close ones at the end, but as CJ Dimmick has done all year, CJ was fantastic. They had a couple of really point blank shots. Balls were skipping with this tough weather. He was there and he did what he was supposed to do, and we’re moving on to the next round.”
Valimont credited the strong play of his defense..
“Guys in our back -Tommy McKinney was fantastic, hitting balls over the place and clearing them for us,” the Rams’ coach said. “Andrew Parlee, Roman Arcade, Jhoa Hernandez all worked their butts off in tough conditions against a quality team.
“Coach Stuart Malcolm does a fantastic job. He’s been there for so long, and he’s got a great program. I know they got hot at the end of the season, so I knew it was going to be tough for us.
“Our middle – Pat Fannon, Luca Angello – those guys played really well tonight, and Jared Hess did what he needed to do. He found the back of the net. When he hits a ball like that, I don’t think anybody’s really saving it.”
Thursday, Rams (14-5) will play at #6 Upper Dublin, which beat North Penn in its first-round game 3-1. Wissahickon closed out its season with a 9-9-1 record (8-8-0 SOL).
Wissahickon 0 0 – 0
Pennridge 0 1 – 1
#21 Pennsbury 1, #12 Unionville 0 (OT)
The Falcons carried their red-hot play into the postseason with a solid 1-0 road overtime win over higher-seeded Unionville
“I thought we played really well, we just couldn’t finish,” said Pennsbury coach Tom Stoddart. “The same thing we had the other night in our game with Holy Ghost (a 2-0 nonleague loss Saturday). We really made some great opportunities and just couldn’t get it across, which is always scary, especially when you’re in an elimination-type setting.
“We had a lot of the play, but they had some dangerous players. Justin (Brown) made a couple of real good saves in the first half. Henrik (Boekamp) made a really nice save in the second half. Then, we just couldn’t get it across.”
After 80 minutes, the teams settled in for overtime, and it ended up being an exciting finish.
“We went into overtime, and overtime started pretty furiously,” Stoddart said. “About 30 seconds before we scored, Rocco (Ciaccia) made a move, got into the box and got pulled down. You could see the officials actually look at each other and just not want to call a penalty kick in that spot, but it was pretty clear.
“Which then, of course, led to us having that little bit of a letdown. Unionville came down the other way, and they found #10, Liam (Martin), who’s fantastic. He slotted their forward, their forward beat our goalie and basically had a wide open goal, but he just tried to be a little too perfect with it as he tapped it in, and Jake Ruepp was able to sweep in and clear it off the goal line and not only just clear it, but he was able to clear it with purpose, which sent us on a break.
“He cleared it right to Evan Soriano, Soriano took space and found Rocco (Ciaccia), Rocco took it all the way to the end line, clipped it back across and Josh Rodriguez, as he has done all year for us, came up with a big goal in a big spot.”
It was Rodriguez’s team-high 15th goal of the season.
“I thought everyone played well given the circumstances,” Stoddart said. “It was definitely a whole team victory. If we’re going to keep it going, we’ve got to get a little better at finishing and get in a good, focused practice tomorrow.
“I’m very proud of the boys, and they definitely deserved it.”
The Falcons’ coach lauded the efforts of numerous players.
“The back three – Andrew Prebola, Connor Labiak and Cooper Gray – were fantastic again,” Stoddart said. “We went with a rotation in the middle – Caleb (Mangiaracina), Lucas (Jorgenson), Diego (Murillo), Ryan Mathis and Bryan Sanchez, who has been our playmaker all year, and he made some plays.
“We just didn’t finish tonight, or it would have been a lot easier. They were just fantastic.”
With the road win, the Falcons (10-7-1) move on to the second round Thursday against the winner of #5 West Chester Henderson vs. #28 Methacton.
Pennsbury 0 0 1 – 1
Unionville 0 0 0 – 0
#13 Central Bucks East 1, #20 Central Bucks West 0
CB West won the first game between these two archrivals. CB East won the second game.
So, Tuesday’s first-round game was the grudge match and the Patriots emerged with the 1-0 win, as Brandon Epstein picked up the game-winner early in the second half.
“It was a good soccer war,” said CB East coach Josh Isaacsohn. “Clean, good sportsmanship and just major hats off to West. It was a battle through and through.
“Hats off and respect to coach Cooper (Moyer), coach Matt (Mannino) and the West squad. They played really hard. They were organized. It was just one of those nights where our better player had to step up and be who we know he is, and he did.”
At halftime, this was still a scoreless game.
“It was a pretty good first half,” Isaacsohn said. “I thought we had a bit better of play. I think we probably could have finished a few of our opportunities and it would have let us breathe a little easier.
“Three minutes into the second half, Brandon Epstein had just an absolute beauty – a 25 or 30-yard goal from the left side, and he hit it upper 90 right side, and we just saw it through.”
East’s defense was strong throughout the contest.
“Really, again our defense played well – Josh Daniels, Dylan Walker, Luke Christmas,” Isaacsohn said. “Brandon Epstein and Michael Montabana up top were just very, very high energy and actually played better defense than they have all year as forwards, which led to a lot of opportunities going forward.”
With the win, CB East (12-5-2) earns a second-round rematch at #4 Abington, which earned a first-round bye. East won a nonleague game against Abington 3-2 in the first game of the season on Aug. 26.
CB West 0 0 – 0
CB East 0 1 – 1
#10 Spring-Ford 0, #23 Neshaminy 0 (Spring-Ford wins 4-2 PKs)
Neshaminy’s remarkable second-half turnaround came to an end Tuesday at Spring-Ford, but the loss couldn’t dampen what the team accomplished in a season that once looked lost.
“I’m proud of the boys,” said coach Tom foley “We didn’t leave anything on the field. Even though Spring-Ford advances, it still goes in the books as a tie, so we finished the season 7-0-2, which is a great way to finish the season after our miserable start.
“We finished really, really strong after a really slow start when they could have easily packed it in. The kids have nothing to be ashamed of. We have a couple of seniors that we’re really going to miss, but we have a lot of youngsters coming back. It’s definitely a positive outlook for us.”
Neshaminy senior standout Joe Joe Maxwell left the game with an injury 30 seconds into the second half and never returned.
“We lost Joe Joe for the entire second half and overtime, and he’s our engine and our heart, and he’s our most dangerous offensive guy,” Foley said. “We sagged a little bit, but we kept it together.
“But we kind of lost our offensive thrust, and then Jonatan Lopez went out for about a 30-minute stint because he fell on his shoulder and the trainer was worried that he might have separated his shoulder, and he’s another major engine. He’s a kid you wind up, and he runs all over the field and sticks his nose into everything.
“Those two guys are really big pieces to us getting forward and having those two guys out for long periods of time just hurt us tremendously getting forward, so we just held on.”
Defensively, Neshaminy stood tall and held off Spring-Ford’s offensive attack.
“Evan Fitch, our goalkeeper, played an outstanding game,” Foley said. “He made three just unbelievable saves to keep us in it.
“Josh Anderson and Jack Sexton, our two center backs, were outstanding tonight as well and did a nice job. They target this big kid, #20 up top, and he kept him in check most of the time. Joe Weber played a real solid game in the back as well.
“The saying goes, ‘If you don’t get scored on, you’re not going to lose,’ but most games don’t go to PKs to decide who’s going to advance.”
Neshaminy’s season comes to an end with a 9-8-2 final record, a remarkable finish considering that it was once 2-8.
“We did well,” Foley said. “Keeping them off the scoreboard was an accomplishment because it was a struggle. We didn’t really have much of an offensive pop when Joe Joe (Maxwell) and then Jon (Lopez) goes off too. We didn’t get forward much.
“We held on and got to PKs. You never know with PKs. It’s a coin flip. We did well in practice, but tonight, for whatever reason, we didn’t have it.
“Spring-Ford is a nice team. They do some real methodical things that made life difficult, and they have a couple of really fast kids. There’s no shame not advancing against that group.
“I thought we gave it our best shot tonight. We just came up short. Luck wasn’t on our side with some injuries we suffered, but overall a positive season.”
Neshaminy 0 0 0 0 – 0
Spring-Ford 0 0 0 0 – 0
#15 Council Rock North 3, #18 Kennett 2 (OT)
The Indians looked as though they were well on their way to a 2-0 win, and with less than 10 minutes remaining in regulation, coach Joe Stackhouse instructed his bench players to stretch, fully intending to give them playing time.
It didn’t happen as Kennett rallied to knot the score with a pair of goals in the final seven minutes of regulation. The Blue Demons’ first goal appeared to be punched into the net, according to coach Joe Stackhouse.
“Then with four minutes left, they gave them a penalty kick,” the Indians’ coach said. “Our kid won the ball, went to spin and turn, and the kid took our guy down, and it was called on our kid. It was the momentum of the other kid that took our kid down, but it is what it is.”
Despite seeing their lead erased in short order, the Indians kept their composure and won it three minutes, 37 seconds into the first overtime on a header by Chase McCaffrey.
“I challenged the boys to go out in OT and execute and they responded,” said Stackhouse. “I told them right before we went out, ‘Listen, you guys need to tighten up and be more resilient.’
“All the way around, it was a pretty solid game. We probably possessed the ball two-thirds of the game. We let our foot off the pedal a little bit. We didn’t play as many kids as we normally do, and again, that was dictated by what happened.”
CR North led this one nearly from the start, as Ari Pollack scored 10 minutes in to send the Indians into halftime with a 1-0 lead. Ten minutes into the second half, Tanmay Ondkar connected on the second goal to give North the 2-0 lead. Hunter Klein had assists on both goals.
With the win, CR North (13-4-2) moves on to Thursday’s second round where it will play at #2 Conestoga, which drew a first-round bye.
Kennett 0 2 0 – 2
CR North 1 1 1 – 3
#17 Hatboro-Horsham 2, #16 Owen J Roberts 0
After a scoreless first half, this one was all Hatters as they went on the road and blanked Owen J. Roberts out of the Pioneer Athletic Conference to advance on to the second round on Thursday.
In the 45th minute, just five minutes into the second half, Jake Freedman got H-H on the scoreboard.
“We talked at halftime about finishing our opportunities,” said coach Kyle McGrath. “We were just a little bit off in the first half, not capitalizing on some chances.
“We started the second half very well on the front foot, knocked the ball around very good, kept possession of the ball, and we were able to have a nice sequence in the corner where Jake played the ball to Anthony (Pumilia) on a little give-and-go and then he gave it back to him on a cross, and Jake was able to finish it off far post.”
In the 67th minute, Isaac Kakiko made it 2-0 off the assist from Firdavs Mamadaliyev.
“The second goal was similar to the first,” McGrath said. “We played the ball into Firdavs, and he was able to beat a guy and played a ball across the box to Isaac Kakiko, who volleyed it home, to put us up 2-0 with 13 minutes left, so it gave us a bit of breathing room.
“From there, we just defended, cleared everything out and were able to see the result through the end.”
A lot of players stepped up big for H-H.
“Obviously, it’s the district playoffs so you don’t make a ton of substitutions, but my center back pairing of Jacob Kim and Matt Wingen both played very well,” McGrath said. “My outside backs had a handful with (Ethan) Williams who’s going to Delaware, but we did a good enough job against him.
“My center midfielders – Paul Guevara, Tony Kuhner and Jake Freedman – were all really good, and Jake was battling an injury a little bit. He persevered through it and led his team to victory tonight.”
With the win, the Hatters (13-6) will play Thursday at #1 seed Lower Merion in a game that will start at 1 p.m. since the field does not have lights, and it will be the first game of a twinbill with the girls’ soccer team.
H-H 0 2 – 2
OJR 0 0 – 0
#9 Downingtown West 3, #24 Plymouth Whitemarsh 1
Plymouth Whitemarsh faced a tall task in the opening round of the district playoffs, playing at powerhouse Downingtown West, and unfortunately for the Colonials, their season came to an end by a 3-1 final score.
Jared Rutman scored PW’s goal.
“It was a tight game throughout the entire 80 minutes,” said PW coach Rich Kessler “Both teams pressed for goals and worked hard to attack.
“I’m very proud of the effort the PW boys put in this evening. They really gave it their all and left it all out on the field. It’s not the way we envisioned the season ending, but the lads can keep their heads high after this evening’s effort.”
PW finishes the season with a 8-9-2 record.
PW 0 1 – 1
DW 1 2 – 3
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