CB East clinched the fifth and final state tournament berth with its win over Spring-Ford.
District 1 4A fifth place game
#2 CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 3, #4 SPRING-FORD 0
The Patriots took care of business in Friday’s high stakes playback game, earning the fifth and final berth in the state tournament with a shutout win over the visiting Rams.
Kiera Sleicher’s goal late in the first half was all the Patriots would need in the win-and-move-on or lose-and-go-home contest, but they added a pair of second half goals – one each from Taylor Roumy and Mia Forney.
Scoring summary
First half
Kiera Sleicher (CBE) 41st minute
Second half
Taylor Roumy (CBE) 51st minute
Mia Forney (CBE) 74th minute
Central Bucks East coach Jake Nesteruk:
The Goals:
–“Kiera jumped a ball in midfield, took her space forward and just clocked a great ball that sailed top left corner past their keeper. K has just got such a knack for big goals when we really need them, and she was so deserving for a moment like that to get us started.
–“Our second started with a great early ball in behind from defender Addie Langlois down the left flank. Taylor Roumy caught up to it right at the top of the 18 and held the ball up waiting for numbers in the box. She took on her defender and clipped a great ball in behind their backline from wide that took a deflection off their center back and went in.
–“The final came off of some great effort plays in the midfield from Mackenzie Peters and Kiera Sleicher to win the ball in the air and progress it forward. Kiera’s header was a flick on into Mia’s feet who took it in stride, beat her first defender, cut across her second and ripped one past the keeper.”
The game: “Could not be prouder of our group today for grinding out this result. Going into this one, we felt confident we could create some good scoring opportunities and spend good time on the ball, but credit to Spring Ford for giving us fits in the first half, and the wind was a real factor for both teams and kind of forced us out of our typical way we operate. I thought the first 15 or so we had the better of the play, especially down Taylor’s side, but just couldn’t really create anything of substance. Then I’d say Spring-Ford took it to us for a bit, but credit to our group for staying compact and organized and never really giving anything of danger away. With under 10 left, Kiera read a ball in midfield and just gave us one of those moments she’s given us so consistently over the past three years… a reason she wears the captain’s armband.
“I thought in the second half, we grew into the game and dealt with the wind better and thought while we didn’t connect a ton, won the territorial battle. Eventually, you spend enough time in the attacking half, kids like Taylor and Mia are bound to go and get one and thankfully they did just that.”
Props: “I thought Cece Hayes was just excellent today and same goes for Skylar Lipp out of the back, but down the stretch you don’t win this game without great games across all lines.”
State bound fifth year in a row: “All in all, this is a massive deal to us to get back to states, and this group is incredibly deserving of it. Every team deals with injuries, but we’ve lost some key kids during the year, and truthfully, it’s really the first time we’ve had that happen. But we’ve seen our way through it all, dealt with adversity, made the adjustments, and keep finding ways to get results. You know, we’d love to be back in a district final, we’d love to have won our conference, but at the end of the day, our goal is always to get back to the state tournament and do what we can to make a run at it. We talk a lot about program standards The fact that this group has extended this program’s streak beyond a class cycle, our fifth straight State Tournament berth in five years is a big, big deal, and it’s all on the kids wearing the jersey and wanting to live up to what’s been done before and hopefully more now. All this senior class has known is making the tournament, and it’s the leadership of our upperclassmen, our captains, and sparks of energy and desire from our underclassmen that’ve got us back, and we’re really not interested in how we got there, but just happy we get the opportunity to extend our season and play another game…and go from there.”
Up next: Central Bucks East will enter the PIAA 4A State Tournament as the fifth seed from District 1 and will play the winner of the District 3 championship game pitting #4 Mechanicsburg against #2 Manheim Township.
Spring-Ford 0-0 0
Central Bucks East 1-2 3
District 1 4A third place game
#5 LOWER MERION 1, #7 CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 1(PKs)
One hundred minutes could not determine a winner, and so, the game went to penalty kicks where the Aces earned the hard-fought win.
Neither team scored in the first half. Charlotte Manley finished a Tessa Hughes corner to put the Titans on top 1-0.
“(Lower Merion) tied it up with a shot from outside that took an unfortunate bounce,” CB South coach Dana Cole said.
Up next: Central Bucks South will face the District 2 or District 4 champion in Tuesday’s opening round of the PIAA 4A Tournament.
Central Bucks South 0-1-0-0 1
Lower Merion 0-1-0-0 1
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