Abington earned the program’s first ever trip to the PIAA 4A State Tournament semifinal. Andrew Robinson recaps all the action in Saturday’s quarterfinal win.
PIAA 4A quarterfinal
#1-2 Abington 2, #7-1 Fox Chapel 0
By most metrics, Trojans Stadium at Chambersburg Area High School is a great venue.
For Abington, it’s been anything but accommodating in the state soccer playoffs and especially in the second round. Prior to Saturday’s PIAA 4A quarterfinal against Fox Chapel, the Ghosts last two trips to Chambersburg had marked the end of their season in agonizing fashion.
Saturday, Abington not only broke its Chambersburg hex, but a long-running playoff jinx as the program rode a pair of second half goals to its first-ever PIAA semifinal appearance.
All it took was a wonderful strike, a guy who wasn’t even on the bus ride out scoring some insurance and a robust defensive effort to do it.
“It’s the first time we’ve been in the final four of states, so that’s pretty exciting and the boys played well,” Ghosts coach Randy Garber said. “It was two very evenly matched teams. We drew a foul and with one swing of the foot, it changed the whole complexion of the game.”
Abington’s last three trips to states, which came in 2018, 2021 and 2023, all stopped in the quarterfinals. In 2018 and 2023, the Ghosts lost to a pair of WPIAL squads – Seneca Valley and Norwin respectively – in a 1-0 setback and a grueling PK shootout loss.
This year’s Ghosts knew all about the program’s second-round jinx and that their coach, had never been past the quarterfinals in his illustrious 30-plus year career.
“It’s amazing, we know how great of a coach he is, he’s been with the program for so long,” goalkeeper George Hooven said. “He absolutely deserved this. It was all of our motivation coming in.”
Fox Chapel, the District 7 champion, proved a formidable foe that had quite a few similarities to the Ghosts including technical midfielders, a long throw-in, skilled forwards and a stout defense. The first 40 minutes reflected that, with neither team making much headway in terms of threatening to put a ball in the back of the net.
The match changed with 36 minutes left. The Foxes used one of their long throws deep in Abington’s end to put a dangerous ball into the box that Hooven went up to grab.
While Hooven got to it first and had it in his hands, the ball was dislodged by an attacker, leading to Fox Chapel planting the ball in the back of the net and celebrating. However, the referees conferred behind them and ruled Hooven was interfered with, thus wiping the goal away and keeping it 0-0.
“I caught it and the guy just ran through me, and you just can’t do that so that’s what caused me to drop it,” Hooven said. “It was interference but it’s still a huge relief, you’re going to be down 1-0 but a few minutes later Jaza scores the first goal so that changed the game right there.”
Abington started getting more going forward after the reversed goal, midfielders Owen Gesing and Dennis Kozyak looking to play the ball out wide and the Ghosts trying to use the length of the field to drive at the Fox Chapel back line. It’s an area where Jaza Vasquez excels and the winger used his technical skills to draw a foul at the top of the box midway through the second half.
While the Ghosts lined up three over the ball, there was zero question on their end who was going to take the shot. After two teammates stepped over the ball, Vasquez drove his right foot into the service and hit a bullet to the top shelf to give the Ghosts the lead.
“I was ready for it, I was waiting for a free kick to come,” Vasquez said. “My teammates and I, we’ve been fighting over it in practice, but I got fouled, so I took it. I saw the keeper was kind of on the left so I just shot it on the right.”
All five of Abington’s goals in the state tournament thus far have come off restarts of some kind, which isn’t a surprise to anyone who has followed the Ghosts this fall.
“We score a lot of our goals on restarts,” Garber said. “Jaza hit a perfect ball and beat the goalkeeper. I think it went around the wall and he couldn’t have thrown it in there any better.”
Christian Hinkle didn’t make the bus to Chambersburg but for good reason. The forward, who casts quite a presence with his height and strong frame, started an extra-long Saturday taking the SATs, then caught a ride with his parents out to Chambersburg.
Hinkle arrived early in the first half, quickly changed into his uniform and with Abington needing some help off the bench, was called in. Given that he’s been dealing with an injury of his own recently, Hinkle wasn’t even sure if he’d play then ended up giving the Ghosts a crucial insurance goal.
“It was great, at first I wasn’t even sure if I was going to come to the game,” Hinkle said. “Having the SAT, it was a really tough decision and I’ve been struggling with injury a little bit but ended up making the drive up and it felt great to get in and score.”
Just 30 seconds after Vasquez had brilliantly struck the Ghosts to a lead, they drew another foul, this one on the left flank and a bit further out than the previous. Center back Kyle Kretchsman lofted a free kick into the box that pinged off a Fox Chapel defender’s head and into the air.
In other words, right where Hinkle wanted it to be.
“That’s something our coaches have nailed in our heads, the second ball,” Hinkle said. “I saw it go off the defender’s head, it was up in the air, so I just went up and won it. We always practice our set pieces, but our coaches have really got it in our head to win the second ball.”
Hooven made five saves in the match and the keeper helped take away some potential problems with his confident but aggressive play off his line. The co-captain showed no fear going out to get the ball even with some Foxes foraging around him and he was solid in distribution, something he pressed his defenders they could do as well.
“We figured because we were playing on this bigger field, we didn’t need to boot it up every time,” Hooven said. “If we booted it, it was a 50/50 ball but with the guys we have on our defense, we could just take it. We said take your time, you probably have a touch, and you can look up and just play the ball to the midfield.”
As he broke down the team huddle, Garber made sure to slip in there would be a Monday practice. He didn’t get one bit of pushback or a single groan from any of his players.
They knew what it meant.
“We’re motivated,” Vasquez said. “We play as a team, we’re really like a family and we play together.”
“I’m excited for the boys,” Garber said. “We only have eight seniors, the rest are underclassmen so they have a good future ahead of them but we told them, it’s so difficult to get to this point, don’t take it for granted and let’s win it this year and that’s exactly what we’re trying to do.”
Scoring Summary
1st half
No Scoring
2nd Half
A – Jaza Vasquez 20:53
A – Christian Hinkle 20:32
Abington coach Randy Garber on the team’s state run so far: “They were disappointed we gave the district away, there’s no doubt about it but these guys showed they can bounce back. Afterwards, we said there’s four games left and let’s see what we can do. We said let’s take one at a time and that’s what we’re doing.”
–Hinkle’s impact: “He wasn’t sure if he was even going to make it and we needed him. Christian is a big part of the team, he showed up a little late but we put him in and he’s a big, strong, athletic kid who plays three sports, so he got in there, got in the right spot and used that big body to score a header.”
–Shutout effort: “George did a heck of a job and the entire defense did a nice job. We have at least 15 shutouts throughout the year and our defense is just solid, that back four is good and George controlled and marshalled the box well and that’s the difference.”
Abington forward Christian Hinkle on the second half: “It felt like we dominated the first half and we all believe in ourselves, believe in our teamwork and believe that we were the better team. That first half was behind us, it was 0-0 so we wanted to go out with a new energy in the second half.”
Abington winger Jaza Vasquez on generating attack: “We were trying to find the width, this field you had to stay wide a little bit because it’s long but it’s not that wide so the ball was staying in the middle and not going outside too much. So, we started to look for that.”
Up next: Abington will face Seneca Valley, a 1-0 winner over Warwick, in Tuesday’s semifinal round.
ABINGTON 0 2 – 2
FOX CHAPEL 0 0 – 0
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