By Alex Frazier
A stunning season – Congratulations are certainly in order for a Central Bucks East team that far surpassed pre-season expectations.
On the other hand, it’s almost becoming expected that the Patriots will be in the mix come the post-season.
In the last four years, for example, District One has qualified 16 teams for states. Of those 16 spots, just three teams account for 10 of them, leaving six teams that have qualified just once. Downingtown West and Lower Merion have qualified three years; only Central Bucks East has qualified all four years.
The Patriots have made a state playoff appearance a total of seven times in school history, but until this year have never made it to the finals.
“It’s a difficult thing to do,” said coach Mike Gorni. “You have to be good and peak at the right time. We’ve had some teams over the years that have had higher level players, but what we were this year was a really good, hard-working team.
“We have a lot of really good players. You don’t have to have the pedigree of having a national player. We had a bunch of kids that can compete with those kids. They just didn’t necessarily get the recognition or status that some other players have had.”
So what’s the secret?
For Gorni, there is no secret, just a cliché.
“We come out and play every game; we don’t skip a game,” he said. “We don’t put out the state title as our goal. We want to go game by game. Our first thing is to win the league title or finish as high as we can so we can get to playoffs. And from there to the district final four to get to states. And then anything can happen. We play each game and take every opponent seriously and don’t get ahead of ourselves.”
“Coming into this season, we lost almost our whole starting lineup,” said senior defender and captain Michael Gleason. “It was a whole new look for the team. It was hard to judge how we would do.”
As the Patriots racked up the wins, they took on the confidence that eventually propelled them to the state finals.
“Overall we played well together,” said senior captain and defender Kris Davis. “We’re a tight-knit group. It wasn’t just one individual.”
Although Gorni, who has been coaching at East for 16 years, is reluctant to take credit for the success of the program, his players aren’t reluctant to lavish praise in his direction.
“He deserves a ton of credit,” said Gleason. “He has been the one constant among the four teams that have gone to the state quarterfinals. He’s doing all the right things.”
“From preseason on, he always has us well prepared,” said Davis. “We listen to what he says. We buy into what he says. He’s an unbelievable man and an unbelievable coach. I’m unbelievably proud to have played for him the past couple of years.”
The Patriots were very successful in one-goal games this year, and a very stingy defense has made a big difference.
Defense, in fact, is a huge emphasis at East.
“He (Gorni) put a lot of captains in the back last year and a lot of captains in the back this year, so it’s definitely clear he puts an emphasis on defense,” said Gleason. “We try to lock it out of the back and the scoring will come.”
In the final against Hempfield, the defense kept the Black Knights off the board, and when Kenny Haug scored with 5:15 left in the game, the result seemed inevitable.
“We locked people out in 1-0 games, but we’ve come back a number of times this year in critical situations even if we’ve been up 1-0 and a team has come back to tie us,” said Gorni.
Unfortunately, the same scenario didn’t play out in Hershey.
With 2:59 left to play, Hempfield tied the game and went on to win it in overtime, 2-1.
“We pushed them into their end a lot,” said Gorni. “We were a little better than they were. Much more dangerous. We deserved a better fate. If we played them 10 times, we would win five. They have a little bit more name pedigree, but our kids can play with them any day of the week.”
Getting so close was both a huge accomplishment and a stinging disappointment.
“It’s sad because you get that far and you want to take it, and it was right within your grasp,” said Gorni. “On the other hand, with the season we had, everything far outweighs that.”
“It was tough to lose that game the way we did,” said Gleason, “but a few days later, it’s given me a chance to think of the season as a whole, and I’m really proud of what we’ve done. Nobody expected us to come this far.”
Gorni pointed to the district playoff game against West Chester Rustin in the second round as a pivotal point.
“That game catapulted us into such a positive attitude,” he said. “It was an unbelievably difficult draw. Getting that game seemed to get the momentum going in our direction.”
Davis pointed to the second game against Central Bucks South in mid-October, when Gleason scored with one second remaining to send the game into overtime. Eric Vare then notched the game winner in the second OT.
“A lot of us thought we were a team of destiny,” said Davis. ‘”We had luck on our side.”
Once they hit the playoffs, the Patriots won four of five district games and three of four at states.
“We’ve been knocking on the door long enough,” said Gorni. “We persevered through a lot of the season and got hot at the right time. This is a group of kids that can really be proud of themselves. They just play so hard for one another. I can’t say enough about them.”
The bar is always set high at C.B East.
“You don’t want to lower that bar,” said Davis. “You don’t want to be the first team not to go to states. Everyone wants to do their best and go as far as possible and make the program proud.”
This year’s team has set the bar even higher.
“The next group can definitely get this far again,” said Davis. “The program is solid. It’s just a matter of putting in the time. There’s no doubt in my mind that next year’s group is going to make it this far.”
Meet…Pennsbury senior Thaddeus Heinz
Versatility on and off the soccer field is a Thaddeus Heinz virtue.
It’s not surprising that the Pennsbury senior is so adept at so many different things, considering that he is the last of 10 children in the Heinz household.
In one respect, Heinz has followed along with his six brothers and three sisters, who all played soccer.
“Everyone has played soccer and done an activity that has been their activity,” said Heinz. “From their past experience, they give me advice about what is a good thing to do.”
During the summer, the Heinz family even forms its own rec-league team.
On the soccer field, Heinz led the Falcons in goals and total points and was the co-leader of the National Conference in goals with 12.
Several of those were key scores. He notched the game winner against Council Rock South. He also scored in Pennsbury’s 2-1 win over Unionville in the district second round and another in a 3-2 win over Dallastown in the first round of states.
That in itself is an amazing feat when you consider that this was the first year he played striker.
For years Heinz was a centerback. When he arrived at Pennsbury as a freshman, he played midfield. As a sophomore he was a sub at outside midfield, where he started as a junior.
This year coach Tom Stoddart moved him up top. And he responded, helping the Falcons advance all the way to the state quarterfinals, the farthest a Pennsbury team had ever gone.
“We needed someone who could provide us a lot of work rate up top,” said Stoddart. “He always plays at a very high tempo.”
“I definitely enjoyed it,” said Heinz. “It’s obviously one of the biggest joys you can get out of soccer. I’ve never been much of a goal scorer because I played centerback for most of my life. To all of a sudden be thrown into that position was a big change in how I looked at the game. If I didn’t get a goal in a game, I was a little upset because I didn’t do my job well enough as a striker.”
This year Heinz was selected to the third team all-league. Last year he was honorable mention.
Heinz has also followed in his older brothers’ footsteps by becoming an Eagle Scout.
He completed his requirements last June but was honored last Saturday in a court of honor. Ironically, he would have had to postpone it if the Falcons made the state tournament.
“Scouting has been a big part of my life,” said Heinz. “Scouting is just as much fun as soccer.”
For his community service project, he spent 180 hours rehabilitating a pond at Macclesfield Park in Yardley, where his club and high school teams play.
The pond had become rancid because someone had thrown mulch in the bottom, creating a methane stench. No one wanted to get near it to retrieve soccer balls that had been kicked into it. During the summer it was also a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
Heinz and a crew of kids he recruited gave the pond new life by planting special aquatic plants.
“In spring they are supposed to be YMS colors, blue and yellow, and in the fall, they are supposed to be Falcon colors, orange and black,” said Heinz.
Heinz diverted somewhat from family tradition when he became interested in singing.
As a youngster he walked around singing tunes that had struck in his mind.
“People wondered where I got those random songs from,” he said.
When he was in third grade, his mother picked up on that and enrolled him in the Archdiocese Boys Choir of Philadelphia. That was a remarkable experience that took him to Portugal, Spain and Canada, singing at holy places.
In sixth grade, his singing career went on hold when his voice changed from soprano one to bass.
“It put me out of singing for a while,” he said.
But he got back into it in high school where he sings second bass in the concert and chamber choirs. His voice has matured to the point where he can sing anywhere from high tenor to bass.
“Not many people can sing more songs than I can sing,” he said. “It’s a gift.”
The choir director even called Stoddart to see if he could miss some practice to sing.
“He came late for a couple of practices,” said Stoddart. “He’s a little bit of a Renaissance man.”
Heinz is planning on applying to the Julliard School of Music or the Curtis Institute of Music.
“If you make it into those schools, you’re set for life,” he said. “There aren’t that many male singers out there today.”
If he attends either one, he will still continue soccer, but just at the club level, likely at the German Hungarian Club.
If that doesn’t work out, his No. 1 choice is Rider, where he would hope to play for the university and major in chemistry.
”I find any kind of science interesting,” said Heinz.
“He is now getting a lot of attention from different college coaches,” said Stoddart.
Heinz may be the last of his household to play soccer at Pennsbury, but never fear. Heinz has 10 nieces and nephews. In fact one niece is in eighth grade and her sister is in seventh.
“Hopefully this summer, I’ll be able to teach them something,” he said.
Top 5 SOL
1. Central Bucks East
2. Pennsbury
3. Pennridge
4. Council Rock South
5. Wissahickon
National Soccer Coaches Association Region Three Poll
(Final, Nov. 23)
1. St. Benedict’s (NJ) 20-2-0
2. Hempfield 24-4-0
3. Central Bucks East 18-5-3
4. St. Augustine (NJ 23-1-0
5. Pingry (NJ) 18-2-1
6. Seton Hall (NJ) 18-0-3
7. Central Dauphin 18-6-0
8. West Orange (NJ) 21-3-1
9. Pittsburgh Central Catholic 18-4-3
10. Lower Merion 19-2-3
11. Clifton (NJ) 21-2-1
12. Cherokee (NJ) 18-5-2
13. Hampton (Pa.) 25-1-0
14. Chatham 21-1-1
15. Peters Township 18-2-2
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