Council Rock North extended District One champion Conestoga to the limit, battling the Pioneers to a 1-1 tie after two overtimes before falling in penalty kicks. To view action photos of the game, please visit the Photo Gallery at the following link: http://photos.suburbanonesports.com/
Soccer can be a cruel sport. One simple misstep, one split-second lapse in judgment, and a dominant team can suffer a heartbreaking loss.
But perhaps the cruelest truth in soccer is that after 120 minutes of a hard-fought, back-and-forth battle, the difference between winning and losing comes down not to momentum, pressure and focus ... but to the simple penalty kick.
Following 80 minutes of regulation and two 20-minute overtime periods, District One runner-up Council Rock North and District One champion Conestoga took to penalty kicks to break the 1-1 deadlock and determine which team would leave Harriton High School with the coveted berth in the state final.
And on the same field where Conestoga ended the Indians' district title dreams 10 days earlier, the Pioneers closed the door on the Indians' historic season with a 4-1 win in penalty kicks to advance to the district title game.
"It's a shame. I hate PKs," said Indians' senior Derek Antonini, who scored Council Rock North's goal in regulation. "Penalty kicks have nothing to do with how the game was played. They had better penalty kicks than us."
The Pioneers sent four players to the line and converted all four chances in the five-shot round of PKs. Alec Neumann scored on North's first attempt, but Conestoga keeper Clarke Fox denied the next two shots to secure the victory.
"When you get to this point in the season, somebody's got to win and somebody's got to lose, and you hate for it to be that way," said North coach Wendell Beres. "This game was a little different than the last time we played these guys. We came in and executed the game plan. They beat us today, we didn't beat ourselves. We didn't give them two goals, they earned what they got."
Indeed, the Indians played a much more even game in the state semifinal. Much like the teams' first meeting of the season, Council Rock North scored first, this time on an Antonini goal in the eighth minute on a long indirect kick from Chris Kulczytzky that Neumann headed over to Antonini at the side of the cage.
"We got a great long ball from Chris," Antonini said. "Alec flicked it, I got a head on it and put it in the corner."
Unlike the first meeting, in which the Pioneers dominated much of the play following the early goal, Council Rock North stood strong and stayed with the District One champs throughout the game. Though the Pioneers outshot the Indians, 14-8 in regulation (20-12 for the game), many were low-percentage shots from the side that resulted in easy saves from North keeper Will Terry.
Conestoga knotted the game on its first real threat of the evening, as Andrew Connors moved past a defender and fired a shot into the far corner of the net in the 27th minute.
The teams traded chances throughout the final 93 minutes of play. Strong play from Antonini, Kulczytzky and Billy McConnell kept the Pioneer offensive rushes to a minimum.
North held a 9-5 advantage in corner kicks, with McConnell playing numerous dangerous crosses through the box, though the Indians were unable to convert.
The Indians' best chance to end the game in regulation came 13 minutes into the second half when Dalton Andrusko picked the pocket of a Conestoga player and worked his way into the offensive end. Andrusko sent a cross to Neumann, who fired a laser that hit the crossbar.
"We had our chances," Beres said. "It's a game of inches and tonight the inches were on their side."
On the other end of the field, Terry made several game-saving stops, including a denial of a point-blank blast in the first overtime and a leaping punch of a long shot that redirected the ball to the post late in the second extra session.
Council Rock North ends its season with an 18-5-2 record, the Suburban One National Conference title, and a historic playoff run that saw the Indians reach the district title game and state Final Four.
"I wanted to be in the state final big-time, but it's been a great run," said Antonini, one of 10 seniors on the squad. "We never expected to be here."
"It's a great group and I couldn't be more proud of them," Beres said. "We're going to miss (the seniors). We have great group of seniors.
"They all battled their tails off tonight. Hopefully the younger guys remember this feeling and they remember what it takes to get to this point and hopefully that carries over for years to come."
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