By Alex Frazier
Rick Schmidt didn’t take any chances.In the halftime speech to his Upper Dublin players, he made it a point to recall what had happened previously when the Flying Cardinals held a big lead.
Back on Sept. 10, Upper Dublin led archrival Wissahickon 2-0 at halftime before the Trojans rallied for a 3-2 victory. It had nearly cost the Cardinals the American Conference crown.
Upper Dublin apparently learned its lesson well.
The Cardinals took a 3-0 lead on North Penn in the first 40 minutes, and the defense played an outstanding second half to shut out the Knights Tuesday afternoon in the first round of the District One playoffs.
In last year’s playoffs, William Tennent took a 3-0 lead at the half. The Cardinals could only muster two goals in the second half and were eliminated in the first round.
“This year our main goal was to not get down so we didn’t have to battle back,” said Cardinal stopper Ryan Hartzell. “We had our highest rank ever, and we wanted to make a statement.”
No. 13 Upper Dublin triumphed over a tough No. 21 North Penn squad that had gone 5-0-1 in its last six games. But the Knights didn’t look like that same team as Upper Dublin beat them to loose ball after loose ball and connected on passes to constantly put pressure on the North Penn defense.
“We came out like we wanted to win,” said North Penn senior midfielder Matt MacWilliams, “but they outhustled us.”
Before the game even started, Upper Dublin chose to play the first half with a strong wind at its back. That could have been one of the decisive decisions of the game.
“It was a huge factor,” said junior Casey Boyd, who scored the game winner. “The ball was floating. That’s how we got our second goal.”
Before 10 minutes expired, the Cardinals had three great chances, scoring on one.
At the 9:19 mark following a long throw-in from Hartzell, Ian Smith sent a ball forward to Boyd on the right side of the goal, where he banged it into the left side of the net.
“I just turned with it and had an open spot and put it in the corner,” said Boyd. “That was huge. It gave us all the momentum we needed to get that second goal.”
Less than a minute later Smith found himself on a breakaway, but North Penn keeper Steve Dale foiled the one-on-one.
It wasn’t the first or the last time that Dale would bail out the Knights. Unfortunately, he was the victim of an own-goal in the 16th minute. Upper Dublin’s John Gaunt sent a high ball in on goal from about 35 yards out. North Penn’s Ray Galgon leaped to head the ball out of the goalmouth, only to have it ricochet off the back of his head and elude Dale.
Down 2-0, the Knights were indeed in desperate straits. But they still could not mount a serious attack. Upper Dublin, on the other hand, kept the pressure on.
In the 18th minute, the Cardinals were awarded an indirect kick 22 yards out on the right side. Smith nudged the ball to Jim Trentini, who threaded it through traffic into the bottom right side of the goal.
“It wears on you, psychologically” said North Penn coach Paul Duddy. “We still believed even at two we could come back. The third one really made a difference.”
The Knights mustered several shots late in the half, but nothing dangerous and nothing on goal.
“They flat out outplayed us, especially that first 20 minutes of the game,” said Duddy. “They scored early and played some great defense. They limited our chances, they controlled midfield, and they finished.”
At halftime Schmidt reminded his crew about the collapse against Wissahickon.
“We talked about not taking chances and making sure we played a certain way to account for the wind (now in their face) and every possible chance we had,” he said.
As a result, the defense allowed just three North Penn shots in the last 40 minutes.
“We knew who the shooters were,” said Schmidt. “The key was hold the line and make sure nothing got slotted through to the forwards. The defense clicked very well together. They communicate well. At the half I told them, ‘The offense did their job. Now you’ve got to do yours.’”
One North Penn shot, in the ninth minute of the second half, came very close as Sean Bonner blasted a direct kick off the Upper Dublin wall and then struck the rebound off the crossbar.
A goal there might have sparked the Knights; a miss only deflated them further.
“We had trouble connecting on passes,” said Duddy. “We would have the ball and go to make a pass and it went to white. Maybe that’s to their credit that they anticipated where it was going. We couldn’t find any seams.”
North Penn finished its season at 10-7-2.
Upper Dublin will travel to No. 4 Pennsbury Thursday in a quarterfinal matchup. It will be the second time that Upper Dublin has made it to the second round. Two years ago they defeated Upper Darby, but last year lost 3-2 to William Tennent in the first round.
“It’s awesome,” said Boyd. “It’s my first year on varsity. It’s a great feeling.”
“Our whole offense came through,” said Hartzell. “(Goalie Kevin) Marvill came up big on several shots. The midfield won every header, I’m pretty sure. We spread the field pretty good. We were pushing the play so that spread the whole midfield out to the flanks.”
Upper Dublin 3, North Penn 0
Goals: Casey Boyd (UD), John Gaunt (UD), Jim Trentini (UD)
Assists: Ian Smith (UD) 2
Shots: North Penn 7, Upper Dublin 13
Saves: Steve Dale (NP) 4, Kevin Marvill (UD) 2
Corners: North Penn 1, Upper Dublin 2
Fouls: North Penn 8, Upper Dublin 11
Yellow cards: Jim Trentini (UD)
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