By Alex Frazier
Pennsbury began its quest for a state playoff berth Thursday afternoon.
The No. 4 Falcons were derailed in the quarterfinals of the District One Tournament in each of the last two seasons, and they surely don’t want a repeat this year.
If they play anything like they did against No.13 Upper Dublin, that’s not likely to happen.
The Flying Cardinals were fresh off a great win over North Penn, while Pennsbury sat out the first round with a bye.
The layoff certainly didn’t hurt the Falcons as they dominated Upper Dublin in a 3-1 win, sending the Cardinals home for the season.
“I was very pleased with the play,” said coach Peter Hughes. “All credit to them, they played very well today. There were lapses where we lost focus a little bit, but that’s going to happen. The goal is to keep them to a minimum. We stepped up the intensity over the last week of practice and it showed today.”
While the Falcons were practicing Tuesday, an assistant coach scouted the Upper Dublin-North Penn game, so Hughes knew that Upper Dublin liked to play a short passing, possession style of game, just like he did.
“He came back with a very positive report, meaning complimentary,” said Hughes. “They were pretty much a possession team.”
The Falcons were prepared.
“We worked on closing down plays aggressively and not allowing players to settle on the ball, look up and be creative,” said Hughes “They did a good job of that.”
“Preparation was key,” said junior forward Askia Rumph, who scored the game winner. “And as the score shows, we came out as a team and knew what the other team was prepared to do. We did very well with that.”
Another advantage the Falcons had was height. One of their three goals came on headers, and that number could have been even higher.
“It was hard for us with 50/50 balls,” said Upper Dublin senior Jim Trentini.
Pennsbury made its statement less than six minutes into the game when Eddie Adams converted a 50/50 ball inside the box.
Upper Dublin didn’t get its first shot until there were six minutes left in the first half when Pennsbury keeper Drew Hutchins made his only save of the game on a long shot by Ben Kessler.
With just under a minute to play in the first half, Pennsbury’s Brian Powers took a corner kick from the right side. Rumph leaped and headed the ball into the upper right corner.
“It was a great cross,” he said. “I just tried to get to the ball. My thing is jumping on head balls, so I went to go get it and it went in.”
“Their corner kicks are on a dime,” said Upper Dublin coach Rick Schmidt. “It’s really nice.”
Rumph had three good opportunities at the beginning of the second half, including another header, but couldn’t get one of them on goal.
“I’ll get it in future games,” he said. “I just take it one game at a time and hopefully my strikes become more accurate. As of now every goal counts, every strike counts. The ones you miss are unlucky, but you can’t let them get you down. Confidence is the key in this game. You lack confidence, you lack skill.”
The Cardinals picked up their intensity at the beginning of the second half, and it paid off when Jim Trentini struck a shot from about 30 yards out on the right and beat Hutchins to the upper 90 at the 31:29 mark.
“I got the ball on the right and I took a touch inside and I thought I had a shot so I took it,” he said. “It felt pretty good and gave everyone a huge boost.”
Indeed, the momentum swung toward the Cardinals for a short stretch until Pennsbury began possessing the ball once again.
“We just couldn’t finish from there,” said Trentini.
Andrew Wittikend scored an insurance goal with 7:49 left. He dribbled through a couple of defenders to the right of the goal, cut inside, turned and fired it inside the right post.
The Falcons outshot Upper Dublin 11-3 in the second half.
While the Falcons dominated play and overwhelmed Upper Dublin with shots, they had trouble getting many of them on the frame.
“We lost to Council Rock North early in the season, and we totally dominated the game and lost 1-0 on a penalty kick,” said Hughes. “We’re very cognizant here of dominating a game, but unless you put the ball in the net, what’s the point?”
Hughes put some of the blame on the style of play he coaches.
“It’s one of the issues when you coach a team to look up and move the ball, which they do very well,” said Hughes. “They get in around goal and it’s hard for them to switch that off, so they tend to want to possess the ball into the net.”
Upper Dublin keeper Kevin Marvill had a busy day with 11 saves. Without him the score would have been lopsided.
In the first half he made a great save on an Eric Schoenle header, tipping it over the crossbar.
In the second half he rushed off his line and beat Jimmy Ockford one-on-one. A minute later he robbed Ockford again, saving a head shot. And then with about 14 minutes left, he grabbed a dangerous high bouncer from Rumph.
By comparison, Marvill’s counterpart, Drew Hutchins stopped just one shot on goal. With about 18 minutes left, he denied the Cardinals a good opportunity when he beat Josh Glider to a through ball.
American Conference champion Upper Dublin closed out its season at 14-5-1. Despite the season-ending loss, Schmidt was pleased with the campaign.
“If I look back at day one of the beginning of the season and I was going to say, ‘Would we be here today?’ The answer would have flat out been, 'No,’” he said. “These guys have come a long way. They clicked in ways I didn’t see coming. They surprised me with it.”
Meanwhile, Pennsbury continues its state playoff quest Saturday against Neshaminy, a 2-1 winner over West Chester Henderson.
“Our goal last year and this year was to get into states,” said Hughes. “I think everybody would be disappointed if that didn’t happen. We’re definitely good enough to do it.”
Pennsbury 3, Upper Dublin 1
Goals: Eddie Adams (P), Askia Rumph (P), Jim Trentini (UD), Andrew Wittikend (P)
Assists: Brian Powers (P)
Shots: Upper Dublin 3, Pennsbury 25
Saves: Kevin Marvill (UD) 11, Drew Hutchins (P) 1
Corners: Upper Dublin 1, Pennsbury 8
Fouls: Upper Dublin 9, Pennsbury 13
Yellow cards: Ben Kessler (UD), Eddie Adams (P)
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