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By Alex Frazier
It certainly didn’t have the intensity of a playoff game.
It wasn’t even a league game.
Nevertheless, it was an important contest for both teams.
Wissahickon is the cream of the American Conference. The Trojans are undefeated in conference play.
Central Bucks East rides at or near the top of the Continental, depending on how often you check the standings.
No one would deny that the Continental is a much more competitive division; therefore, Wissahickon was hoping to prove a point when the Trojans took on the Patriots Monday afternoon at War Memorial Field.
On its part, East could not look past the Trojans; anything but a win would tarnish the Patriots’ reputation.
Wissahickon has proven to be a scoring machine of late, having outscored it opponents 18-1 in its last five games.
East, on the other hand, has been strong defensively but has had trouble finishing.The Patriots have given up only five goals in their four losses of the year.
“We play hard,” said coach Mike Gorni. “Our goalkeeper is growing during the year. We’re going to compete in every game.”
Wissahickon played a tough first half, keeping the contest scoreless, but the Trojans didn’t stick to the game plan in the second, while the Patriots kicked into overdrive to win the game 2-0.
“We had to come out strong against Wissahickon,” said C.B. East sophomore Eric Vare, who scored the game winner. “They’re a good team and we happened to come out on top.”
“Overall, our team did pretty well,” said Wissahickon senior forward Kevin Hammond. “We played pretty well for being an American Conference team, especially a small school against a big school like C.B.East.
The Trojans certainly gained Gorni’s respect.
“This is an important game for us regardless of where we fall,” he said. “They’re a league champion and Wissahickon is a good team. They can’t help that their league isn’t quite as good. We respect their program and feel this was a big win for us.
“They lost on a penalty kick to Council Rock North. They’re a good team, they’re always well coached, they have some speed players, and they should be commended for their non-league schedule (which includes CRNorth, Neshaminy, East and Souderton). They play all of the good teams. That’s a big deal.”
Wissahickon’s Kevin Matthews, Dan Matthews and Stefan Dasbach were stringing together some nice passing combinations in the first half, especially up the right side, but managed to get off only one dangerous shot.
In the 25th minute, Kevin Matthews beat East’s Matt MacPherson to the right of the goal, but when he pulled the trigger, the ball sailed just wide of the left upright.
“We just couldn’t get any balls across well,” said Hammond. “They had those two 6-4 and 6-5 guys that were clogging up the middle for me and Stef. We got a couple of head balls off, but we weren’t able to capitalize on any of our opportunities.”
The Trojans were hampered, especially in the midfield by the absence of Javier Puga, who is out with a concussion. Another player also fell to the flu.
“We weren’t able to play in the midfield as much as we usually do,” said Hammond.
East also blew one good opportunity in the first half. With just over four minutes remaining until the intermission, Eric Vare sent a perfect pass from the right to a wide-open Alex Franco. The only person between him and the open net was keeper Christian Knittel, but Franco fired the ball outside the right post to keep the teams knotted at zero.
Knittel came up with one good save when he dove for a header from Vare that was headed for the back of the net.
East came out much more aggressive in the second half. In one of the Patriots’ trademark re-starts, MacPherson launched a throw-in down the right touchline that Ryan Apt flicked toward the left post.Vare was in the right place and buried the ball in the net, 8:14 into the half.
“Coach told me to take it wide,” said Vare. “I made a run at the back bar and happened to come up with the goal.”
It was his second of the year.
“It’s been one of the things we have to work on,” said Vare. “We take it game by game and see what happens. We could have had more, but Wissahickon was a good team and defended well.”
For some reason, the Trojans departed from their short passing game in the second half, perhaps because of more East pressure.
“We talked at halftime and said we had to get the ball on the ground and play that way, and we didn’t,” said Stuart Malcolm. “We have to be smarter playing against these kinds of teams. Their objective was to get the ball in the final third, and get something of a set piece, and if you’re going to give them the opportunity jumping in and heading balls out of play, then you’re giving them an opportunity and they put one in.”
East scored the insurance goal with 3:59 left to play. Apt chipped the ball forward to Fran Miller who streaked behind the Wissahickon defense and beat Christian Knittel for his fourth tally of the year.
“The difference in the second half is we applied a little bit more pressure,” said Gorni.
“The confidence thing for us is that we know we can do it against this team,” said Malcolm, “but we’ve got to stay with the game plan.”
Both teams return to league action tomorrow with Wissahickon taking on Norristown and East battling Hatboro-Horsham.
“We’re still 10-0 in our league,” said Hammond. “We’ll just have to keep pushing and go out and win a league title. It gives us some playoff perspective and gets us ready.”
The Patriots’ big challenge will come Thursday when they take on a Souderton squad that is currently in first place.
“We have to look at what happened to day and get back on track,” said Malcolm.
Central Bucks East (9-4, 7-3) 2, Wissahickon (10-0) 0
Goals: Eric Vare (CBE), Fran Miller (CBE)
Assists: Ryan Apt (CBE) 2
Shots: Central Bucks East 11, Wissahickon 3
Saves: Shane Donovan (CBE) 2, Christian Knittel (W) 4
Corners: Central Bucks East 1, Wissahickon 2
Fouls: Central Bucks East 15, Wissahickon 15
Yellow cards: Dan Matthews (W), Chris McDaniels (W)
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