Pennridge edged Conestoga 1-0 in Saturday’s District 1 4A title game at Spring-Ford High School. Andrew Robinson recaps all the action. Game photos courtesy of John Gleeson. Check back for a gallery of photos: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/f405978483(Celebration photos courtesy of Abbe Kiwak/Pennridge soccer)
District 1 4A final
#2 PENNRIDGE 1, #1 CONESTOGA 0
“Dziadziu.”
Any time Sophie Craig is about to drive one of her bright orange-cleated feet through a ball, whether it be a corner, a free kick or
a penalty attempt, the Pennridge senior has the same ritual. Once the ball is spotted, the midfielder takes a deep breath and repeats her good luck phrase.
In Polish, dziadziu is an endearing form of dziadek, which means grandfather.
For Craig, it’s a respite to ask her late grandfather Joseph for a little good fortune on the upcoming kick she’s about to take. Quite often this season, Craig’s dziadziu has seen her kicks bring good luck to her team and none were bigger than the free kick she hit in the waning seconds of Saturday’s District 1 4A final against top-seeded Conestoga.
Craig’s driven ball found the head of Addy Mills, with the sophomore recently pressed into a starting role getting enough of the service to beat Conestoga’s Greta Steege with 10 seconds left in the first half, delivering the Rams a 1-0 win and their first district title since 2020.
“I saw two girls in front of me and I thought there was no chance I was getting it,” Mills said. “I just went up, my head hit it and it went far post.
“So, that was pretty cool.”
Pennridge added a third district title to the back-to-back championships it won in 2019 and 2020. While 2019’s title came on the same field at Spring-Ford, the 2020 title came under very different circumstances under COVID-19 regulations and for this senior class, their second had a very different feeling to it.
“We had faith in ourselves, I knew we were strong and that we shouldn’t be the ones fearing the other team,” Craig said. “When we come out strong, we believe we’re going to win the game.”
The lone goal won’t show the way Pennridge controlled the game, putting nine shots on goal and generating threat after threat through long spells of possession. It was a testament to Steege, the senior making eight saves in a thoroughly impressive showing, that the score didn’t go the way of Pennridge’s earlier games in this district run with a multi-goal win and not of the Rams’ relentless nature.
“As coaches, we talked about ‘do we change our game plan?’ and we felt if we just stick to what we do best, find our forwards and force them to chase us, we’ll be fine,” said Rams coach Audrey Anderson, who captured her third district title leading the Rams. “Our backs were good winning the ball out of the air, we struggled at times winning the second ball in the midfield but sorted it out and we did our homework to know who was who, what we needed to defend so we don’t want to change how we play for anybody, unless we absolutely have to.”
As freshmen in the fall of 2020, Craig, Anna Croye, Liv Grenda, Tori Angelo and Casey Malone were all heavily featured players on Pennridge’s District 1 and PIAA 4A championship team. That year, the COVID-truncated season, didn’t see Conestoga participate in the postseason.
The Rams and Pioneers have met quite often over the last six years in postseason play and prior to Saturday, it had been all Conesotga. In 2018, the Pioneers thwarted the Rams in the district semis and a year later in 2019, the Central League power had ended Pennridge’s season in the state semifinals.
That was before this current Rams’ group’s time. Their Conestoga-induced scars came in 2021 when they lost twice to the Pioneers, first in the district’s third-place seeding game then, more agonizingly, in a shootout loss to Steege and Conestoga in the state quarterfinals.
Croyle, the All-American center back heading to Syracuse, didn’t shy away from the fact that this was a matchup she and her teammates wanted as validation.
“Our sophomore year, we lost to them twice so seeing we were playing them, I thought was perfect,” Croyle said. “It lined up for us, it was our last chance to prove that we could beat them.”
Unlike most of her senior classmates, Craig’s future doesn’t involve soccer at the next level. She’s certainly good enough to play at the next level, but she’s chosen to take a different path and all her energy and motivation now is to give whatever she has left in the tank over what the team hopes is four more games culminating in a state title on November 17 at Cumberland Valley.
For her Rams teammates, Craig’s highlighter orange cleats around the ball usually mean something good is coming their way with the senior racking up assist after assist this fall through her corners and free kicks. For opponents, that flash of orange should be the stuff of nightmares, Craig having evolved into a defensive menace in the middle of the pitch.
“Sophie is one of those players who loves to rise to an occasion,” Anderson said. “She loves the challenge. She’s proven of the course of the past couple weeks that she’s not afraid of that star player, it’s a challenge she’ll take, understand what has to be done and do it to the best of her ability. Her movement in the midfield helps us so much.”
Craig revels in nothing more than seeing a teammate flourish. Her assists provide opportunities to do that, and it’s why she’s taken to the defensive asks being made of her because if she can keep the ball away from one of the opposition’s top players, then her teammates are more free to do their thing.
She’s had two monster challenges this week. On Tuesday, it was shadowing Downingtown East’s Madison Shumate – a Villanova recruit who was named to the All-American Game with Croyle – and Saturday it was Conestoga junior Keira Kemmerly, a terrific player already pledged to Northwestern.
“I’d rather do that than be the one scoring,” Craig said. “I’d rather see them have that moment, and it just makes me happy any time they do.”
Conestoga’s been a dominant team all season, posting 11 shutouts while scoring 90 goals and allowing just 13 between the regular season and playoffs. Pennridge respected that but knew the best way to beat the Pioneers was to go at them.
“We knew they were going to be good, both of our teams had definitely been scouting each other, so we expected this to be a hard game,” Grenda said. “We talked about it before we went out to focus on playing our own game, focus on playing together and for us seniors, with it being our last season, leaving it all out there and playing for each other.”
It wasn’t as though Conestoga didn’t threaten either, the Pioneers certainly looked dangerous when they were able to sustain possession of the ball. Kemmerly and her younger sister Katie, who coincidentally is club teammates with Mills, certainly deserved the defensive attention they got.
Rams keeper Seretha DeMoss only had one save, but the sophomore did make a crucial play to cover a loose ball in the second half while defending the lead, and her backs were certainly engaged. Croyle was once again a wall at center back while Mills held her own and Meredith Blannett locked up the right side.
In front of them, it was Craig, Grenda and Ava Kiwak covering ground and pressuring the ball non-stop.
“Every time they had the ball, it felt like we had two people running at them,” Croyle said. “That freed us up to clean up any mess, but our midfield was a huge part of it, and they did a great job just by themselves.”
Senior Casey Malone had a tremendous game at left back, cutting out some chances before they became chances with her blistering speed.
“We knew they capitalized on a lot of their chances,” Malone said. “So, any case where instead of a corner, we could give up a throw or make sure we cleared it before they got to the ball was really important to limiting the amount of shots they could take because they are a high-scoring team.”
Grenda was again an all-around threat, the senior midfielder forcing three saves out of Steege and putting a few more tantalizing passes into good spots that either got saved or the Rams couldn’t make anything of. Seniors Lindsey Balmer and Tori Angelo were workhorse runners on the wings and even when the team turned to the bench, Gabriella Howley, Jessie Moylan and Riley Williams kept challenging defenders.
Still, it all came down to one chance with the clock about to run out before halftime. A foul spotted the ball on the football 20-yard line and far out on the right side but by no means out of Craig’s range.
“Thankfully yesterday was ‘Free kick Friday,’ so we worked all practice on it and I had the help of Liv, Ava, Anna, Addy, Jess, anyone who found themselves around it,” Craig said. “I looked at the time, 30 seconds left, so I knew not to rush it because I needed time to be able to score but not give them time to counter.
“I took my breath, said my little word I always say for good luck and knew if I played a good ball, my teammates would finish it.”
With assertion from her bench she had plenty of time to spot the ball, line up her service and say her good luck charm, Craig was going to make it count.
Mills said it was no doubt the biggest goal she’d ever scored but gave the assist to her assistant on the finish.
“That was insane, it was such a good ball,” Mills said. “This whole season, her corners have been insane, I’ve gotten a couple corners off them. Her placement is just insane.”
Pennridge didn’t let up in the second half. Balmer hit a post early in the frame, Steege made a couple of outstanding plays to prevent a second goal and a couple other chances weren’t meant to be but the Rams made their goal stand up.
The team’s ultimate goal is a state title, but they’re not a group to overlook one accomplishment for another.
“We were here freshman year, but we haven’t been back,” Malone said. “It was definitely nice to win this one.”
From here on out, there’s no margin for error. At most, the Rams have four games left starting on Tuesday against District 3’s third place finisher Mechanicsburg.
Anderson said nothing has come easy for this group, and with 12 seniors sharing a singular focus on a final outcome, it’s just a matter of sharpening those last few things up. Three years ago, when they won their first district title and went on to win a state title, they felt like they had all the time in the world ahead of them.
Now, it’s two weeks, provided they get them.
“When they were freshmen, they didn’t know any better and now they know, we get one shot,” Anderson said. “We have to make the most of it, that’s what it came down to today. There’s always a challenge so keeping our composure is something we always need to be working on.”
These seniors are aware of it.
“That’s what drives us, we want to feel it again,” Craig said. “We want to make sure it’s even and there’s no excuses why we won.”
PENNRIDGE 1 0 – 1
CONESTOGA 0 0 – 0
Goals: P – Addy Mills
District 1 4A Playbacks
Lower Merion 2, Central Bucks East 1
Jessie Bernabe scored a first half goal for the Patriots, who fell in overtime in the district’s fifth-place game.
East will face District 3 winner Central Dauphin in the first round of the state tournament on Tuesday. It will be the third year in a row the Patriots face the Rams in their PIAA opener.
LOWER MERION 1 0 1 – 2
CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 1 0 0 – 1
Downingtown East 2, Council Rock South 0
The Golden Hawks will be the fourth seed out of District 1 and open the PIAA tournament at District 11 champion Parkland on Tuesday.
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