Pennridge defeated Conestoga to capture the 2023 PIAA 4A state championship. Andrew Robinson recaps all the action. (Photos provided courtesy of Abbe Kiwak/Pennridge soccer)
PIAA 4A State Tournament final
(1-1) Pennridge 4, (1-2) Conestoga 1
Last year, on the bus ride home from Cumberland Valley’s Eagle View Middle School, Sophie Craig made a post on her Instagram.
The midfielder rested her head on the PIAA trophy the Rams had been given after falling a goal short against Central Dauphin in the state final. The caption, however, said it all.
“Don’t be fooled – silver isn’t a comfy pillow.”
Last year wasn’t the way any of the Pennridge players wanted their season to end. It also drove them toward a singular focus of not only getting back to Eagle View Middle School but winning the thing too, and any team in their path would have to deal with it.
Unfortunately for a very talented Conestoga team, that was the case Friday night.
Craig, who confessed to crying her eyes out as the final seconds ticked off and still doing so as the team met their parents, friends and fans off the field, had thought all day about how it would feel to win the state crown.
“It feels like a fairytale ending. I wanted to win so I could say that,” Craig said. “It feels very rewarding and very fitting that we won, I think no other team deserves it more than we do.”
A coach’s tendency is to worry and prepare for any scenario. Rams coach Audrey Anderson knew Conestoga was capable of beating her team, so she had to have them prepared for that no matter what her players were saying.
“They assured me (Thursday) that we were not going to lose,” Anderson said. “I take a lot of comfort knowing they were that confident, but I told them we had to prepare for everything. This was a great ending because all the ‘what ifs?’ – we didn’t have to worry about them.”
Craig will go down as having her final assist in a Pennridge uniform come on the game-winning goal in a state final. It’s a fitting cap for a player who tried to step out of the limelight to let others bask in it.
On the receiving end of that corner kick was the team’s All-American. It hadn’t quite sunk in that Anna Croyle’s last goal in a Pennridge uniform would be a game-winner in a state final, but what the Syracuse bound senior did know was that she felt a lot better about the outcome Friday than she did last year.
It was an unfortunate deflection off her back that had given Central Dauphin the look that led to its game-winner last November, the spark that lit the fire which drove the Rams all fall.
“It’s surreal,” Croyle said. “Looking back, obviously last year I was devastated that we lost but now I realize that we needed that loss to push us to come back and win in our senior year.
“It’s good to go out on top and I’ll remember this moment forever.”
Each player on the roster had their own story that had its own twists and turns not only this year, but for however long they’d been a part of the program.
For senior Hailey Primwhere, it was pretty much a perfect ending. The hard-working center forward may not have the swiftness that Tori Angelo or Lindsey Balmer do flanking her on the wings, but it was Primwhere who made the final game of the season her own.
A year ago, she had the only goal in the team’s 2-1 loss. Friday, she had two goals with the opener and arguably the match’s biggest tally with a finish that made it 3-1 just as Conestoga was gaining some life after scoring to halve the lead.
“Three goals in state championship games the last two years,” Anderson said. “To put us up two goals, after they’d just scored, to put us up again, it had to take something out of them, and they probably felt a little defeated. For her to work that hard for that goal was incredible.”
Really, the only thing missing from the night for Hailey was having her twin sister Hannah with her on the field. Hannah, a starting center back to begin the year, has been injured throughout the postseason in a cruel twist after it was her jumping in the same spot last playoffs due to an injury.
Still, the twins stayed supportive of each other, and Hannah was the first person to find her sister for a hug after Hailey subbed off following each of her goals. They did get to mark the end of the game together on the sideline, their own story getting its happy ending.
“We were counting down the seconds, screaming and clapping out of excitement,” Hailey Primwhere said. “It’s a memory I’m going to have and remember forever because we worked so hard for it.
“I’ve never been a part of anything like this before. We never stopped, we never gave up.”
There was no doubt Meredith Blannett was playing on Friday. The senior right back didn’t want to sit out the bulk of Tuesday’s semifinal win over Parkland either after injuring her right ankle, but she didn’t win that argument.
Even with her ankle still very swollen on Friday, Blannett not only started, she played every second of the match. It was a positive domino effect, as it allowed Balmer to slide back to right forward and because she was there, she was able to play in the cross that led to Hailey Primwhere’s opening goal 10-and-a-half minutes in.
“I wasn’t going to let myself not play,” Blannett said. “I kept saying to Aud last game ‘I’m good,’ but she said, ‘I’d rather have you for the state game,’ which was smart. I have trust in my teammates, but I’d much rather be out there and a part of it.”
It was Blannett who sprang Balmer with a great ball up the right side, then Balmer who deftly kept it in play, got to the endline and cut back to serve in the cross. Conestoga’s excellent goalkeeper Greta Steege made a diving attempt, but Primwhere was right there to knock in the opener.
“We kept going at them, we had nothing else to lose,” Primwhere said. “It feels like it hasn’t hit me yet. We’re going to go to school Monday and not go to practice when that’s all we’ve been doing all year.
“They’re my best friends and we had a happy ending together. It’s sad we’ll never be a part of this again, but we’ll always be family.”
Not even a minute after going up 1-0, the Rams were doubling the lead. Craig sent a perfect corner kick to the far post where Croyle leaned in and got it off her head for what ended up being the state title-winner.
“I’m just there to watch them all succeed,” Craig said. “That makes me the happiest.”
Friday was the 12th state playoff game for this senior class (the shortened 2020 season only had two PIAA tournament games). Croyle said she hadn’t quite realized she was the scorer of the title-winning goal, but the senior did say that lining up for that corner kick didn’t feel any different because it was something she, Craig or anyone else on the field was used to.
“It comes from our culture, this is our second time winning, but we’ve been in states every year, so we know what that pressure feels like,” Croyle said. “Even in the regular season, I feel like we’re expected to win most games, so that pressure helps us become comfortable with it and play our game.”
For some of the Rams, Friday was their second time experiencing a state title win on the field. For many, it was their first time. Senior Ava Kiwak fell into the second group, joining her older sister Samantha with a state title in her final game as a Ram.
Kiwak, a tough-as-nails center mid committed to Drexel, had her own journey through her time with the program. A major knee injury took out her sophomore year and last season, despite playing a good deal, she did so in a bulky knee brace and clearly wasn’t quite herself.
This fall, with no brace in sight, Kiwak played an integral role completing the midfield triangle with Craig and Liv Grenda.
“It’s a great feeling, knowing how last year ended, for the 12 seniors, we wanted it to end on a win,” Kiwak said. “This is really the best way to end four years here.
“When Sam left, I came in and it was a full circle moment, we came in winning a state championship and now we’re leaving winning a state championship.”
At the half, Anderson warned her players Conestoga wasn’t going to roll over. The Pioneers had already put together one comeback win in states, and with a formational change late in the first half, they’d been threatening.
Even when the Pioneers proved the Rams coach true, there wasn’t a sense of panic amongst the Pennridge players.
“We knew we were playing for each other,” Craig said. “This was the last time most of us were ever playing together. I knew we wanted to do it for us and for the team one more time before we left.”
Pennridge escaped one more good look from the Pioneers before Primwhere turned things around. The senior refused to give up on a ball, leading to a collision in the box between a defender and the keeper, putting Primwhere alone and wide open in front of goal with the ball on her foot.
She didn’t miss.
Left back Casey Malone agreed it was the turning point in the match.
“Getting that third goal when Hailey scored shifted the momentum back in our favor,” Malone said. “We could keep up our high press, and not falling back into panicking really worked in our favor.”
Anderson admits she’s not always the easiest coach to play for. She’s demanding of her players, especially the defenders, so there was a flash of legitimate fear from a couple of them when Anderson started chiding them for the goal they’d given up in the second half.
The coach was, of course, kidding but the backs did all seem a little irked their spotless postseason record had been blemished. It was a credit to Conestoga, the Pioneers being a strong group all year long, that they’d not only scored but done so at a critical juncture to clip the lead to 2-1 just five minutes into the second half. The allowed goal left Pennridge’s aggregate of goals for and against this
postseason at a paltry 39-1.
“I think that’s incredible,” Croyle said. “Credit to Conestoga, they’re a great team, they had their chances and were able to put one away. I think so much credit has to go to our forwards with their constant pressure and even our midfield, to not let them get back a lot of the time.
“There are a lot of games where it’s our forwards and midfield doing a lot of the work and we’re just cleaning it up.”
For Blannett, who is signed to play at Albany, spending four years under someone so defensively focused as Anderson only improved her as a player.
“The self-discipline is crazy, she’s very big on that,” Blannett said. “Whether it’s your ball you lost or not, the person you’re defending or not, you always have to be the one who gets there. I trust my center backs and Casey on the other side, but I’m not going to be the reason something happens against us and that comes from Aud.”
Pennridge’s final goal of the season came, somewhat fittingly, off the foot of Grenda. The senior, who broke the program’s career scoring record last game, buried a long range take with 23 minutes left as a sort of dagger goal that made the outcome seem like a given.
The Dayton-bound midfielder said something the team harped on, and that was that one goal wouldn’t be enough, simply because it hadn’t been enough last year.
“All season I’ve been thinking about how there are times in games where you take a shot, it deflects and you get lucky, you take a shot that happens to go in, so I knew if I got that split-second, I was going to take the chance,” Grenda said. “I knew I might as well go for it and I’m happy I did. I’m leaving with no regrets.”
Croyle, Grenda, Craig and Malone were all starters in 2020 when the team won its first state title. That game, which ended on a stunning goal by Malone’s older sister Leah in double overtime, was like a shock that nobody really had time to process in the moment as it happened.
Friday, with more than half of the second half playing out while up by three goals, the seniors started to absorb it as the final minutes ticked away. It was surprisingly a collection of mixed emotions.
“I kind of went ‘whoa, it’s just over?’ I was happy we won but there was an immediate realization I’ll never play with these girls again that I’ve been playing my whole life with that kind of soaked in at that moment,” Croyle said. “But after that, I don’t know, it doesn’t feel real yet and won’t until I don’t have to go to practice.
“Just looking around and seeing everyone the moment we knew it would happen was crazy.”
Croyle wasn’t the only one battling the uneven feelings of a great win and knowing it was the end of an era.
“It is a little bittersweet, we had an undefeated season, went out with a bang and ended on a high note, but it’s a little sad to play this last game with some of the people I’ve been playing with for 10 plus years,” Grenda said.
Leah Malone was among the crowd on Friday. Earlier in the day, she and Casey had gone out for a meal to talk about playing the final game of their respective careers in a state final.
“We talked about taking in the moment and how she misses being here,” Casey Malone said. “I wanted to win, just like she did, and while she scored, I didn’t but my teammates scored for me. It was a super-cool way to end.”
Anderson also wasn’t quite sure what she’d do Monday with no practice to run or the next team to prepare for. She did note that in 2020, due to COVID-19, the team never really got a proper chance to celebrate its accomplishment, so she did want to try and get the players together for something like that.
This was a special group for Anderson, she coached many of them in youth soccer and watched them go from the little girls in the bleachers to the ones signing shirts and balls or posing for photos with the next generation.
“I just want to see them again,” Anderson said. “We can really focus on what they accomplished, not just for this year but all four years of this senior class. Everybody just took care of business when their number was called, these girls all had a piece of our success, I was just so proud of how everybody made the most of the minutes they got.”
On the bus home Friday, Craig posted a new photo on Instagram, the senior again curled up in a seat and using the trophy as a headrest. The caption, however, said it all.
“Just so you know, gold is a MUCH comfier pillow.”
Pennridge closed out a remarkable season with a 25-0-1 record.
PENNRIDGE 2 2 – 4
CONESTOGA 0 1 – 1
Goals: P – Hailey Primwhere 2, Anna Croyle, Liv Grenda
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