Jarrad Saffren recaps Thursday’s District One 4A boys soccer games featuring SOL squads. Neshaminy/OJR photos courtesy of Jesse Garber (http://jsgarber.zenfolio.com/p987576668 ). North Penn/Kennett photo courtesy of Keith Clemens and photos of Neshaminy/OJR by John Gleeson…CLICK HERE to see the galleries.
By Jarrad Saffren
We are inching closer to the PIAA Class 4A Boys Soccer Tournament.
Nine Suburban One League teams played District One Class 4A second round games Thursday. The winners are now one win away from clinching a spot in the state tournament.
The Suburban One League is still doing really well. In fact, it basically takes an SOL team to eliminate an SOL team. Two of the four SOL teams that lost Thursday lost to other SOL teams.
National and Continental teams went a combined 5-2. The winners, the powers, dominated their opponents. Council Rock North, Pennsbury, North Penn, Neshaminy and Central Bucks East—the SOL teams that earned byes—won by a combined score of 18-4. North only won by one, but outshot Unionville 18-8.
American teams have not fared as well. They went 0-2 Thursday and 2-3 overall. Hatboro-Horsham was bounced in the first round. Both American teams that made the second round—Upper Dublin and Wissahickon—did at least lose to higher seeds.
So, to recap, five SOL teams are left standing. They make up five of the top eight seeds. A district championship game with two SOL teams is mathematically likely. A district title game with none is highly unlikely.
CLASS 4A
No. 8 seed Central Bucks East 4, No. 9 seed Upper Dublin 0
The defending state champions served notice: They may have lost four games, tied three and finished second in the SOL Continental. But they are clicking at the right time. They are still Central Bucks East.
“Our boys performed well. The boys came ready to play,” CB East coach Jeremiah White said. “It was one of our better performances. In terms of putting the ball on the net and being dangerous on offense, yeah, we scored four goals in the first half, which is not typical for us.”
Keegan Cannon, Tomas Ogonowski, Liam Creedon and Eric Quigley scored the goals. Quigley played his second game after missing more than a week with a concussion.
“It’s a huge help having him back,” White said. “And Keegan Cannon has totally stepped up and taken over the left midfield position. It’s a combination of some guys stepping up and some guys getting healthy.”
CB East also hit the post twice and “missed four or five other opportunities,” White said. Upper Dublin—the SOL American champion—only generated one shot.
“Our defense did really well. Upper Dublin has some good players,” White said. “The D has been the stronghold of our team. It has gotten us through the season.”
CB East allowed two goals in regular season league games “during the run of play,” White said. “Every other goal was off a restart.”
Both goals came when outside back Kyle Kittleson was out. Kittleson is healthy now. And CB East is almost impossible to score on.
“The defense has kept us in games when we weren’t scoring,” White said.
No. 1 seed Conestoga will try to break through the Patriot wall Saturday, in a district quarterfinal. The winner clinches a spot in the state tournament. CB East has won nine straight postseason games. Conestoga has not lost all season.
That is the matchup of the weekend.
Upper Dublin lost in the district second round for the second straight year. The Flying Cardinals finished 15-3-2.
Central Bucks East 4-0 4
Upper Dublin 0-0 0
No. 4 seed Pennsbury 7, No. 13 seed Central Bucks West 2
Pennsbury coach Tom Stoddart on his “big three” of Zach LoBasso, Obi Onouha and John Griffin: “They did it today. They found their own spaces and worked well together. It was fun to be a part of and fun to watch.”
LoBasso, Onouha and Griffin all had two goals and two assists. Joe Ficcorotta also scored for Pennsbury.
The Falcons scored the first two goals. Central Bucks West answered with two to tie the game. But Pennsbury scored two more before halftime.
“We settled in defensively and dominated the second half,” Stoddart said. “We needed more defensive help from those attacking players. CB West did a good job serving the ball in. We needed more activity on those balls by our forwards to slow them down.”
Pennsbury (16-3) is streaky. The Falcons started 12-0, lost three straight and have now won four straight. But they—like CB East—are hot at the right time.
Pennsbury plays No. 5 seed North Penn Saturday in the quarterfinals.
“North Penn’s a great team. You have two teams that are 16-3 going into that match,” Stoddart said.
“There is very little separation between the two groups. We’ll have our work cut out. But it is that time of year, so we look forward to the challenge.”
The winner clinches a spot in the state tournament.
Pennsbury 4-3 7
Central Bucks West 2-0 2
No. 7 seed Lower Merion 3, No. 10 seed Wissahickon 1
Wissahickon hung with Lower Merion in the first half. But a defensive miscue handed Lower Merion a 1-0 lead 10 minutes before halftime.
“A player ran out and left a guy all alone. They finished,” Wissahickon coach Stuart Malcolm said. “Up until that point no one had the upper hand. The goal was out of nothing, to be perfectly honest. It was like, ‘What just happened?’ And now you find yourself 1-0 down.”
Neither team generated much offense in the first half. They basically just traded possessions.
“Neither goalkeeper had to make what you’d call a save. One goal might have been enough for either team the way we were playing,” Malcolm said. “It was just backward and forward, over and over. We had to be more aggressive after that though.”
Wissahickon’s aggressiveness led to an offsides call and a Lower Merion free kick. A Lower Merion player corralled the ball in the corner off the free kick. He wiggled away from defenders, tap danced down the line, circled another defender and blazed the ball in.
“They didn’t have many chances the whole game. They managed to finish three and that was enough,” Malcolm said. “It was a pretty disjointed game. Their first two goals were bizarre. It was one of those days, as you say in the sports world. We just didn’t get the bounces. It wasn’t a particularly enjoyable game to watch. The guys battled though.”
Wissahickon’s Gabe Kessler scored with 16 minutes left. Keeper Brad Schwartz made three saves.
Wissahickon ends the season at 13-5-2. The Trojans reached the second round despite starting the season 1-3-1.
After Wissahickon’s bus pulled into the school parking lot, and the players walked off, Malcolm pulled the captains aside.
“We complimented them on a great season. We weren’t supposed to make the playoffs after the first five games,” Malcolm said. “They kept the guys focused and showed them how to win some games. We won a playoff game at home, which was one of our goals.”
Lower Merion 1-2 3
Wissahickon 0-1 1
No. 6 seed Neshaminy 2, No. 22 seed Owen J. Roberts 0
Neshaminy lost its first district playoff game in 2014 and ’15. Most of Neshaminy’s current players were on those teams. The early exits wore on them Thursday.
“In the first half, we were tentative. We were a little off. The guys were tight early because of past disappointments,” Neshaminy coach Tom Foley said. “I was hoping we’d get an early goal and relax.”
Neshaminy did not score that early goal. But its defense kept Owen J. Roberts off the board.
“They were pushing guys forward, but we got out of harm’s way,” Foley said. “We played pretty well tonight defensively.”
Neshaminy keeper Val Scarsellatto also made six saves.
“There was only one that was really difficult. He managed the box really well,” Foley said. “It was slick today. So he did a good job with that.”
Finally, with eight seconds left in the half, Jack McCourt scored to put Neshaminy up 1-0. Vince Hosephros assisted.
“That got us energized,” Foley said. “Then we took the play to them and got the second goal.”
Chase Rider scored it. McCourt assisted.
Owen J. Roberts “put on minor pressure” in the last 10 minutes, but Neshaminy kept its shutout.
“We handled it well,” Foley said. “It was tough to control the ball because we were slipping and sliding all over the place.”
Foley was relieved after the game.
“We had that first round bye, so getting that second round win was big,” Foley said. “Two straight years we were disappointed. We were just hoping to get the monkey off our back in playoffs and that first goal helped us out a lot. After that we let out a breath and relaxed.”
Neshaminy (14-5) will play No. 3 seed and SOL National rival Council Rock North Saturday in a quarterfinal. The winner clinches a spot in the state tournament.
Neshaminy 1-1 2
Owen J. Roberts 0-0 0
No. 3 seed Council Rock North 3, No. 14 seed Unionville 2
The final score is misleading. Council Rock North dominated Unionville.
CR North outshot Unionville 18-8 and “possessed the ball for 70 minutes,” Indians coach Joe Stackhouse said. “Their keeper played great. He made five point-blank saves.”
North and Unionville, like everybody else on Thursday, played on a wet field under steady rain.
“A lot of it had to do with weather conditions,” Stackhouse said. “That is a great equalizer.”
Unionville went up 2-1 early in the second half. Then Nick Guarna scored on a penalty kick to tie it.
North’s Dennis Karpovitch scored the game-winner with nine minutes left. Karpovitch has been overshadowed by Nikita Ihlin all season.
“He’s got a couple goals but most of the time they were in blowout games,” Stackhouse said. “He’s a good player but he’s playing behind Nikita.”
North kept the ball on Unionville’s side for the rest of the game.
“They got past midfield maybe four times in second half, if that. We won so you gotta be happy. I wouldn’t say we escaped,” Stackhouse said. “We have to make more of those chances against a very good team, otherwise you won’t win that game.”
North (15-2-2) battles league rival Neshaminy Saturday in a quarterfinal. The winner advances to the state tournament. North beat Neshaminy twice during the regular season.
“I don’t think playing Neshaminy will detract from our normal game plan. There are three kids on their team that if we do what we did the first times we played them, we’ll be fine,” Stackhouse said. “We have to make sure Jack McCourt doesn’t get the ball at the top of the box. We have to make sure Danny Grindrod doesn’t get the ball in the middle of the field. And we have to make sure Dylan McDonald doesn’t get it up to Danny. They are all great players and they play very well together. It will come down to who controls the middle and who plays the flanks better.”
Council Rock North 1-2 3
Unionville 1-1 2
No. 5 seed North Penn 2, No. 21 seed Kennett 0
North Penn coach Paul Duddy has been raving about Mike Kohler all season. And why wouldn’t he? Kohler is one of the best players in the area, maybe the best.
Kohler scored both of his team’s goals Thursday. Both came in the first half. Nate Baxter assisted on the first. Kohler ran from midfield and dribbled past four defenders on the second goal.
“He’s a great player and tonight he just had an incredible game,” Duddy said. “If it wasn’t for Mike Kohler, we’d still be playing. He absolutely just stepped up and played great. He had two great goals. He’s that type of player. He can be a game changer for sure.”
North Penn keeper Bobby Dean made six saves.
“Kennett was very fast and very good and they played hard. They reminded me of a team from our home conference, to be honest,” Duddy said. “It did not feel like a 2-0 game to be quite honest. Credit to them. They were very well organized.”
Duddy said his team did not play its best.
“It was a sloppy night, no doubt about that,” Duddy said. “We were glad to come out with a win and move on to Saturday.”
North Penn (15-3) plays No. 4 seed Pennsbury Saturday in a quarterfinal. The winner clinches a spot in the state tournament.
North Penn 2-0 2
Kennett 0-0 0
No. 1 seed Conestoga 1, No. 17 seed Abington 0
Abington almost pulled off the upset. It almost handed Conestoga its first loss of 2016.
But not quite.
Mason Miller scored with six minutes in give the Pioneers the hard-fought win.
The Ghosts’ season still ended way later than people expected. They had nine new starters in 2016, many of them freshmen and sophomores.
Abington finished at 12-7.
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