Jarrrad Saffren recaps the District One 4A boys soccer games featuring SOL squads. Photos provided courtesy of Jesse Garber (http://JSGarber.zenfolio.com/p923768915) Additional photos of the Neshaminy/Lower Merion game, taken by John Gleeson, can be viewed in our SOS galleries…CLICK HERE.
By Jarrad Saffren
Well, so much for that.
The all-Suburban One League final will not happen.
Council Rock North and North Penn—the SOL National and Continental champions, respectively—lost District One Class 4A semifinal games Wednesday.
No. 1 seed Conestoga will play No. 2 West Chester Henderson in the district championship Saturday.
But here is Wednesday’s silver lining: CR North and North Penn will still play in the PIAA Class 4A tournament. All four semifinalists will. One more D1 4A team will as well. And that team will come from the SOL.
Central Bucks East and Neshaminy won playback games Wednesday. They will meet in the fifth-place game Saturday. The winner earns the fifth and final D1 spot in the 4A state tournament.
Wednesday’s results and recaps are below.
Main Bracket
No. 1 seed Conestoga 2, No. 5 seed North Penn 1
Conestoga did something few teams are capable of: It neutralized Mike Kohler.
“They had one and two players on Kohler all night. He was still effective as he usually is. But they didn’t give him much room all night,” North Penn coach Paul Duddy said. “They are a good team all around, especially defensively and through the midfield.”
Kohler did not score a goal or assist on one. That usually means North Penn lost. And it did on Wednesday.
“They outplayed us. We made a couple uncharacteristic mistakes,” Duddy said. “When you do that against a very good team, they tend to punish you. And they took advantage.”
Neither team scored in the first half.
“The first half was even,” Duddy said.
But Conestoga scored twice in the first 20 minutes of the second half. The first goal came on a North Penn defensive lapse.
Conestoga positioned two players on the back post. North Penn did not mark them. One headed the ball in.
Later, with 11 minutes left, Noah Kwortnik crashed the net and buried the rebound. Carter Houlihan assisted. North Penn pressured Conestoga for the last 10 minutes. North Penn outshot Conestoga 4-2 during that stretch.
But the Knights could not net the equalizer.
“Once we went down 2-0, that was an uphill climb. We did get the one back but we ran out of time. Credit to them. They are a very good team,” Duddy said. “In the last 10 minutes, it was more on their half but they defended us very well. They weren’t great shots. They always had a body in front of us.”
North Penn (16-4) plays CR North Saturday in the third-place game. The winner earns D1’s No. 3 seed in the state tournament. The loser gets the No. 4 seed.
Conestoga 0-2 2
North Penn 0-1 1
No. 2 seed West Chester Henderson 5, No. 6 seed Council Rock North 0
No team beat Council Rock North this badly all season.
“We got clobbered. They are a great team. 25th in the country. Four DI commits in their first 11,” CR North coach Joe Stackhouse said. “They are strong, fast, big. They are an excellent team. They are one of the best high school teams I’ve seen in a while. We’d have to play a perfect game to beat them.”
North did not play a perfect game. It did not even play a good one. The Indians—who are normally stout on defense—gave up four goals off restarts and set pieces.
“It was a matter of guys getting marked on restarts,” Stackhouse said. “We didn’t do that. Giving up four goals on restarts is totally uncharacteristic of our team.”
North’s best defender—Eric Levine—was sidelined with an injury.
“That hurt us,” Stackhouse said.
Levine is not the only banged-up North player.
“We are beat up a little bit. Neshaminy was a physical game Saturday,” Stackhouse said. “Every game we are taping at least four players. Two or three guys sit out each practice. Quite a few have turf burns and turf cuts, too.”
North had some chances early to stay in the game. But the Indians could not get on the board.
“If one goes in, who knows? Maybe that changes things,” Stackhouse said. “We were outplayed and outmanned. Physically they took it to us. We haven’t been beat up like this in over a year. Last time we lost like this was to Pennsbury over a year ago.”
North (16-3-2) plays North Penn Saturday in the third-place game. Stackhouse really wants that D1 No. 3 seed for the state tournament.
“Because then we’d play the winner of the (Philadelphia) Catholic League versus (Philadelphia) Public League game, which gives us a comfort because we’ll be somewhat local, in the city or a suburban stadium,” Stackhouse said. “We won’t have to drive to the middle of nowhere to play the game. We could be in the Poconos or Harrisburg if we lose. And playing a higher seed.”
Playback Bracket
No. 8 seed Central Bucks East 2, No. 4 seed Pennsbury 0
Central Bucks East led 1-0 late in the first half.
With five minutes left, Pennsbury created its best scoring chance of the game. A striker got behind the Patriots’ brick wall of a defensive line. He ripped a shot on goal.
“It was definitely going in,” CB East coach Jeremiah White said. “It looked like it was going in.”
Patriots’ keeper Karl Vandlow dove and tipped the low shot away with his left index finger. Yes, his left index finger.
“It was a very important save,” White said. “We had to make a few more adjustments after that.”
Pennsbury created the chance because it made a “tactical switch.”
“They pushed guys up higher and tried to overload the left side,” White said.
White responded by pressing his wingers up higher to limit long balls. He also added an extra defensive midfielder to “make sure we’d win the second balls.”
The strategy worked. Pennsbury never created another chance. Vandlow made six saves. The other five were “in his zone.”
“We conceded possessions in certain areas. But in the danger areas we were pretty strong,” White said. “The kids did an excellent job managing the game today. Pennsbury was very dangerous offensively. Pennsbury’s attacking three (Zach LoBasso, Obi Onouha and John Griffin) are a handful.”
One defender played particularly well. And he is not a usual suspect, like Stephen Sheehan or Kyle Kittleson.
“Brendan Leasof did an excellent job,” White said. “He came off the bench and broke up plays, tackled the ball and won some headers. He was key to our ability to limit their big three.”
Sebastian Kryztofowicz and Tomas Ogonowski scored for CB East. Eric Quigley assisted on Ogonowski’s goal.
CB East (13-5-3)—the defending state champion—needs to beat Neshaminy Saturday to get back to the state tournament.
“Neshaminy is going to be tough,” White said. “Any team that scores three goals against Lower Merion is no joke. Lower Merion is a good defensive team.”
Pennsbury closes 2016 at 16-5.
Central Bucks East 1-1 2
Pennsbury 0-0 0
No. 6 seed Neshaminy 3, No. 7 seed Lower Merion 1
Lower Merion shut out 11 opponents and gave up nine goals in 2016.
But Neshaminy coach Tom Foley studied the Aces, and found a weakness.
“A couple people we talked to said they are susceptible to slotted balls around their defense,” Foley said. “We did drills over and over and over and I’m sure the guys were sick of it, but they paid off.”
Neshaminy coaches set up training mannequins—5-foot-10 dummies—in the ground “like a picket fence,” Foley said. The mannequins represented Lower Merion defenders. Neshaminy forwards dribbled up to the mannequins and laid balls off to midfielders. The midfielders played the balls wide.
“We did that repetitively,” Foley said.
Lower Merion’s defenders are aggressive. They go after balls in the middle. Foley wanted to exploit that aggressiveness. He wanted to bait the defenders to attack and then play balls wide.
Foley knew this could work because he has the horses. Neshaminy midfielder Dan Grindrod “is good at slotting balls and finding guys in the right spots,” Foley said. “We have three dangerous guys (Vince Hosephros, Chase Rider and Jack McCourt) who can score and Dan, who can find those guys.”
Neshaminy has also been attacking like this all season.
“We are good at that,” Foley said. “We like to lay balls off.”
The strategy worked perfectly. Neshaminy took a 1-0 lead in the second minute. Grindrod split Lower Merion’s defense and dropped the ball off for Hosephros. He “beat the keeper to the far post.”
Neshaminy made it 2-0 in the 20th minute. Hosephros, from the right side, crossed the ball to Jack McCourt. McCourt one-timed the ball “just under the crossbar.”
“Jack kicked a screamer,” Foley said. “It was off the crossbar and down and in. The goalie had no chance for it.”
Grindrod laid the ball off to start the play.
“Both of the first two goals happened how we planned them,” Foley said.
Neshaminy had all the momentum. But its intensity faded with the two-goal lead.
“We played very well in the first half and we tried to tell the guys we needed one more goal and they’d go away,” Foley said. “But for whatever reason the guys were lethargic, and they got back into it. We picked it up again though.”
Lower Merion scored on a penalty kick in the 50th minute to make it 2-1. The Aces controlled play for the next 8-10 minutes. Then Neshaminy regained control.
“We just decided to start playing again,” Foley said.
Neshaminy pressured Lower Merion for the last 20 minutes. In the 77th, Matt Leonhauser “iced the game.” Grindrod, on a free kick, served the ball into the box. Chase Rider leaped for the ball and deflected it to Leonhauser. He kicked it past the keeper.
“We played very well, except for the 15-20 minute stretch in the 2nd half,” Foley said. “It was nice beating a quality team like Lower Merion, who had a very stingy defense going into the game. Grindrod, McCourt and Hosephros were a handful all night and Kevin Hanuscin played particularly well in the back.”
Neshaminy’s (15-6) reward for beating a great defensive team? Another great defensive team, CB East, in the fifth-place game Saturday. The winner makes the state tournament. The loser goes home.
“CB East plays the same style as Lower Merion. They are very organized in the back. And they are tested. They saw some quality teams like North Penn,” Foley said. “We’ll have to do the same things. We have to stay out of the middle and utilize Vince and Chase out wide, in the flanks.”
Foley knows East will learn about Neshaminy’s strategy. But he is not worried.
“I’m sure they’ll be ready for it. But if you do it right, it’s difficult to defend and play against,” Foley said. “If we are slow playing the ball, and play it into the middle, that will play into East’s hands, and we could be in trouble.”
Neshaminy 2-1 3
Lower Merion 0-1 1
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