Jarrad Saffren shares feedback from SOL coaches about the District One Power Rankings and highlights the conference races coming down the home stretch.
By Jarrad Saffren
The District One Boys Soccer Power Rankings determine which teams make the playoffs and where they are seeded.
Some coaches still have no idea how the two-year-old system works. They just know they hate it. Others love it because it makes non-conference games more important.
The system is divisive, but most coaches agree on one thing: Conference games still matter because they count in the power rankings. The real question is this: Do races, standings, and ultimately a conference championship still mean as much as they did before?
I asked six Suburban One League coaches, and their answers varied. They also shared their thoughts on how the power rankings influence scheduling, and whether they are a true indicator of where each team stands.
Don Brady, Central Bucks South: “With our conference as tough as it is, it makes it hard. In years past, we’d get four, five, sometimes six teams in the playoffs from our conference. But last year we were fifth and weren’t even close to getting in. This year you have to be at least third or fourth to be sure you’re getting in.”
Joe Leone, Bensalem: “I see the merit of the power rankings sometimes. Some teams in our league are better than teams we play with higher rankings, like Tennent for example. We played Penn Wood recently and it was a pretty easy game. Penn Wood is ranked ahead of Tennent. So the power rankings aren’t a true indicator of top teams.”
Pete Valimont, Pennridge: “If you’re not gonna beat the top four teams in your conference, you better win all of your non-league games. So everyone’s trying to add cupcake non-league games. It’s no longer ‘Pennridge played Downingtown West and gave them a heck of a game.’ Now it’s ‘Pennridge played some bad team and got five points and that’s all that matters.’ Our conference beats each other up. Other teams only have to play us once. I don’t like it.”
Mike Gorni, Central Bucks East: “Everyone always wants to win the league title in a prestigious league. I don’t think the power rankings make the conference race obsolete. It just makes it so that overall record is more important. The only thing that’s hard is that you could finish ahead of a team in the league but conceivably be seeded behind them.”
Derek Priest, Upper Dublin: “I’m having trouble understanding the power rankings. The formula they sent out last year in an email was very long and confusing. They first came out after we lost to Wissahickon and we were in 21st. Then the next time they came out, after we won two more games, we dropped to 27th. I’m not sure how we dropped six spots after winning two games. I’d prefer us to win the league and not make the playoffs than finish second and make the playoffs. It’s something tangible, winning the conference title. You can say, ‘That year we were the best team in that conference.’”
Joe Stackhouse, Council Rock North: “It needs to take into account the classifications of the schools you are playing. We are playing Wood tomorrow, who is second in the Catholic League. We already played La Salle, who’s third in the Catholic League, and also played Wissahickon and Owen J. Roberts, who are first in their leagues.”
Ironically, in this new era where a league title is mostly a matter of pride, the 2015 season features two exciting races to the finish line, in the SOL National and American. In the Continental, a team other than CB East has not lost in more than three weeks.
SOL National
Seven National teams are separated by eight points. They all have at least four league wins and none have more than six.
“All of the schools in the area have a lot of talent and are pretty equally matched,” said Leone.
“It’s probably one of the premier conferences in PA,” added Stackhouse. “Top to bottom every game is usually a pretty good game to watch.”
The coaches identified three reasons why the league is so competitive. There is no dominant team, it’s hard to sweep a home and home series, and three programs are getting good at the same time.
Neshaminy won the National in 2012, ’13, and ’14, and finished 14-0 last season. But the Redskins lost a lot of key players, leaving a void at the top.
Pennsbury looked like this year’s Neshaminy halfway through the schedule. The Falcons started 5-0-1 in league play and were four points ahead of Bensalem. But they are just 1-2-1 in their last four games, and are now tied in first with Council Rock North. Council Rock South coach Alan Nicholl said the Falcons are still the favorite down the stretch.
“Experience plays a big part at this level. It’s not a club team where you play 30, 40 games over the course of the year. You play 20 games over seven weeks,” Nicholl said. “Of all the teams we’ve played, Pennsbury has the composure, the experience to get over the finish line.”
Some of Pennsbury’s primary challengers are programs on the rise, like Bensalem, North, and William Tennent. All were down in recent years but are jelling under third and fourth year coaches.
“It takes a few years for programs to rise,” Leone said. “It is tough for coaches to walk in and have success. They have to get used to the kids and the school district.”
As nouveau riches mesh with established programs, it becomes increasingly difficult to beat a team twice in a season.
“In other leagues, you have teams where you are comfortable winning the home and away,” said Pennsbury coach Tom Stoddart. “In our league, it is like, on the road, ‘Let’s try to get out of there with a tie.’ That’s a good result.”
Most of the National coaches attribute parity to similar talent levels at each school. Two, North’s Joe Stackhouse and Neshaminy’s Tom Foley, think it’s also a result of similar styles.
“For the most part, we are all long ball type teams,” said Stackhouse. “The team that plays the best east to west across midfield will win. Often we get in run and shoot games where we bypass the midfield and go over the top.”
Six National teams have four games left and two have five.
“If anybody goes 4-0 they have a very good shot,” said Tennent coach Ryan Todt. “3-1 should do it.”
So pop your popcorn, add some butter (if you like butter), and stay tuned.
SOL American
The SOL National features the best race top to bottom, but the American has the best one at the top. Upper Dublin and Wissahickon are tied in first-place with eight wins and 24 points, the second highest totals among 24 SOL teams.
While contenders like CB East, Pennsbury, and others in the National and Continental soak up the media love, American schools, which are smaller, are sometimes inconspicuous.
Still, there is no question that Upper Dublin and Wissahickon can play with bigger schools. The Cardinals and Trojans have dominated American opponents.
Upper Dublin has ridden an explosive, deep offense to a four-game winning streak, outscoring their last three opponents 12-1.
Four Cardinals—Nick Browndorff, Jose Palomeque, Jake Rosen, and Todd Spirt—have scored at least four goals. Palomeque and Spirt do not even start.
“What’s been big is we don’t just have a good starting 11,” said Upper Dublin coach Derek Preist. “We can go four, five, six deep and it doesn’t make a difference.”
Wissahickon’s success is more surprising because the Trojans returned just three starters. “
We are trying to look at different guys and see where they fit. We have lots of guys who haven’t played varsity soccer,” said Wissahickon coach Stuart Malcolm before the season.
Wissahickon’s strength is its defense, the only unit on the team with experience. Two of the three returning starters are defenders, and the Trojans have allowed just 12 goals in 10 league games.
Neither team is a clear favorite with two weeks to go. On Sept. 25, Wissahickon beat Upper Dublin by a goal, but Priest said his team missed four or five chances to tie the game. The Cardinals and Trojans play each other one more time and each has four league games left.
SOL Continental
On Sept. 18, Central Bucks South lost to CB East 5-0, dropping to 1-2 in league play. Coach Don Brady was worried.
“We hadn’t been consistent up to that point,” Brady said. “We did real well against Neshaminy in the opener. Then lost to North Penn and gave up five goals. Then we came back and played great against Horsham. Then we struggled against East.”
“It was like, ‘Okay which team will show up?’ ‘Is this how it’s going to be all season?”’
The Titans have not lost since, going 6-0-1 in their last seven games to catapult from sixth-place to second.
The streak, and South’s season, is a coming of age story. Brady said the team experienced growing pains last year because it started six sophomores. Four of those sophomores, who are now juniors—Colin Green, Colin Fagan, Giani Goss, and Jason Reimert, along with senior Connor Bethel—have sparked the streak, Brady said.
More than anything, the juniors, plus Bethel, started maintaining possessions.
“Our distribution from the back has gotten better. We gave the ball away too much against North Penn and East,” said Brady.
Down eight points with four games left, South probably will not catch the undefeated Patriots. But, at 10th in the power rankings, the Titans would likely have to go 0-4 to miss the playoffs.
Power Rankings
1. CB East—The Patriots have won two in a row without injured center midfielder JR Eisold.
2. CB South—In the last three weeks, the Titans have been more impressive than their Central Bucks rival.
3. North Penn—The Knights are third in the district power rankings behind East.
4. Pennsbury—Pennsbury is tied in first-place with North, but crushed the Indians 5-0 last Tuesday.
5. Wissahickon/Upper Dublin—The Cardinals have been more impressive lately but the Trojans won the only meeting between these teams.
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