Check out the recaps for SOL boys’ soccer teams in action Thursday. Quakertown/Wissahickon photos provided courtesy of Kim Supko. Lower Moreland/New Hope-Solebury photos courtesy of Karla Donohoe. Check back for galleries of both games: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/f131331739
SOL Liberty Division
Upper Dublin 1, Abington 0
Abington has cruised through the SOL schedule and seemed headed towards an early clinch of the Liberty Division title and a high seed for the upcoming District One Tournament. Upper Dublin was looking to put up a roadblock on Thursday and did just that, courtesy of a 1-0 shutout win.
“It’s literally a breath of fresh air,” said Flying Cardinals coach Noah Johnson. “I’m on cloud-nine right now. This one really meant something.
“Little brother finally got a win. It’s something we’ve been saying all week, ‘Little brother’s got to win eventually’ and today little brother finally won.”
Most of this game was a scoreless struggle, but in the 70th minute, Dom Plaku scored what would be the game-winner for Upper Dublin.
“Both teams were just really gassed, and with both teams really gassed, it kind of led to a lot of one-on-one opportunities,” Johnson said. “Maxwell (Obando) crossed it, and Dominick scored on a header from out of nowhere. He’s been struggling all year to put the ball in the back of the net, and what a way to show up today.
“He took the header from about 17-18 yards away, bounced in, and I guess it caught the keeper off guard, and as he dove, it literally bounced and went over his hands.”
Defensively, UD was on point, recording its fifth straight shutout, but it wasn’t easy.
“They usually score,” Johnson said about Abington. “Today, for them, was very unlucky. They had a lot of opportunities, and so did we. We got lucky and put one in.”
The Cardinals’ coach had nothing but praise for his team’s defense.
“It’s all of them,” Johnson said. “(Goalkeeper) Gabe Copley – I love him to death. He kept us in the game once again. He shows up in big games. He had a lot of big saves today to help us out on the back line.
“Brady Hillman, coming back off injuries – he’s still injured and playing on an injury – he’s just toughing through us and fighting as much as he possibly can through it. Kaleb Abebe being mature enough as a sophomore to go ahead and step into that role his first time on varsity.
“Reilly McLaughlin doing a good job of getting forward and creating many opportunities for us. Owen Smith doing an awesome job once again, and Dom Plaku being put into a center mid role, which he’s never done before, and just being told on the spot, ‘Hey, this is what I need you to do, go do it,’ and him getting it done. Hats off to him.”
Abington (14-2, 13-1 SOL) still is in the driver’s seat to wrap up the division title, with a one game lead over UD with two games remaining. The Ghosts host Wissahickon on Monday.
Upper Dublin (13-2, 12-2 SOL) hosts Plymouth Whitemarsh on Monday night. Upper Dublin is eighth in the latest District 1 4A power rankings while Abington is sixth.
Abington 0 0 – 0
Upper Dublin 0 1 – 1
Quakertown 4, Wissahickon 3 (2 OT)
With 20 seconds to play in the second and final overtime, Carter Tull picked up the game winner as Quakertown went on the road to win a wild one at Wissahickon on
the Trojan’s Senior Night.
“With 20 seconds left, we launched a long throw and Owen Williams provided a slipped ball to Carter Tull, and he finished this one for the win,” said Panthers coach Bill James.
“My backline and keeper played amazing. Jake Mosser making save after save, and Alex Jalbootwas able to have a fantastic battle with their No. 7, which was an absolute handful.
“Ryan Dauter and Ayden Walsh played great at center back, and Jackson Kalinowski and Dalton Mapes played outstanding in their minutes as well.”
While they won the game in the final 20 seconds, the Panthers scored their first goal in the first minute by Otani Epke and that was the only goal of the first half.
Wissahickon scored the first two goals of the second half, and then Tull tied it with his first goal, off an assist from Dylan Chauhan. Dauter made it 3-2 with a free kick, only to see Wissahickon rally to tie it in regulation.
Late in the second OT, Quakertown had chances, but were thwarted by great saves, before Tull finished off the win.
Quakertown (6-9, 5-8 SOL) next plays at Hatboro-Horsham on Monday.
Wissahickon (6-9, 5-9 SOL) hosts Holy Ghost Prep in a nonleague game Friday.
Quakertown 1 2 0 1 – 4
Wissahickon 0 3 0 0 – 3
Plymouth Whitemarsh 2, Hatboro-Horsham 0
Jeff Schneider scored in the first half on a penalty kick and then Nuri Bariun added one in the second half and that was all the Colonials needed in Thursday’s shutout win over visiting Hatboro-Horsham Thursday.
With the win, PW is now 7-9 overall and 7-7 in the SOL with two games remaining. It plays at Upper Dublin on Monday.
H-H (5-9, 5-9 SOL) hosts Archbishop Wood in a nonleague game Saturday.
Hatboro-Horsham 0 0 – 0
PW 1 1 – 2
SOL Freedom Division
William Tennent 1, Cheltenham 0
Connor Hanratty converted a penalty kick in the first half, and that held up as William Tennent won for the second time this week and brought its record back to the .500 mark with the 1-0 win over Cheltenham.
“Cheltenham hit the post five times as both teams generated good scoring opportunities,” said Tennent coach Angelo Albanese. “We hit the post three times. Tough, but exciting game from both teams. We just got a bit luckier.”
Goalkeeper Zach Dinnis recorded his fifth shutout of the season for Tennent.
“He was outstanding on high crosses all day,” Albanese said. “Nazariy Kukhniy was offensively sharp throughout the game.
“Patrick Gillespie played well all over the field, defending tenaciously while being involved in most of our offensive thrusts. Ryan Black and Mason Adelson anchored a tough defensive effort in the second half when Cheltenham pressed hard for the equalizer.”
With the win, Tennent is now 8-8 overall on the season, 7-7 in the SOL with two league game remaining, starting with a road game at William Tennent on Monday. Tennent is 24th in the latest District 1 4A power rankings while Cheltenham fell to 29th, one spot out of what will be a 28-team field.
Cheltenham (8-7, 6-7 SOL) plays at Upper Moreland on Monday.
Cheltenham 0 0 – 0
Tennent 1 0 – 1
Springfield Twp 6, Upper Moreland 1
A 2-1 game at the half turned into another big win for Freedom Division champ Springfield, which scored four unanswered goals in the second half to put this one away on Thursday.
Harry Bates had a huge game with three goals for the Spartans.
Riley Martin had one goal and one assist, while Justin Whang and Ezra Parks also scored goals.
Kayden Sowell had two assists, while Nick Marino, Henry Drapkin and Ben Hubley also had assists.
Springfield (15-1, 13-1 SOL) – ranked first in the latest District 1 3A power rankings – hosts rival Lower Moreland on Monday.
UM (2-13, 1-13 SOL) hosts Cheltenham on Monday.
UM 1 0 – 1
Springfield 2 4 – 6
Lower Moreland 3, New Hope-Solebury 2
(Game info will be added when it’s received)
SOL Patriot Division
Harry S. Truman 2, Neshaminy 1
It’s been a long-time coming.
Harry S. Truman hadn’t won a game in two years. It hadn’t won a Suburban One League game since 2015, a stretch of 104 games without a win (they did have two ties in league play in the 2019 season). The Tigers’ last win came on Oct. 15, 2015 – a 2-1 win over Bensalem.
On Thursday, the Tigers fell behind when Neshaminy’s Matt Diamond scored in the 15th minute with an assist from Rezi Tibdze. The Tigers answered with two Juan Ramirez scores in the second half to knock off visiting Neshaminy for the well-earned victory.
“Truman carried the play in the second half and deserved to win,” Neshaminy coach Tom Foley said.
“It’s been two years since they’ve won a game,” said Tigers’ first-year coach Mike McCool. “It was really needed for morale. It’s nice to see everything we were working on this year finally pay off.”
McCool took over the helm of the boys’ program this year after coaching the girls’ team at Truman last year.
“For the majority of this year and last year – I’m sure you know – we tend to lose 6-0, 7-0 even some games 9-0,” the Tigers’ coach said. “It’s been like that for some time. We had a different head coach last year. When I hopped on with the boys, I noticed they were lacking some pretty fundamental soccer skills. All the individual talent you’d ever want, but they didn’t know the basics of playing on a team.
“It’s been a slow progression toward getting them to buy into those basics of soccer. The boys wanted to play their way for the longest time, but the previous game before this was against Pennsbury and we were able to score three goals. That’s the highest scoring game all season, even last season too. They began to buy into the basics of soccer recently. They’ve always had the talent. We needed them to play the game correctly.”
Ramirez, a junior, tied it in the second half off an assist from Nico Cifuentes. Later, he knocked home a free kick to make it 2-1.
“Our defense was able to consistently clear the ball out of our third,” McCool said.
McCool also pointed to junior left back Umut Akin, as “a key player back there on defense,” as well as Trevin Heard, Josh Norris and Christian Hernandez.
“I wish I could give a shout out to every player,” McCool said. “All of them, they made sound decisions, quicker than usual.
“(At halftime), I sat them down in the corner and told them – I don’t lie to them – the chances of us winning a lot of times are very, very slim.’ I told them this is a game I really believe we can win, and we will win. I told them it’s going to come down to buying in, believing, playing like we did against Pennsbury. For these boys, winning this one game is going to mean the world to them.”
Harry S Truman (1-14, 1-13 SOL) will travel to Bensalem on Monday.
Neshaminy (3-12-1, 2-11-1) will be on the road at Council Rock North on Monday for a 6 p.m. contest.
Neshaminy 1 0 – 1
Truman 0 2 – 2
Bensalem 0, Pennsbury 0
For the second time in three games, Bensalem picked up a tie in divisional play, continuing a 1-0-2 stretch over the last three with the scoreless game with Pennsbury on Thursday.
“Every game’s stressful,” said Owls coach Kevin Bock. “We had chances, but I think Pennsbury definitely had the better of chances. They may have hit the post two or three times.
“We did a pretty good job with defensive responsibilities, getting back and playing strong defense.”
The Owls’ coach lauded the efforts of his defense, which has allowed just one goal in the last three games combined, and that came in a 2-1 win over Council Rock North.
“Our goalie, Matt Rowen, had another good game and had a couple of really good saves, so another shutout for him,” Bock said. “It’s been good for him playing these last three games.
“Our defense played well again. We had one change – Matt Wheaton played in the back with Aaron Greer and Andrew Leibig. Those three did a good job. The game really opened up towards the end. The overtime was back and forth.”
Bensalem was coming off of its upset of first place CR North on Tuesday.
“I think part of it is we came off maybe a little bit of a high with the North game,” Bock said. “That was big, it was kind of draining, and there was a little bit of a letdown today from us from an emotional standpoint. It definitely wasn’t our best game today, but we did enough. We got a tie, and it’s three games in a row without a loss.”
Bensalem (4-8-2, 4-8-2 SOL) hosts Conwell-Egan in a nonleague game on Saturday.
Pennsbury (4-9-3, 4-7-3 SOL) hosts Council Rock South on Monday.
Pennsbury 0 0 0 0 – 0
Bensalem 0 0 0 0 – 0
Council Rock North 1, Council Rock South 0
With its win in the annual Unity Cup game, CR North clinched at least a share of the Patriot Division title, as Ari Pollack finished off a penalty kick to give the Indians the win over their rival.
“The game was very physical – it was bang-bang,” said CR North coach Joe Stackhouse. “The referees could have let them play a little bit more, but I think it was your typical 10-round bout.
“I think Alan (Nicholl) would also tell you that we had the better scoring opportunities than they did. At times, they held the ball better than us, and at times, we held the ball better than they did.”
Pollack’s initial PK attempt was saved, but he was allowed a do-over after the referee called a Rock South player for encroachment. He buried his second attempt.
“It was an unusual call that you rarely see, but the ref saw what he saw,” said Hawks coach Alan Nicholl. “It was unfortunate, because while I don’t think we did enough to win the game, I also don’t think we deserved to lose.
“The game was played at a hectic pace and lacked quality, to be honest. The chances were few on both sides. Overall, it was an ugly game and (we’re) obviously disappointed with the result.”
CR North played very well on the defensive end throughout.
“It’s hard to pinpoint any one kid tonight,” Stackhouse said. “We went out with a strategic game plan to keep their best player, Frankie Rafferty, off the board. The kid that covered him man-to-man, Michael Pinho, did an absolutely fabulous job.
“The other thing we wanted to do too was to try to disrupt any development of play they would have in the middle of the field because basically what they do is they run the middle of the field to get the ball through to Frankie to go one-on-one with somebody. The guys in the middle of the field did a bang-up job. David Igval and Isaac Morais were the two guys that played a defensive midfield role, and they did a very good job.”
Both goalkeepers, according to the Rock North coach, also turned in strong outings.
“Calvin Hopkins, our goalkeeper, made two very good saves during the course of the game, and their goalkeeper, Evan Zawodniak, made five or six spectacular saves,” Stackhouse said. “The whole defensive unit for us – Darek Miller, Dom Czachor and Jasper Ring – all contributed well tonight. We had a shutout, and I think they all played well.
“Zayd Najimi played fabulously for us tonight. He was slick on the ball all night. He can play.”
CR North (11-2-2, 10-2-2 SOL) has a nonleague game Saturday night at Archbishop Ryan, and then will try to wrap up sole possession of the division title against Neshaminy on Monday. The Indians are 12th in the latest District 1 4A power rankings, and the Golden Hawks are 16th.
CR South (9-4-2, 8-4-2 SOL) plays at Pennsbury on Monday.
CR North 0 1 – 1
CR South 0 0 – 0
SOL Colonial Division
Central Bucks East 4, Pennridge 1
It was Senior Night at CB East, and all 19 were able to celebrate in style as the Patriots took care of Pennridge by a 4-1 score.
“I’m incredibly impressed with the character of these kids,” said Patriots coach Josh Isaacsohn. “They wanted to do everything they could to get all their buddies into the game tonight, and we managed to get every senior on the field, and it was just tremendous.
“They’ve all been a tight-knit group for a long time, and I’m just incredibly proud of how they’ve carried themselves, their sportsmanship, their hard work, and the best part is they’re all really good soccer players. And when we put our subs in, our philosophy is we don’t sub because you’re not as good as someone else. We sub you in to make the game better, and these guys tonight, every single one of them made the game better, and I’m just really proud of them.”
Michael Montabana opened the scoring off a free kick seven minutes into the game.
“He was probably 20 yards out on angle and just put it right over the wall,” Isaacsohn said. ”It was absolutely tremendous. It was really well done.”
In the 29th minute, Justin Bardwell finished a penalty kick to make it 2-0 later in the half.
Joey Roth scored from Montabana in the 49th minute. Pennridge managed to cut it to 3-1, but then with two minutes remaining, Jeremy Salazar scored for CB East from Justin Bardwell.
CB East (14-1, 14-0 SOL) – 5th in the District 1 4A power rankings – plays at Souderton on Monday.
Pennridge (5-10-1, 4-9-1 SOL) is at CB West on Monday night.
Pennridge 0 1 – 1
CB East 2 2 – 4
Central Bucks South 2, Central Bucks West 1
After a scoreless first half, CB South scored two goals after the midway point of the second half and then held on to edge rival CB West on Thursday.
“Tonight was a good game of soccer between good teams,” said Titans coach Kyle Pettican. “The game was extremely even from start to finish. It was refreshing to see a game of two teams that want to get the ball down and knock it.
“I thought the game was up and down (with) times where we dominated and times where they did. Both teams had chances but both defenses were solid.”
After a scramble in the box, Anthony Bice gave CB South the 1-0 lead. Then, after Josh Dozier was brought down in the box, Nate MacLeod finished a penalty kick to make it 2-0.
Jason Lee scored CB West’s goal to cut it to 2-1 with four minutes to go, but the Titans were able to finish the game off.
“Again, nothing but great things to say about my friend (CB West coach John Adair) and what he’s doing over at West,” Pettican said.
CB South (10-3-1, 9-3-1 SOL) – 14th in the latest District 1 4A power rankings – has a nonleague road game Friday at Methacton.
CB West (8-8, 8-6 SOL) hosts Pennridge on Monday. The Bucks are 21st in the power rankings.
CB South 0 2 – 2
CB West 0 1 – 1
North Penn 2, Souderton 0
Conor Sullivan scored twice, and North Penn improved to 4-0-1 in its last five games with the shutout of rival Souderton.
“There’s nothing like a few wins to light the fires again because I’m seeing a much livelier group and their communication is much better and more constructive,” North Penn coach Chris DePeppe said. We’re getting great leadership from our key players and important minutes from reserves, but the real fun and the biggest tests are still ahead. We will be ready.”
The Knights’ first goal came in the fourth minute, off a cross from Eion Regan.
Then in the second half, Sullivan helped clinch the win with a penalty kick goal.
“We scored early and then let up a bit, but I thought when we raised our level again to start the second half that we would get another goal,” DePeppe said. “Connor Sullivan scored both, and he has been in great form over the last several weeks.
“Eion Regan was our best player today and just had a very strong all-around game with great tackling and perfectly timed challenges, jumping into the attack and making good decisions. The two Regan brothers have been terrific all season with Fion in center midfield and Eion at fullback. They’re sophomores, but you wouldn’t know it by their play.
“Between Souderton and us we probably had ten sophomores on the field at one point. Souderton is young and they are well-coached and that’s a team on the rise.”
North Penn (7-5-3, 6-4-3 SOL) – 20th in the latest District 1 4A power rankings – hosts CB South on Monday night.
Souderton (6-8-1, 5-8-1 SOL) has a nonleague game Saturday at Lansdale Catholic. The Indians are 27th in the latest rankings for what will be a 28-team field.
Souderton 0 0 – 0
North Penn 1 1 – 2
Wednesday, Oct. 11
Non-league
Quakertown 5, Palisades 3
For the second time in as many nights, Alex Jalboot connected for a pair of goals while teammates Billy Reinoso, Wilson Martinez and Owen Williams each added one.
“Now we play (Thursday) night for our third game in as many days,” coach Bill James said. “Hoping to continue the scoring and finish out the week with a win.”
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