Jarrad Saffren recaps Monday’s full slate of SOL boys’ soccer games.
By Jarrad Saffren
Eighteen Suburban One League boys’ soccer teams played league games on Monday. Two—Neshaminy and Pennridge—played non-league games against Holy Ghost Prep and Southern Lehigh, respectively.
Eleven total games made Monday the busiest SOL boys’ soccer day of 2017 so far. It was a busy start to what will be a three-game week for many SOL teams. The October stretch run is here.
Read all 11 results and recaps below.
SOL Continental
Central Bucks East 1, North Penn 0
The Patriots ended North Penn’s eight-game winning streak and pulled into a first place tie with the Knights and Central Bucks West. It was, to say the least, a big win for CB East.
“Look at the math. We needed to win in order to stay alive,” said East coach Jerry White. “It feels good. The thing that feels good is we started earlier in the season with questions in goal, and Jordan (Geller) has made steady steps forward. And we started with questions about how we were gonna score. But those boys did well today.”
Geller made seven saves and limited North Penn’s chances.
“Jordan did a good job keeping us organized, coming out on crosses, punching balls out,” said East defender Will Eisold.
“I knew I had to get everyone in position because if one person was out of place, they could score,” Geller said.
And while East only scored one goal on Monday, it out-shot North Penn 15-11 and controlled possessions after halftime.
“We knew the goal was coming because we kept coming at them,” said Keegan Cannon, who scored the goal.
In the 77th minute, Cannon blasted the ball over the keeper’s outstretched fingers. Brenden Leasoff tapped the ball to Cannon. Eisold floated it over the box to Leasoff.
“I just put it in, hoping someone would get it. Luckily Keegan was on the back end of it,” Eisold said.
“Luckily Leasoff was on the back post and could send it right to me,” Cannon said.
The Patriots were able to come down from that high long enough to hold off the blitzing Knights.
“We just packed it in and defended. They are a great team. It’s awesome to come out on top against them,” Eisold said. “We battle them every year.”
North Penn keeper Joey Lindsay played well in his own right, making five saves.
CB East (6-4, 5-2 SOL) plays Souderton on Wednesday night at 6:30. North Penn (9-2, 5-2 SOL) hosts Central Bucks West on Wednesday night at seven.
Central Bucks East 0-1 1
North Penn 0-0 0
Central Bucks South 2, Souderton 0
Central Bucks South earned a confidence-boosting win and evened the season series with Souderton.
RJ Visco scored in the second minute to put the Titans up 1-0. Ryan Rieber assisted. Tyler O’Brien made it 2-0 in the 50th minute. Visco assisted.
“I think it’s very important for their confidence,” said CB South coach Don Brady. “We lost to Souderton 1-nil at their place earlier in the season. Between that and a 2-1 loss to East in OT last week, those kinds of things do have to build momentum. We have a young team.”
Brady created a new role for Visco on Monday.
“We put him up top, which he hasn’t had a chance to play there before. He did a good job,” Brady said. “We usually put a fast guy up there to close things down. RJ is more tactical, times his runs. I think he wanted to prove he could be up there today.”
South keeper Gavin Campbell made five saves and earned his first shutout of 2017. “He’s a sophomore. The biggest thing with him is that our guys in the back are not afraid to play the ball back to his feet. That helps us be a little more dynamic,” Brady said.
CB South (2-8-1, 2-5 SOL) plays Pennridge on Wednesday night at 7:30. Souderton (2-7-2, 2-5 SOL) battles CB East on Wednesday night at 6:30.
Central Bucks South 1-1 2
Souderton 0-0 0
William Tennent 2, Central Bucks West 0
William Tennent improved to 4-3 in league play with this upset win over the first-place Bucks.
Billy Hanratty and Sean Metz scored for Tennent. Keeper Brandon Hefele earned the shutout.
Tennent (6-4, 4-3 SOL) plays North Penn on Friday at 3:45. CB West (8-3, 5-2 SOL) battles the Knights on Wednesday at 3:45.
SOL National
Pennsbury 2, Bensalem 1
Bensalem took a 1-0 lead in the 28th minute on Robbie Montero’s goal, assisted by German Contreras. Pennsbury answered with two second half goals, in the 51st and 63rd minutes, respectively, that clinched the win.
Randy Dickersbach and Arlyn Buondonno scored the goals. Matt Tennant and Matiss Mendis assisted on them.
“I thought we did a good job throughout the game trying our best to move the ball around. Their field is a little tight. We didn’t take advantage of what little width there was. There were some areas we could exploit down the right flank,” said Pennsbury coach Tom Stoddart. “So we moved Matiss out of the middle and into the right back spot. That made their best player play defensively as Matiss got forward. That’s how we earned the throw-in that led to our first goal. On the second goal, he got all the way down again to the end line and crossed it over for the game winner.”
Stoddart trusts Mendis anywhere on the field.
“Matiss is going to have an impact on the game, and it’s on us as a staff to put him in the spots where we need him, and he’ll come through,” he said.
Pennsbury keeper Nate Slotnick made six saves. “Including three pretty nice ones toward the end of the game,” Stoddart said. “Bensalem is a dangerous team. They were more dangerous than we were with scoring opportunities. But we had the balance of ball control.”
Pennsbury (7-3-1, 5-2 SOL) hosts Abington on Wednesday at 3:30. Bensalem (4-6, 2-5 SOL) plays Neshaminy on the same day and time.
Pennsbury 0-2 2
Bensalem 1-0 1
Council Rock South 2, Abington 1
Abington beat Council Rock South 6-1 on September 6. Sean Touey scored three goals in that game. So CR South coach Alan Nicholl geared Monday’s game plan toward stopping Touey.
“Nick Santos played him tight. Touey is a great player. I pretty much told Nick I wanted him wearing Sean’s socks by the end of the game,” Nicholl said. “I figured take our best player, mark him and see if we can beat Abington 10 v. 10.”
The strategy worked. Santos held Touey scoreless and South overcame a 1-0 deficit with two goals in the last 15 minutes. Conor Nelms scored both. Dan Maggio and Conor Sweeney assisted.
“It was a hard-fought game between the 18s with both teams leaving it all on the field. They are a good team. But we’ve been playing confidently. I knew we’d create some shots. We are coming alive and kids are starting to believe that we’ll put some points on the board if given the chance,” Nicholl said. “Last time we played them it was 6-1. So this was a great statement from the kids. I said we had a point to prove in this game. This is about more than playoff points.”
Leo Pitkow scored Abington’s goal, in the third minute.
CR South (6-6, 4-3 SOL) hosts CR North on Wednesday at 5:15. Abington (9-4, 4-3 SOL) plays Pennsbury on Wednesday at 3:30.
Council Rock South 0-2 2
Abington 1-0 1
Council Rock North 7, Harry S. Truman 0
Six different players scored as Council Rock North stayed undefeated in league play (7-0). Vinny Colons scored twice. TJ Grube had a goal and an assist.
Jacob Zlotshewer and Andrew Dairies earned the shutout in goal for the Indians.
“We had 10 corner kicks in the first five minutes. That’s how much pressure we had,” said CR North coach Joe Stackhouse. “We worked on some things, too. We were up 3-0 at halftime. Restart plays, short balls, playing balls over the top that we may not get done against a stronger opponent. We want to get better at this stuff so we can use it in districts.”
CR North (7-4, 7-0 SOL) plays CR South on Wednesday at 5:15. Truman (4-7, 0-6 SOL) takes on CR South on Thursday night at six.
Council Rock North 3-4 7
Harry S. Truman 0-0 0
SOL American
Hatboro-Horsham 4, Springfield Township 0
Six different Hatters got on the score sheet in their win over Springfield. JD Mallinder, Nick Hatzenbeller, Danny Harmon and Andrew Hurrell scored goals. Josh Hagerty, Josh Luke and Harmon assisted on those scores.
“We had a good mix of guys today. Hatzenbeller and Harmon have been scoring a lot. JD scored again and it’s been a little while since he scored,” said Hatboro-Horsham coach Kyle McGrath. “Josh Luke has been playing well. It was good not to have to rely on one or two guys to do a lot of the scoring.”
Hurrell continues to be an underrated difference-maker for the Hatters.
“He worked his way onto varsity last year as a sophomore and has had an increased role this year,” McGrath said. “I’ve challenged him to come in and change games and he usually gets on the sheet with either a goal or an assist. I can always count on him to give full effort when he gets in the game.”
Hatboro-Horsham (9-2-1, 6-2 SOL) plays Upper Moreland on Wednesday at 3:30. Springfield (6-4-1, 3-4-1 SOL) hosts Cheltenham on Wednesday at 3:30.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 2, Upper Moreland 0
Upper Moreland keeper Matt Sheldon made 22 saves. It was a valiant effort, enough to earn a rare namedrop from an opposing coach, PW’s Jeff Heaton, after the game, but still not quite enough to upset the Colonials.
“Matt Sheldon played unbelievable,” Heaton said. “But I’m very happy with the way we played tonight. Our possession and quick counters were really strong all game.”
“The boys fought hard but the quality of PW was too much for us,” said Upper Moreland coach Matt Duffey.
PW snuck in one goal in the first half and one more in the second. Jacobe Sandcroft and Alex Lefkowitz beat Sheldon. Gavin Hendrick assisted on both goals.
“He’s playing really well lately,” Heaton said.
PW keeper Patrick Corpus stopped six shots. Defenders Max Lubas, Ryan Clancey, Sean Cranney and Evan Elgart played well in front of Corpus.
The Colonials (6-3-1, 5-2 SOL) play Wissahickon on Wednesday at 3:30. Upper Moreland (0-10, 0-7 SOL) hosts Hatboro-Horsham on Wednesday at 3:30.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 1-1 2
Upper Moreland 0-0 0
Upper Dublin 3, Cheltenham 1
Upper Dublin scored twice in the first half to take a 2-0 lead into halftime. Then, after a Cheltenham goal in the 45th minute, UD closed the game with a goal in the 66th minute.
Dan Ness, John Visher and Matt Yoon scored the Upper Dublin goals, in the 24th, 40th and 66th minutes, respectively. Jerry Bardol had two assists. Corey Schonberg had one.
Upper Dublin (7-2, 7-1 SOL) hosts Quakertown on Wednesday night at seven. Cheltenham (3-7, 2-6 SOL) plays Springfield on Wednesday at 3:30.
Upper Dublin 2-1 3
Cheltenham 0-1 1
Non-League
Pennridge 3, Southern Lehigh 1
Matt Stevenson scored two goals to lead Pennridge to its fifth win (5-6) of 2017.
“Matt did fantastic,” said Pennridge coach Pete Valimont. “Hopefully this lets him be more loose moving forward and he’ll pull the trigger more often.”
Stevenson scored his first goal in the first half when he turned the corner around a back and drew a penalty kick, which he buried, making it 2-0 Rams. With Pennridge up 2-1 in the 51st minute, Stevenson ripped the ball into a low corner of the net from 25 yards out.
“That gave us the breathing room we needed,” Stevenson said.
Nick Dunn scored Pennridge’s first goal 37 seconds into the game.
“It was a good combination play down the right side near the bench,” Valimont said. “Marco Grenda drove the ball toward the end line. Dunn buried it from inside the six.”
Valimont played both of his keepers, Ryan Mayhew in the first half and Adam Gurysh in the second half. Mayhew made five saves and Gurysh made four.
“We just have to continue this and beat the teams that are ahead of us,” Valimont said.
Pennridge (5-6, 1-5 SOL) hosts CB South on Wednesday night at 7:30.
Pennridge 2-1 3
Southern Lehigh 1-0 1
Holy Ghost Prep 2, Neshaminy 1
Holy Ghost Prep scored two goals in the last 12 minutes to steal a win from Neshaminy.
“We probably deserved a better result. We had the most of the play. We could have had three, four, five goals if we were lucky. We missed some open nets,” said Neshaminy coach Tom Foley. “The kids deserved a win. We outplayed Ghost in every way.”
Vince Hosephros scored Neshaminy’s only goal. Gavin Rowan assisted on it.
Neshaminy (3-7-1, 2-4 SOL) hosts Bensalem on Wednesday at 3:30.
Holy Ghost Prep 0-2 2
Neshaminy 1-0 1
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