Check out the recaps for SOL boys’ soccer teams in action Tuesday.
National Conference
Council Rock North 3, Neshaminy 2 (OT)
The hat trick was unexpected and that makes it even sweeter.
Council Rock North’s overtime win over Neshaminy clinched the third-straight Suburban One League National Conference title for the Indians.
“With these boys in particular, the whole identity of this team is so much different than the two preceding teams,” Council Rock North coach Joe Stackhouse said. “This team, more so than the other two teams, didn’t have the natural talent those kids did. They just work their tails off every day in practice to become better.
“They have come together real well as a group. They’re a very fun-loving, laid-back bunch. We actually have a very good time with them because some of the pressure being, our expectation of them wasn’t to be this killer team.”
The Indians graduated 12 seniors from last year’s district runner-up side – six starters – but have been able to fill in the gaps.
“People look at me kind of crazy, but I think a big thing that helps us is doing what we do with the freshmen,” Stackhouse said. “We have 22 kids on the freshman team this year. We make the freshmen play on the freshman team. The parents might not like it, the kids might not like it, but I think it’s really helped us. There are 14-year-old kids that are still less than five feet tall, and in our game, the players are getting bigger."
In this one, things were scoreless until Zach Saifer (off a feed from Sean Finneyfrock) broke the tie just two minutes into the second half before Neshaminy tied things when Christian Rodgers converted a penalty kick to make it 1-1.
Finneyfrock gave the lead back to the Indians only to see Gavin Rowan, on another penalty kick, tie things at 2-2 with less than three minutes to play.
Eight minutes into overtime, Zach Saifer’s header (from Jake Kukowski) secured the win and the conference crown.
Considering the Indians had not scored more than one goal in any of their previous nine games – six of those wins, the three-goal outburst was a nice sight to see.
“The big thing for us tonight, we finally scored more than one or two goals,” Stackhouse said. “We’ve had our chances in a lot of games, and if anything, it prepares us for the (district) tournament because they’re all tight games for the most part.
“Zach Saifer is our leading scorer with five of six goals, and Sean Finneyfrock has three or four. Our scoring is evenly divided, which is good too because nobody knows who our most dangerous guy is other than Zach, and he’s a hard guy to keep up with at 6-foot-7. Well-placed balls in the air to Zach are so dangerous."
Stackhouse also praised the play of a number of his players.
“Zain Saidi was very dangerous up top and Andrew Daries, our goalkeeper, played really well,” Stackhouse said. “He made two or three very big saves. Jeremy Smithline in our defensive unit with Zach Saifer player very well.”
Neshaminy coach Tom Foley was also pleased with the play of his team.
“We can’t seem to catch any luck this year,” the Redskins’ coach said. “Every mistake we make winds up in our net. My kids battled back twice, but is was not meant to be tonight.
“I was proud of the effort tonight. Everyone who stepped on the field tonight contributed. Caleb D’Amico, John Oczarzek, and Ryan Buczek gave us quality minutes off the bench.”
Council Rock North (10-3-1, 9-0-1 SOL) will travel to La Salle for a non-league game Wednesday, and Neshaminy (7-7, 6-4) will host William Tennent on Friday.
Council Rock North 0-2-1 – 3
Neshaminy 0-2-0 – 2
Bensalem 3, Council Rock South 1
Bensalem battled back from an early deficit in a big way to post a win over Council Rock South.
“Both teams had stretches of really good play and neither team was cashing in,” Bensalem coach Lew Mladjen said.“CR South had a chance to really put the game away early in the second half when they were awarded a PK. But it went over the crossbar and my guys seemed to rally after that.
“We scored to tie the game just a few minutes after their miss, and for the remaining minutes, our keeper, Austin Shay, made some big saves to give us a shot to win it late.”
The Golden Hawks netted the only first-half tally when Sean Armstrong scored (off a feed from Oliver Buynevich) at the 20-minute mark, but that would be it for their offense.
“Our finishing let us down today,” CR South coach Alan Nicholl said. “We generated enough chances, but didn’t convert them. Give credit to Bensalem for digging this one out.”
The Owls tied the game at 1-1 when senior captain German Contreras scored on a penalty kick and then Contreras contributed the assist when Paul Leible scored to put Bensalem ahead.
Shay, with the Golden Hawks pushing up, scored the game’s final goal.
“It was nice to see our guys get a win late since we’ve either been tied 0-0 or down 1-0 at the half of every game this season,” Mladjen said.
Bensalem (7-8, 5-4 SOL) will host Harry S Truman on Tuesday, and Council Rock South (7-8, 5-4) will host Pennsbury on Thursday.
Council Rock South 1-0 – 1
Bensalem 0-3 – 3
Pennsbury 1, William Tennent 0
On a night where the game was secondary, Pennsbury picked up an important win over host William Tennent.
“It was an amazing night,” Pennsbury coach Tom Stoddart said. “William Tennent honored a fourth-grade student that has cancer and it was just special.
“I want to thank (Tennent) Nick (D’Andrea) for letting us be a part of it. It was very inspirational and nicely done.”
The game itself was also a good one as neither side could crack the other’s defense until just over 10 minutes remained in regulation.
At that point, the Falcons finally cracked through when Joe Ficarotta found Nyles Cayemitte for the game-winner.
“It was a nice goal,” Stoddart said. “We were doing some nice things and had plenty of scoring opportunities, but couldn’t get one in.
“But then Joe just laid out a nice pass to Nyles and Nyles came through when we needed him to. I thought that we played extremely well and were able to handle the atmosphere really well.
“This was a well deserved and much needed win for us. We’ve lost a lot of one-goal games and now we’re starting to turn them in our favor.”
Pennsbury (8-5-1, 5-3-1 SOL) will take on Council Rock South on Thursday at Walt Snyder Stadium (7 p.m.). William Tennent (4-7, 3-6) will travel to Holy Ghost Prep for a non-league game Wednesday.
Pennsbury 0-1 – 1
William Tennent 0-0 – 0
Continental Conference
Central Bucks East 2, Souderton 1
Central Bucks East, and senior Keegan Cannon, made the most of their opportunities in snaring a win over Souderton.
Cannon converted a pair of penalty kicks to provide the Patriots with all of the offense they would need.
"The boys played a hard-fought game and earned two penalty kicks in the last 10 minutes, both of which were buried by Keegan Cannon," coach Josh Isaacsohn said.
The Indians received their goal from T.J. Hibsman off a free kick late in the first half.
Central Bucks East (2-11-1, 2-7 SOL) will be on the road at Quakertown on Thursday, and Souderton (2-10-1, 2-6-1) will travel to Pennridge on Thursday.
Souderton 1-0 – 1
Central Bucks East 1-1 – 2
North Penn 5, Quakertown 0
North Penn dominated from the start on its way to posting a win over Quakertown.
The Knights, who improved to 9-0 in conference, scored all five of their goals in the first half to secure the win.
Luke McMahon paced the North Penn attack with a pair of goals. Carter Houlihan assisted on the first one and John Norman picked up the helper on the second.
Ryan Stewart (from McMahon) and Norman (from Mike Chaffee) also netted goals for the Knights.
The unbeaten Knights currently sit in the third spot in the Class 4A rankings behind only Conestoga and Harriton.
North Penn (14-0, 9-0 SOL) will host Central Bucks West in a conference showdown on Thursday at 3:30 p.m., and Quakertown (2-12, 0-9). Will host Central Bucks East on Thursday.
North Penn 5-0 – 5
Quakertown 0-0 – 0
Pennridge 5, Central Bucks South 3
A strong second half was the difference for Pennridge in a key win over Central Bucks South.
The teams were tied at 2-2 at halftime before the Rams outscored their hosts 3-1 after the break to net the victory.
“It was a crazy first half,” Pennridge coach Pete Valimont said. “Things finally settled down in the second half and we were able to lock it down defensively.”
The win pushed the Rams to 5-3-1 in conference (16 points) while the Titans slipped to 5-5 (15 points). Both teams are chasing first-place North Penn and second-place Central Bucks West as the regular season winds down.
Matt Stevenson opened the scoring for the Rams, off a feed from Nick Dunn, less than five minutes in and Jack Taplett (from Stevenson) gave Pennridge its second goal of the first half.
Taplett scored again early in the second half before the Titans tied things at 3-3. From there, though, Stevenson netted his second goal (from Marco Grenda) and then Dunn finished the scoring (from Aidan Castle) with just under two minutes left in regulation.
Pennridge (10-3-1, 5-3-1 SOL) will host Souderton on Thursday, and Central Bucks South (7-6, 5-5) will host Harry S Truman in a non-league game Friday.
Pennridge 2-3 – 5
Central Bucks South 2-1 – 3
American Conference
Upper Moreland 2, Upper Dublin 1
A total team effort helped propel Upper Moreland to victory over visiting Upper Dublin.
“I was very pleased with how we played today,” Upper Moreland coach Matt Duffey said. “Everybody chipped in and did their jobs. We talked about having to play better as the season comes to a close because we want to be at our best for the (district) playoffs.
“We don’t want to go limping into the playoffs, we want to be playing our best soccer and today we played a really solid game. We were eighth in the rankings heading into today, but this should move us up.”
It did indeed as the Golden Bears are now No. 6 in Class 3A.
“We were a little bit off in the first half and Upper Dublin was counter-attacking very well,” Duffey said. “We did a much better job in the second half.
“And this win will really help us (with district seeding). We had dropped down to eighth after being up at four, but this was a big one and will move us back up a bit.”
Mateo Infante and Chris O’Donnell knocked in second-half goals to secure the win.
“Our defense did a great job today,” Duffey said. “Josh Henderson, Tyler Holman, Joe Kane and Jake Navarro all played well.
“And our two goalies, Nick Keen and Greg Wiley, were both really good. I was pleased with everyone and the effort we had today.”
The Golden Bears (5-6-3 overall) moved to 4-6-1 in conference with the win while the Cardinals (5-8-1) slipped to 3-7-1. Upper Moreland will travel to Springfield Township on Thursday, and Upper Dublin will be on the road at Plymouth Whitemarsh Thursday.
Upper Dublin 0-1 – 1
Upper Moreland 0-2 – 2
Hatboro-Horsham 3, Springfield Township 2
Corner kicks were golden for Hatboro-Horsham in a hard-fought win over Springfield Township.
The Hatters scored all three of their goals on corners, two in the first half and the game-winner with a little over two minutes to play.
“We had a corner kick, and Springfield cleared the initial ball out,” Hatboro-Horsham coach Kyle McGrath said of the game-winner. “The second ball in they cleared about 25 yards out to the top of the box, and Brad (Bernstein) hit a half volley into the side netting."
The Hatters had prepared for this one by stressing their corner kicks and set pieces in practice and it paid off.
“We work on set pieces all the time at practice, and Springfield’s field is kind of tiny, so we knew it would be difficult to generate a ton of opportunities, so we really focused on scoring set pieces today,” McGrath said. “The first two were directly off of corner kicks, and the third one was the second ball from a corner kick. It was just good to see us execute the set pieces finally."
J.D. Mallinder (from Tyler Boehm) and Bradan Mallon (from Matt Harmon) had the first-half goals for the Hatters and they took a 2-0 advantage to the half.
However, the Spartans answered with a pair of goals to tie things midway through the second half as both Trey DuBose (from Sam Steel) and Kyle Smith (from Evan Hincapie) found the net.
“They (Springfield) have been playing well,” McGrath said. “They don’t have the results to show for it, but they have been in a lot of one-goal and overtime games.
“We have been moving a lot of people around. Tyler Boehm and Ryan McMorris, our center midfielders, did a really good job for us. They have played off and on throughout the year, but both have stepped up lately into larger roles. They really stepped up today and played significant minutes in an important win."
Hatboro-Horsham (8-6-1, 6-4-1 SOL) will host Cheltenham on Thursday, and Springfield Township (3-8-3, 1-8-2) will host Upper Moreland on Thursday.
Hatboro-Horsham 2-1 – 3
Springfield Township 0-2 – 2
Abington 1, Plymouth Whitemarsh 0
Abington moved closer to clinching the conference title, thanks to its win over Plymouth Whitemarsh.
The Ghosts are now 10-1 in conference and can capture the conference crown with one more win in their final three games. And, at 14-1 overall, they’re currently fifth in the district Class 4A rankings.
The game against the Colonials was scoreless at the half before Sean Touey (off a feed from Nevin Baer) provided all of the offense the hosts would need with a second-half tally.
Abington will host Wissahickon on Thursday, and Plymouth Whitemarsh (3-8-3, 3-6-2 SOL) will host Upper Dublin on Thursday.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 0-0 – 0
Abington 0-1 – 1
Wissahickon 3, Cheltenham 2
Wissahickon, which trailed 2-1 at halftime, picked up the game-winner with just over six minutes to go when Christian Vorchheimer poked the ball in off a scramble in front of the net after a throw-in.
The Panthers received first-half goals from Finlay Peet (from Max Brown) and Ben Kapler sandwiched around a Trojans goal from Adam Bowerman (off a Vorchheimer corner).
Eddie Fortescue (unassisted) tied things up early in the second half before Vorchheimer capped the scoring in the closing minutes.
Wissahickon (8-4-2, 7-2-2 SOL) will travel to Abington Thursday for a conference showdown, and Cheltenham (6-7-1, 5-5-1) will be on the road at Hatboro-Horsham on Thursday.
Cheltenham 2-0 – 2
Wissahickon 1-2 – 3
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