Check out the recaps for SOL boys’ soccer teams in action Thursday. Abington/Lower Moreland photos provided courtesy of Troy Leatherbury. Check back for a gallery of photos. All SOS photo galleries for BOYS’ SOCCER can be viewed by clicking HERE.
SOL Liberty-Freedom Crossovers
Quakertown 2, Upper Moreland 1
Quakertown picked up its first win of the season on the road as Stone Renshaw scored twice, and the Panthers held off UM in the second half.
“The kids are definitely happy,” said Panthers coach Bill James. “They put in a lot of hard work, but the results have not been on our side at all this season. It’s nice to see it finally pay off. We’ve been in a few close ones that we haven’t been able to (win), so this one was nice to see.”
In the 20th minute, Renshaw scored off a Ryan Dauter assist to make it 1-0. Then, in the second half, Rhauan Ferreira assisted Renshaw to make it 2-0.
UM cut it to 2-1 and had chances late, including hitting a crossbar, but Quakertown keeper Jacob Mosser and the back line of Carter Toll, and brothers Tyler and Aiden Walsh, was able to hold the Golden Bears off for the upset win.
“One (key) thing was definitely being able to get on the scoreboard first,” James said. “I’ve challenged guys to do that. It’s difficult in a high school match to get down early and claw back. Today, we got up early 2-0 early in the second half and that’s a different place than what we’re used to. The boys were able to meet that challenge and hold on and get the victory.”
James said that despite the eight straight losses to start the season, his team has been able to keep up the intensity and practice and that is one thing that made Thursday possible.
“The overall culture of the group has been good,” he said. “The program has gone through a number of years of struggles. It’s difficult to keep a positive mindset in those situations, and our league is a very strong league.
“If you look at the scoresheet in some of those games, you’d say it’s not a close game, but after talking with some of the other coaches, they said they saw a new group of players and style of play. Some of the referees have seen it and commented on it too.
“Results have not been coming, but they’re feeling better about what we’re doing. They’re seeing the writing on the walls.”
Quakertown (1-8, 1-8 SOL) plays at Palisades on Saturday. Upper Moreland (4-6, 3-6 SOL) has a nonleague game Friday at Interboro.
Quakertown 1 1 – 2
Upper Moreland 0 1 – 1
Abington 2, Lower Moreland 0
The Galloping Ghosts held off a tough Lower Moreland squad Thursday and also had to deal with several other setbacks, but they were still able to pick up the shutout victory to maintain their spot all alone atop the SOL Liberty standings.
“We won the game, but lost the battle,” said Abington coach Randy Garber.
The Ghosts lost junior left back Oscar Hoffmann with a broken ankle in the game, and they also will be without their central midfielder for their next game.
With just 44 seconds remaining in the contest and the outcome not in doubt, midfielder Braeden Brownholtz – who scored the game-winner – was given his second yellow card and was ejected, leading to a sequence that saw Garber receive a red card as well.
“He thought the ball was still in play, and he started dribbling it,” Garber said. “He didn’t hear a whistle, so he just played. He never kicked the ball away. The ball was right on his foot. He was dribbling it and the ref pulled a yellow card out of his pocket. He thought he was delaying the game.
“I felt bad for the kid, and I kind of stuck up for him. The kid never said a word to the official.”
Brownholtz, who will be forced to sit out Abington’s next game, scored the Ghosts’ first goal.
“It was off a restart,” Garber said of Brownholtz’s goal. “The ball comes bouncing out, he goes and volleys it, and it goes in the top 90. The goalkeeper didn’t even see it.”
Liam Hartman’s penalty kick later in the half made it 2-0 game at the intermission. The Lions never so much as managed a shot in the first half, and that 2-0 score stood the rest of the way.
The loss of Hoffmann will be a difficult one for the Ghosts.
“I feel bad for my left back, who’s been a starter since he was a freshman,” Garber said. “He’s a hard-nosed, strong kid. I lost him for the rest of the year, and he’s a big-time lacrosse player. Hopefully, he’ll be able to play in the spring for them.”
Abington (8-1-1, 7-0-1 SOL) next plays at Springfield on Wednesday. LM (5-3, 5-3 SOL) has a nonleague game Friday at home against Calvary Christian.
Lower Moreland 0 0 – 0
Abington 2 0 – 2
Upper Dublin 4, Cheltenham 0
Upper Dublin jumped up early and didn’t look back in a contest that saw four different players score goals and gave plenty of players a chance to contribute.
“The main thing for us was trying not to lose focus of the ultimate goal, trying to stay into our new culture and taking every team serious regardless of who it was,” said UD coach Noah Johnson. “Today, was a day for us to go ahead and rest a couple of players, allow them to take a little bit of time off. Some of my boys are pretty banged up, but it also gives other guys opportunities halfway through the season. Like we’ve been saying, everyone is important on our team.
“Games like this where everyone is tired and beat up, guys that don’t normally get much playing time definitely have to step up and still keep the level of play up. They did pretty well.
“We were able to call up some of our JV boys as well today to see what’s coming up next. Corey Abramson did pretty well and got himself a goal today. They were training with us all year this year, and he fit in pretty well.”
Joining Abramson in the scoring column for the Flying Cardinals were Miles Bondi, Christian Broome and Tommy Clayton.
UD (8-1-1 SOL, 7-1-1 SOL) next plays at New Hope-Solebury on Wednesday. Cheltenham (0-9, 0-9 SOL) is back in action Saturday with a nonleague game at home against Conwell-Egan.
Upper Dublin 2 2 – 4
Cheltenham 0 0 – 0
Hatboro-Horsham 6, William Tennent 0
Five first-half goals, including a hat trick from Enrico Romano in the opening 20 minutes, gave H-H the early cushion in this one on the way to the big shutout win over Tennent.
“We challenged the guys at halftime to keep the shutout, and they kept playing and working hard the entire game and put pressure on us,” said Hatters coach Kyle McGrath. “My back four in the second half was guys that have been wanting more playing time, and they stepped up and were able to keep the shutout.
“We’re not particularly a team that scores a ton of goals, so all of our games are tightly contested. To get a game like this was important. We got guys some rest, some guys weren’t playing as much as we were anticipating, and we were able to get a lot of guys in the game – all the varsity guys, and we pulled up a guy from JV halfway through to play.
“It was good momentum to win the game and a good opportunity for a lot of guys to get playing time and to give guys some rest as we now have a little bit of a break before we play again on Wednesday.”
In the first minute of the game, Romano cashed in for the game’s first goal, off an assist from Isaac Kakiko.
“They started the game with the ball and we won the ball back,” McGrath said. “Isaac Kakiko was able to play a little slip through ball to Enrico Romano, and he was able to finish it, and, literally, 21 seconds into the game, we went up 1-0.
“It was back-and-forth a little bit, and then we went on a little scoring barrage.”
H-H scored the next four goals in a six-minute stretch.
Romano scored unassisted, and then another on a Jake Freedman assist. Tony Kuhner made it 4-0 and then Mike Romano scored from Sean Yi.
“We had a throw-in,” McGrath said. “We played it back to our outside back Brian Cooper, who played a great ball into Tony Kuhner, who headed it in past the keeper to score his fourth goal in four games.
“(Mike Romano) got a ball slipped through by Sean Yi and was able to beat the keeper with a shot to the far post.”
The final goal came in the 71st minute when Firdavs Mamadaliyev, who transferred in just prior to the start of the season, “put a nice shot into the upper 90,” McGrath said.
The Hatters (8-2, 7-2 SOL) hosts rival Upper Moreland in their next game on Wednesday. Tennent (3-6, 3-5 SOL) plays at Plymouth Whitemarsh Wednesday.
Hatboro-Horsham 5 1 – 6
Tennent 0 0 – 0
Wissahickon 1, New Hope-Solebury 0
After a game full of chances and near misses, Wissahickon finally cashed in in the 74th minute and was able to pull out the 1-0 win against New Hope-Solebury.
“We actually played pretty well,” said Trojans coach Stuart Malcolm. “In the first 25 minutes of the game, we had a lot of good chances, we just didn’t finish. They did a nice job dealing with that and were more into the game in the second part of the first half.
“Unfortunately, we had a couple of injuries and weren’t knocking the ball around as we did in the first half. We got a few chances, put quite a bit of pressure on them and the goal we scored came on a set piece.”
In the 74th minute, Sam Grossberg scored off a Michael Orn assist for the game’s only goal.
Malcolm also credited the play of senior Ryan Berger. Eric McEvily recorded three saves for the shutout.
Wissahickon (5-4, 4-4 SOL) has a nonleague game Saturday night at Roman Catholic. New Hope (2-7, 1-6 SOL) is off until Wednesday when it hosts Upper Dublin.
New Hope-Solebury 0 0 – 0
Wissahickon 0 1 – 1
Plymouth Whitemarsh 2, Springfield Twp 1
Mason Clatterbuck and Adam Conti scored goals for Plymouth Whitemarsh, which won its fifth straight game.
“Tight game,” said Colonials coach Rich Kessler. “(It) was enjoyable game to be a part of. Both teams did a bunch of attacking. Springfield’s (goalkeeper) made about five excellent, 1v1 saves to keep the game close. He was very good.”
The two teams battled to a 1-1 tie with Shaun Bleeker finding the net for the Spartans, using an assist from Riley Martin.
PW (6-3-1, 6-3 SOL) has a nonleague game on Tuesday at Penn Charter. Springfield (7-3, 6-3 SOL) plays at Abington back in crossover play on Wednesday.
PW 1 1 – 2
Springfield 1 0 – 1
SOL Patriot-Colonial Crossovers
Bensalem 3, Central Bucks South 2
It’s been a big week for the Owls, who followed up a tie against CB West on Tuesday with a huge upset of CB South, which entered the day in a three-way tie in the SOL Colonial Division.
“We’re starting to figure it out a little bit,” said Bensalem coach Kevin Bock. “We tied CB West on Tuesday, and today we came out – the first half was probably the best half we’ve played all season.
“I honestly think we’re just getting some consistency. I think in the beginning, I was trying to learn some of the players. They’re trying to learn me. We lost Nate Rosas, one of our center backs who has been injured, so we’ve been trying to figure out some consistency.
“The last two games our defense has played extremely well. Zach Letchner in goal has been amazing all season, but I think we’re starting to learn each other, 
and I think that’s really helped out. Our energy levels have been good, we’re playing really strong, and hopefully, everything is starting to click a little bit. It’s been a good week for us.”
It didn’t necessarily start the way Bensalem would have wanted, as CB South jumped up 1-0. But Bora Uluturk came back for the Owls and tied the game off an assist from Tejas Sasan.
Collin Meo then put them in front, with Nate Rubin picking up the assist.
“A ball came across from Nate Rubin, and it was Collin and the goalie,” Bock said. “They kind of contested each other, and he got lucky and it went in.
CB South pressured in the second half, but it was Bensalem which came up with the big next goal, as it countered and Uluturk scored again, assisted from Sasan.
“They played almost the entire second half in our half,” Bock said. “They did really good, they played really well in the second half. They were down in our end and we were kind of surviving.”
The Titans did score late to make it a 3-2 game, but that’s where it ended as the Owls pulled off the big upset.
“‘We’ve had Matt Wheaton moved to our center back, and he’s been playing outstanding,” Bock said. “Leo Chanez, Kyle Rubin, Colin Spear, and Andrew Leibig have been playing in the middle. They’ve just been doing great, and Zach (Letchner) has been standing on his head back there in goal.
“It’s amazing. They (the kids) feel good. It’s good to get the hard work rewarded. They’ve been putting in the work, they’ve been really working hard. We know we had a bad season last year, and we’re trying to turn things around. It’s a great group of kids – they’re really talented, and it’s nice to see their hard work get rewarded a little bit.”
Bensalem (2-6-1, 2-5-1 SOL) plays at North Penn on Wednesday. CB South (7-3, 6-3 SOL) looks to bounce back at home Wednesday against Harry S. Truman.
CB South 1 1 – 2
Bensalem 2 1 – 3
Central Bucks East 3, Pennsbury 1
Short-handed CB East jumped up early in this one and then held off Pennsbury in a crossover game to maintain its share of the lead in the SOL Colonial Division.
“The really big thing today was three of four starting defenders were out sick,” said Patriots coach Josh Isaacsohn. “It’s crazy. Almost every kid on the team has been sick. We’re at two or three COVID cases, we have probably 5-7 just recovering and then we have 4-5 that were out still really sick.
“Our back line for this game was Luke Christmas, Toby Senior and Will Zlogar, and they did a tremendous job, along with our center defensive mids, Andrew Walloff and Michael Frye. It was great to see some kids really step up and do a great job and just lock it down defensively.”
Jumping ahead 2-0 in the first half was huge for the Patriots.
Michael Montabana made it 1-0 off a Brandon Epstein assist in the fifth minute. Then, in the 27th minute, Epstein scored a goal of his own from Joey Roth.
Pennsbury got one back early in the second to make it 2-1, but then in the 47th minute, Roth scored for East from Jared Needles.
“They made it 2-1, which was a little too close for comfort, and very quickly after that – within less than two minutes after that, we put the third one in and held on,” Isaacsohn said. “I think we had the better of play in the first half and had some opportunities and really tried to keep them shooting from long range. We did a really good job. We came out a little bit slow in the second half, and they had a good bit of play for the first 8-10 minutes, and we sort of woke up.”
CB East (8-3, 7-2 SOL) will look to get healthy as it doesn’t play until a Wednesday game at Neshaminy. Pennsbury (5-4-1, 5-3-1 SOL) plays at CB West on Wednesday.
CB East 2 1 – 3
Pennsbury 0 1 – 1
Pennridge 3, Council Rock North 1
Two teams in the hunt for the top spot of their respective divisions squared off in this one, and host Pennridge came out on top, jumping up early and then added two more to clinch its fifth straight win.
“We’re just trying to keep winning,” said Rams coach Pete Valimont. “Nobody can have a hiccup moving forward. We’re just trying to get a little separation between each other once we get back to beating each other up again with divisional play in a week.
“Our goal is to do our best to get through unscathed, but we’ll see. We have two tough ones next week, and Council Rock North was good.”
Just six minutes into the game, Tommy McKinney scored off a corner kick to make it a 1-0 game.
“The ball came in and got played back to Shane (Velez), and Tommy was able to bury it,” Valimont said. “It was pretty even throughout. With 40 seconds left in the first half, Ayoob Herzi had a really close putback inside the box, but (CR North’s) goalie made a great save to keep it 1-0.”
With 19:17 to play in the game, Troy Thanel scored off a corner from Pat Fannon to up the Rams’ lead to 2-0.
“That was a great ball in and a great finish by Troy,” Valimont said. “Two minutes later, Jared Hess hit a rocket from a throw-in from Zac Curran, cut a kid up and Jared just hit an absolute bullet, which was fantastic and gave us a little breathing room there.
“Shane (Velez) had a couple of really close restarts that just missed, guys were a step behind on the back end, but it was a great effort all around. We pulled (goalie) CJ Dimmick, and Daylen Bachart went in and did a good job.
“We gave one back with 1:19 left off a restart. Their guy saw it through and was able to finish it out. Our overall effort was pretty fantastic.”
There was plenty of credit to go around after this one.
“CJ Dimmick stood on his head a couple of times and made a couple of really big saves for us, especially when it got crowded,” Valimont said. “Shane Velez played out of his mind in the back, and so did Tommy McKinney. Tommy split his nose and came back in and did a really nice job defensively. It was great to see him score.
“Jared Hess up top was just creating chances for everybody, so to see him score was great. The goal that Troy Thanel scored was great for him because he just throws his body into everything and was able to finally get one.
“We’re road warriors next week. We’re at Council Rock South on Wednesday, and coach Alan (Nicholl) has a great team, and it’s going to be a chore to play at their place, so we’ll see how it goes.”
Pennridge improved to 8-2 overall and 7-2 in the SOL Colonial, tied with CB East at the top of the standings. CR North (6-2-2, 5-2-2 SOL) is one point up on CR South and Pennsbury in the SOL Patriot standings. The Indians host Souderton on Wednesday afternoon.
CR North 0 1 – 1
Pennridge 1 2 – 3
Council Rock South 3, North Penn 1
Frankie Rafferty had two goals and one assist, all in the second half, as Council Rock South bounced back from a loss Tuesday for the big win over North Penn.
“(North Penn) played a good brand of football, and it was an enjoyable game to be a part of,” said Golden Hawks coach Alan Nicholl. “These crossover games are an absolute bear, with so many talented teams and no room for error. There’s not many teams that get out of North Penn with all three points, so it’s a very good day at the office.”
Trailing 1-0 at halftime, Rafferty tied the game up on a penalty kick early in the second half. He followed with his second goal off an Alex Lose assists, and Rafferty assisted on Reid Vandermark’s goal that made it a 3-1 game.
“We were down 1-0 at half, so I’m happy with our response over the second 40 minutes,” Nicholl said. “We were more decisive and played with more conviction in the second half and that hard work paid off.
The defense did well to keep North Penn at bay as the game wore down.”
Nicholl credit the play of George O’Brien, Andrew Lindros and goalkeeper Evan Zawodniak in the back.
CR South (5-3-1, 5-2-1 SOL) hosts Pennridge on Wednesday. North Penn (3-6-1, 2-5-1 SOL) looks to bounce back Wednesday at home against Bensalem.
CR South 0 3 – 3
North Penn 1 0 – 1
Souderton 3, Neshaminy 1
Ethan Lacher scored two goals early in the second half for Souderton, which won its fourth straight game in a crossover game against host Neshaminy on Thursday.
“It was a well-deserved win,” said Indians coach Matt Benner. “Both teams played physical and created chances. I was very pleased with the way we began each half. We had good energy and were able to score early to set the tone of each half.
“A lot of credit to Neshaminy. Tom (Foley) and his staff have their kids competing hard and fighting for everything. They created chances right up until the end and we were definitely happy to hear the final whistle.”
Neshaminy played well in the first half, but a bad stretch to start the second proved its downfall.
“It’s the same old story with us,” Foley said. “We started off on fire. We were knocking the ball around the first eight minutes. We looked pretty good, and we thought good things were going to happen for us.
“Their first trip into our box is a free kick from a little over 50 yards out and somehow it sneaks under the crossbar for a goal. It’s like, ‘What else can happen?’ We’re down 1-0 on another flukey goal. We’re probably still feeling sorry for ourselves, and we went into a funk for a while. We tell the kids, ‘You’re going to make mistakes. You have to work to overcome them.’
“We had a bad clear, shanked right to their kid. One pass and the kid’s in our goal. Their third goal they made a nice pass – I’ll have to look at tape to see why the kid was so wide open, but the kid was wide open in the middle of our defense and went in on our goalie, and it was 3-0.”
Ty Quintois gave Souderton the 1-0 lead with a goal in the eighth minute. Then, Lacher scored just after halftime from Drew Kerns in the 41st minute, and later from Quintois in the 48th minute.
Goalkeeper Chris McKenna made 10 saves for the Indians.
“Ty Quintois and Ethan Lacher were great for us,” Benner said. “Their goals/assists were huge for the squad. Ethan’s two goals to start the second half really turned the tide of the game.
“We also got a great performance from our goalkeeper, Chris McKenna. He made some outstanding saves to keep the game in our control. We were battling some very strong winds and Neshaminy was throwing a lot of numbers and pressure at us. Chris came up big on a number of occasions.”
Victor Corisino scored off a Chris Valley assist for Neshaminy’s only score, which made it 3-1.
“We decided to start playing again in the last 30-35 minutes,” Foley said. “We played really well. My assistant coach keeps the book, and he said we outshot them by a pretty large number. That’s something to hang our hat on, but we just keep making killer mistakes. We did some good things to be proud of, but we’re not getting results.
“Our goal came off a nice buildup. Chris Valley got the ball wide, he beat their kid to the end line and crossed it. Victor Corisino headed the ball in. It was actually a very nice goal.
“We hit the post a couple of times, we had a couple of near misses. We did some good things, but we just can’t seem to get out of our way this year.”
The Redskins’ coach lauded the efforts of several players.
“Joe Joe Maxwell is just playing out of his mind,” Foley said. “He’s hustling all over the field. He’s tackling. He got bumped and bruised and hammered all game today, and he just kept going and going and going.
“Chris Valley had a really nice game for us today. He’s probably going to start starting for us. He made it really hard for us to take him off the field.”
Souderton (5-5, 5-5 SOL) next plays Wednesday at Council Rock North. Neshaminy (1-7, 1-7 SOL) hosts CB East on Wednesday.
Souderton 1 2 – 3
Neshaminy 0 1 – 1
Central Bucks West 10, Harry S. Truman 0
Kevin Leiva-Benitez scored three goals, all in the first half, as the Bucks cruised to the shutout win in this one.
Blake Amero and JP Tomlinson combined for the shutout for the Bucks.
“We did a nice job creating chances and were happy to hold the shutout,” said West coach Cooper Moyer. “Truman worked hard the whole game and I’m very impressed with the drive and work ethic from Truman.
CB West (4-5-1, 4-4-2 SOL) has a nonleague game at home Friday against Bishop Shanahan. Truman (0-10, 0-9 SOL) is off until a Wednesday game at Central Bucks South.
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