Check out the recaps for SOL boys’ soccer teams in action Friday. CB West/Pennridge photos courtesy of Tracy Valko. Pennsbury/CR South photos courtesy of John Gleeson. All SOS photo galleries for BOYS’ SOCCER can be viewed by clicking HERE.
SOL Colonial Division
Central Bucks West 3, Pennridge 1
Two first-half goals set the tone as Central Bucks West knocked off Pennridge, which went 0-2 in Colonial Division games this week.
“We got off to a slow start and took a little bit of time to grow into the match,” said Bucks’ coach Cooper Moyer. “We did a good job applying pressure to their back line.”
West jumped on a Chase Naso goal, assisted by Joey Dowd.
“Joey Dowd played a great early ball in transition that Chase Naso was able to run on to and then tucked it away to go up 1-0,” Moyer said. “Right before halftime, we got our second goal when Richie Newell hit an absolute stunner from the top of the box. Chase Naso had a crafty little lay-off and Richie finished the job.”
Pennridge cut it to 2-1 in the second half.
“We fell into a little bit of a bad lull in the second half and were fortunate not to concede again,” Moyer said. “And then, drew a penalty kick that Cole Young confidently put past the keeper to go up 3-1.
“My back line was tremendous today and really kept the potent attack that Pennridge has in check. Our midfield did a great job keeping the whole team connected and kept us from getting stretched too much even when we were under pressure. Our forwards and wingers ran their tails off for 80 minutes and we were able to put together a really nice match against a top team.
“(Pennridge coach Pete Valimont) does a great job and always makes his opponents work hard for a win. His team today never quit. I am just really happy for my guys to come out and play such a solid game, start to finish, and get back on track.”
CB West (2-3-1, 2-2-1 SOL) next plays at Souderton on Monday night. Pennridge (3-2, 2-2 SOL) looks to bounce back from its tough week Monday against CB South at home.
Pennridge 0 1 – 1
Central Bucks West 2 1 – 3
Central Bucks East 3, Souderton 1
Three unanswered goals in the second half erased a brief deficit as host Central Bucks East got past Souderton to remain in a first-place tie atop the SOL Colonial standings.
“The first half was fairly even,” said Patriots’ coach Josh Isaacsohn. “I thought we came out kind of flat. Our energy level wasn’t where we like or expect it to be, but our defense kept us in there. There weren’t really many chances going either way. I didn’t think either team had the better of play. It just wasn’t very pretty soccer for the first 40 minutes.
“We didn’t make many adjustments at halftime. We just knew we had to find our energy and possess the ball a little bit more. I was unbelievably proud how quickly and how well we responded to them scoring. They got a lot of energy and enthusiasm from their goal, but to turn around less than a minute later and put one in really deflated them. It was obvious from their coaching staff down to their players that that got to them. The boys saw that and capitalized on it and really played well.”
In the 44th minute, Souderton took the lead as Johnny Argueta scored off an Ethan Lacher assist, but that lead would be short-lived.
Less than a minute later, East tied it on a Jake Hunter goal. Then in the 52nd minute, Michael Frye scored the first of his two goals to give his team the lead, then Frye’s second in the 75th minute made it a 3-1 game. Joey Roth had two assists.
“The last goal especially by Michael Frye was just a smart soccer play,” Isaacsohn said. “He was in the right spot. They had a miskick, and it went right to him. He very smoothly dribbled by a couple of guys and buried the ball.
“Joey Roth did a really nice job. We’ve been moving Joey to different outside mid positions, and he hit his stride and did a really nice job. He had a few shots on net, too, but the assists were what really counted for Joey today.”
CB East (4-2, 3-1 SOL) hosts North Penn in a 5 pm game on Monday. Souderton (1-4, 1-4 SOL) hosts Central Bucks West on Monday.
Souderton 0 1 – 1
CB East 0 3 – 3
Central Bucks South 3, North Penn 1
Central Bucks South shook off a slow start and scored three unanswered goals to pull away from North Penn and remain in a first-place tie with rival CB East.
North Penn scored 38 seconds into the game to grab the early lead. But South came back later in the first half as Colin O’Hara scored on a through ball to make it a 1-1 game.
In the second half, the Titans took the lead on another O’Hara goal, and with North Penn pressuring, South countered and O’Hara picked up his third of the game to clinch his team’s victory. CB South (4-1, 3-1 SOL) plays at Pennridge on Monday. North Penn (2-3-1, 1-2-1 SOL) has a 5 pm Monday start at CB East.
North Penn 1 0 – 1
CB South 1 2 – 3
SOL Patriot Division
Council Rock North 2, Neshaminy 1 (2 OT)
Two minutes into the second overtime, Nick Wise scored off a Windsor Varady assist to give Council Rock North the narrow win over visiting Neshaminy.
“I think at times we could have just caved and gave it away to Neshaminy, but they played well enough to stay with them through regulation,” said CR North coach Joe Stackhouse. “They turned it on in overtime. I asked them, ‘Do we have to warm up 80 minutes to play?’
“Neshaminy played really well. It could have gone either way. We dominated overtime though. They didn’t get a dangerous chance in overtime.”
Three minutes into the game, Chase McCaffrey scored to put the Indians up 1-0. Neshaminy tied it in the second half as Waseem Jawawdeh scored off an assist by Mariziz Melikov.
“We had a really nice buildup in the second half and got it to Mariziz Melikov,” said Neshaminy coach Tom Foley. “He slotted the ball across and Waseem tucked it past their keeper. It was a really nice goal.”
Stackhouse credited center mid Ari Pollack as well as center defender Mike Pihno.
As for the Neshaminy, this close loss was a tough one.
“I thought (the loss) was a bitter pill for us,” Foley said. “I thought we deserved a better fate tonight. I thought we carried the play in large stretches, we had some nice passing sequences, we built the ball up really well. It was just one of those things … we couldn’t finish at the opportune times.
“We just continue to make self-inflicted mistakes. We give the ball away, and it leads to a dangerous thing. We give up a corner, they score their first goal off that corner. They should never have had that corner if we hadn’t made that mistake. Their goal was a 50/50 ball.
“Right now, we’re playing two freshmen and four sophomores, and they got 70-plus minutes each today. My sophomores are not the biggest guys on the planet, so they lost the physical battle in the overtime, which was unfortunate, but they all played pretty well overall. I told the kids to keep their heads up. We’re starting to get it straightened out.”
Foley went on to credit the efforts of several players.
“I thought Kaleb Raymond and Jack Sexton did a really nice job in our defense in the back,” the Redskins’ coach said. “They did a really solid job. It’s the best both of them played all year. Jack was really dangerous with his long throws all night. Rock North … that’s their bread and butter. They live off that long throw, and it was dangerous for them all night, too. We’re yelling to our kids, ‘Don’t concede any throw-ins.’ It just puts you that much under the gun. You have more accuracy with those than a corner kick. I’d rather defend a corner kick than those long throws. They’re just such a nightmare to defend. Those two kids did well.
“AJ Kollie, a sophomore, did well in the back for us, and Damien Castro is a freshman, and he did a really nice job in the central midfield, defending all night. He did a heck of a job. Overall, it was an encouraging game for us. If we had played like we did tonight the first couple of games, our record might be different. It’s something we definitely can build on for the next few games.”
CR North (4-0-1, 3-0-1 SOL) hosts first-place Pennsbury on Monday. Neshaminy (1-3, 1-3 SOL) hosts Bensalem on Monday night.
Neshaminy 0 1 0 0 – 1
CR North 1 0 0 1 – 2
Pennsbury 2, Council Rock South 0
Pennsbury remained in first place in impressive fashion, recording their fourth straight shutout against a solid Council Rock South squad.
“This was a very nice win, without a doubt,” Pennsbury coach Tom Stoddart said. “We were very, very good today. I think we caught Council Rock South at a good time because they came off their rival game on Wednesday night that went to overtime. I think we caught them at a good time, but you have to be a good team to take advantage of it, and I thought we did everything to take
advantage of it today.”
After a scoreless first half, Pennsbury broke through in the 54th minute on an unassisted goal by Josh Rodriguez. Seven minutes later, Rodriguez assisted on Saad Williams’ first goal of the season to make it 2-0.
On the defensive end, keeper Henrik Boekamp and Justin Brown split time and combined for the joint shutout.
“They’re really playing well under pressure,” Stoddart said. “Not only the pressure of playing in these games, playing against the defending league champion, but they’re also kind of competing with each other to earn the spot and handling the splitting of the time in such a mature manner. They’re really pushing each other in training and games. They’re really sharpening each other, and they’re both looking so good. It’s fantastic.
“Our back three were always there for each other again, and we had really good center midfield play from Diego Murillo, Lucas Jorgenson, Bryan Sanchez, and a freshman, Ryan Mathis, who has really been a pleasant surprise in the middle.”
Pennsbury (4-1, 4-0 SOL) looks to stay atop the division standings Monday at Council Rock North. South (2-2-1, 2-1-1 SOL) hosts Harry S Truman on Monday.
Pennsbury 0 2 – 2
CR South 0 0 -0
Bensalem 6, Harry S Truman 0
Sophomore Tejas Sasan scored two goals and dished out two assists as Bensalem captured its first win of the season, and the first under new coach Kevin Bock, in a convincing 6-victory win over visiting Harry S Truman.
“A big second half for us,” Bock said. “Honestly, the ball just found the back of the net. We were kind of on top of them in the first half and just snakebit. In the second half, all of a sudden, one went in, and then it was just an avalanche. It just kind of started flowing through.
“We got the shutout, so that was another big piece of it. Zach Letchner in goal had the good shutout, and the defense played well. It was just a good all-around game.”
Sasan’s goals were his second and third of the season.
“He’s just been unbelievable,” Bock said. “He’s doing a really good job playing up top, playing in a central midfielder role as well as up top. He’s kind of come out of nowhere. He’s been playing well for a few games now, so it was nice for him to put a couple in. He’s just been really good for us.”
Collin Meo and Swallah Yussif scored two goals each for the Owls.
“This was huge because we’ve been battling in these games,” Bock said. “We had a couple 2-1 games and a tough one against Pennsbury, so it was good for us to get the first win. It’s my first win as a coach, so that was great. I’m hoping now maybe we can turn the corner, put some things together, but it’s nice to get that (winning) feeling.
“They’ve been battling, and it was good to get a result in our favor after battling so hard. It’s good to reward them with that.”
Bensalem (1-4, 1-3 SOL) next plays at Neshaminy on Monday night. Truman (0-5, 0-4 SOL) visits Council Rock South on Monday afternoon.
Harry S Truman 0 0 – 0
Bensalem 1 5 – 6
SOL Liberty Division
Upper Dublin 2, Plymouth Whitemarsh 0
Junior goalkeeper Gabe Copley recorded his fourth shutout in five games as red-hot Upper Dublin remained undefeated with the win over visiting Plymouth Whitemarsh.
“He’s definitely a big part of it,” said UD coach Noah Johnson of his junior keeper. “But defensively, our back line this year has done a very, very good job of limiting the amount of opportunities, limiting the amount of time Gabe has to be Superman for us. I definitely yell at the boys all the time, ‘He can only bail you out so much.’ So we have to make sure that when we need him to bail us out, he has no excuse as to why he can’t.”
Reilly McLaughlin gave the Flying Cardinals the 1-0 lead in the first half.
“It was just an overall team goal,” Johnson said. “Something we’ve been working all year is putting together things as a team and not relying on one person but everyone buying in and sharing the wealth and making sure that we’re firing on all cylinders.”
Jack Stelling scored UD’s second goal with 15 minutes remaining in the game to make it 2-0.
“The whole entire team deserves props after coming off a tough game against Abington and not having much rest,” Johnson said. “The past two weeks for us have been Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and then having Labor Day off so there really wasn’t time to train. Then a game Wednesday and a game Friday.
“It takes an entire team to be mentally strong enough to get through everything. Also, physically, we’re really banged up. Having starters not able to play and sitting out today’s game we thought was going to hurt us. For me, the people that played out of their minds and deserve all the credit would be our bench players.
“I’ve been telling them all year that everyone on this team is important, and you’ll definitely get an opportunity to show what you can do and how important you are. Just be ready to go. Today, our bench was definitely ready to go, and the level of play didn’t drop from the starters to the bench. I think the entire team played phenomenally well.”
The Cardinals (3-0-1 Liberty, 4-0-1 overall) visit Hatboro-Horsham at 3:45 pm Monday. PW (1-3, 1-3-1) looks to rebound when it hosts Wissahickon on Monday.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 0 0 – 0
Upper Dublin 1 1 – 2
Hatboro-Horsham 4, Quakertown 0
Jake Freedman and Isaac Kakiko scored first-half goals to pace Hatboro-Horsham past Quakertown on Friday afternoon.
“We stressed at the beginning of the week we wanted to go 2-0 this week against PW and Quakertown,” said Hatboro-Horsham coach Kyle McGrath. “And the boys responded today with a very solid overall performance.”
Freedman started things off with a goal in the 17th minute.
“We had been pressuring a little bit,” McGrath said. “Quakertown had been transitioning well, trying to hit us on the counterattack, but we were able to knock the ball around a little bit, put it in to Tony Kuhner, who played it off to Jake Freedman, who took a touch out of his feet and hit a shot from 25 out into the upper corner of the net.
“The second goal was a similar type of setup. A ball popped to Isaac Kakiko, and he was probably a bit further than 25 … he might have been closer to 30 yards out. He took a good prep touch and just drilled the ball in the upper 90 far post. It was just a great shot from a distance.
“I stressed to the guys at halftime to get the next goal to make it 3-0 and make life a bit easier for us.”
Anthony Pumilla and Freedman scored in the second half for the 4-0 final score.
“Enrico Romano played a through ball that Anthony Pumilia got on the end of and was able to slot past the goalkeeper to give us a bit more breathing room,” McGrath said. “Then Jake Freedman capped the scoring in the 65th minute. He got a ball from Raphael Laiss, he took a half turn, got his head up, and the goalkeeper was a bit out. He took a great shot and just buried it in the lower corner from outside the 18 again.
“Overall, everyone was able to contribute. We got a lot of guys in today, which was good after a physical game on Wednesday. The scoreline isn’t indicative of the game. Quakertown was very organized, they played very well. We were just able to capitalize on a few opportunities.
“My goalkeeper Noah Schlosser had another shutout, which is good. We stressed that It was a good way to start the weekend.”
H-H (4-1, 3-1 SOL) hosts rival Upper Dublin on Monday. Quakertown (0-4, 0-4 SOL) hosts Abington on Monday.
Quakertown 0 0 – 0
Hatboro-Horsham 2 2 – 4
Abington 4, Wissahickon 0
Braeden Brownholtz scored two goals to help Abington go up 3-0 at halftime and cruise to the shutout win over Wissahickon on Friday.
Luke O’Donnell scored Abington’s first goal on an assist from Liam Hartman. Hartman finished off the scoring in the second half with a penalty kick.
Abington (4-1-1, 3-0-1 SOL) looks to maintain its spot atop the Liberty Division standings Monday night at Quakertown.
Wissahickon (2-3, 1-3 SOL) plays at Plymouth Whitemarsh on Monday.
Wissahickon 0 0 – 0
Abington 3 1 – 4
SOL Freedom Division
Lower Moreland 1, Springfield Twp 0
Sam Morris scored the only goal of the game in second half as Lower Moreland took the first game against Freedom Division rival Springfield Twp on Friday.
With the win, the Lions are improve to 4-0 overall (4-0 Freedom Division).
“They were a very well-coached team today,” LM coach Bob Barnhart said of Springfield. “Dan (Meder, Springfield’s coach) has them looking very strong from their goalie all the way through to their striker. They were physical from the opening whistle and hungry for a win. We were able to weather a storm of pressure and shots in the first half. Our backs, again led by Ian Alicia and Sam Morris, were solid all match.
“It was Aiden Moffit’s day to have his best game. He is a physical player that reminds me of the kind of guys I played against in the Catholic League. I said that to him as a freshman and he has only become stronger both on and off the ball.
“We needed his lead by example today with how physical Springfield was today. Our goalie, Keegan Courduff, came up with some huge saves today to keep a clean sheet and Sam Morris found the net for us late in the second half. We were able to close out the game for a huge win for us as we get ready to start the crossover games later next week. Our guys are really starting to gel as a unit and we are getting tremendous support from the guys on the bench, too. Some players are able to get minutes to help get us a break, but even the guys who are not getting minutes have been into our last two games.
“Today’s match was great to watch and I’m verry happy with our result. My guys gave every ounce they had in the tank in the second half and were rewarded with a win and we were able to stay unbeaten for at least another weekend.”
LM (4-0, 4-0 SOL) is scheduled to play at William Tennent on Monday. Springfield (4-1, 3-1 SOL) looks to bounce back at Cheltenham.
Springfield 0 0 – 0
Lower Moreland 0 1 – 1
Upper Moreland 4, Cheltenham 0
Upper Moreland scored two goals in the first 10 minutes and never looked back on the way to the shutout win over Cheltenham on Friday.
Mike Scollon opened the scoring just three minutes into the game on a head ball. Max Gerlach scored six minutes later to make it 2-0.
Chris Heron scored two goals, while Brandon McLaughlin also scored.
Golden Bears’ coach Justin Allegra credited the back line of Sean Townsend and Aiden Scollon as well as keeper Aaron Snyder.
UM (3-2, 2-2 SOL) next hosts New Hope-Solebury on Monday. Cheltenham (0-4, 0-4 SOL) hosts Springfield Twp.
Upper Moreland 4 – 4
Cheltenham 0 – 0
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