Central Bucks East, Souderton & Central Bucks South were winners in Wednesday’s District One 3A second round. PW/CB South photos provided by Keith Clemens Photography. CLICK HERE for a gallery of photos.
It was a banner day for the SOL Continental Conference as three of its teams advanced into Friday’s District One 3A quarterfinals. Central Bucks South pulled off its annual second round upset, this year knocking fifth-seeded Plymouth Whitemarsh out of the tournament with a 1-0 win.
“Our schedule is really hard, but I think it’s honestly a blessing because then we get into the playoffs and we’re playing teams that are around the same caliber as the teams we’ve been playing all season,” CB South senior captain Annie Brady said. “We know what to expect, we know the intensity, we know how challenging some of the other teams can be. I think it’s really helpful to be playing them all season and to go into the playoffs like that.”
Central Bucks East earned a 1-0 win over West Chester Rustin, and Souderton used a three-goal second half to defeat Neshaminy in an all-SOL contest.
The Pioneers Athletic Conference also sent three teams into the quarterfinals –#2 Perkiomen Valley, #4 Owen J Roberts and #14 Methacton. The Chesmont League will be represented by a pair of perennial district powers #6 Downingtown West and #10 Downingtown East.
#1-1 CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 1, #1-16 WEST CHESTER RUSTIN 0
Nicole Lipa scored during a scramble in front of the cage early in the first half of Wednesday’s second round game, and that was the extent of the scoring for both squads.
“It was such a great game,” East coach Meghann Spratt said. “It was not just a number one seed beating up on a lower seed. It was overall a really good game down to the last second.
“Rustin and their coaching staff were such a breath of fresh air. They were so kind and so gracious.”
The end of the game had its anxious moments for the Patriots.
“There was about 20 seconds left, and we passed the ball back,” Spratt said. “I think we were trying to play a possession game, but it was a mishit.
“I look back, and they have a breakaway on the 30-yard line, and there’s six seconds left. With .1 seconds, the shot goes and misses by less than an inch to tie it up. It was so scary.”
The Patriots had 10 corners in the game.
“We were dominating in the first half, but we could not connect on our corners,” Spratt said. “We didn’t have tons, but all year long we had such low-scoring games in general – we have struggled finding the net.
“I’m hoping that changes over the next several games as we go further in districts.”
The Patriots’ coach lauded the play of several players.
“The center of my field – Phia Mannino, Cailey Lever and Elizabeth Philipp – played so, so well,” Spratt said.
Rustin’s standout goalie, Hofstra commit Meg Hadfield, turned away 11 of 12 shots she faced.
Central Bucks East (18-1, 12-0 SOL) will host a familiar foe in Friday’s district quarterfinal round when the Patriots take on #8 Souderton at 3:30 p.m. The Patriots twice defeated the Indians during the regular season, both games by identical 1-0 scores.
West Chester Rustin 0-0 0
Central Bucks East 1-0 1
#1-12 CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 1, #1-5 PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 0
They’re back at it again.
Three hundred sixty-four days after sending second-seeded Methacton home for the season in an electrifying 1-0 win, the Titans once again found a way to win a game that – according to their seed – they weren’t supposed to win.
“We always somehow pull out an upset – I love it,” said Annie Brady, a senior captain. “Honestly, going into it, we didn’t really know what to expect.
“We knew they were a good team, and we knew they had some really strong players. We just wanted to go into it, play hard and have as much fun as possible because we didn’t know if it would be the last time we would get to play together.”
This is yet another season the Titans apparently were not ready to see end.
“Once the first whistle blew, we were all heads up and ready to go,” Brady said. “It was a little chaotic at first, but once we figured it out, we felt good and we felt confident in how we were playing.”
Emotions ran high when the final horn sounded.
“I was so excited – I couldn’t believe it,” Brady said. “It’s so cool. Yeah, we did it last year, but it’s even better senior year. I didn’t want today to be my last game. I’m glad I get to keep playing with my team.
And that seems to be a recurring theme for the Titans.
“I’m so happy for them – I said, ‘I’m just so glad I get to see you again,” coach Pat Toner said. “We preach the same thing over and over again – you just have to believe you can do it.
“It doesn’t matter what anybody’s record is, it doesn’t matter what anybody has. Either you play as a team or you don’t. We just played a little bit better as a team than they did. We just got a lucky break.”
The two teams battled to a scoreless halftime tie, and with time winding down, overtime appeared imminent. Until, that is, with 9:06 remaining in regulation, freshman Anna Shirley deflected a Casey Reilly pass into a goal.
“Casey (Reilly) was being doubled as soon as she would touch the ball – this is every game, and I told her several different options that might happen to her and how it might be handled and what she should try to do,” Toner said. “It’s hard because the two on the other side are inexperienced and younger, so I just tried to say – when you get the opportunity, try to get rid of the ball a little bit quicker, and she did.
“She just fed a beautiful ball to our ninth grade forward (Shirley), who was in the right place at the right time cutting to the post, got down and touched it in. Their midfield is very strong, their whole team is strong, but it looked like they were playing a little flat across, and we thought if we could beat that one line, we would be able to get in there, and that’s what ended up happening, so we were lucky.”
Brady, for one, could see the game-winner coming.
“At halftime, I think some of us were worried that it was going to go into overtime,” the senior captain said. “Right before we scored, they had a dangerous shot that got called back. In my head, right when that happened, I thought, ‘Okay, we’re going to go down and score now.’
“Two minutes later, we went down and scored. From then on, we just wanted to keep it 1-0.”
The Titans’ defense kept a dangerous Colonial squad off the board the rest of the way.
“Our defense just played out of their minds,” Toner said. “PW is very good. They have excellent individual talent, and they played really well as a team, so they were scary.
“Many of our kids that played in the game against Methacton last year are back, and they understood what it was going to be like. Our goalie has faced that. Plus every day in our league we have to play teams like (CB) East twice, Souderton twice, Pennridge and North Penn, and they’re all really good. We face this every day, and I think that might have been the difference, although it could have gone either way. I’m very glad it went our way.”
Comprising the Titans’ stingy defense that kept the Colonials off the scoreboard for the first time since Sept. 16, 2015 (a 4-0 loss to Wissahickon) were Brady and Sofia Sonnet at center back as well as Anna Gillard and Maddy Cooper in front of goalie Jillian Heilig.
“Plus our mids had to come back and play a lot of defense,” said Toner of her midfield comprised of Maddie Pearce, Mel Dunton and Megan Weeks. “Our goalie, Jillian Heilig, had a phenomenal game. She had 11 saves on 11 shots. I’m proud of them all.”
“We just didn’t give up,” Brady said. “Our sticks were down in the circle. I think our communication with our defense was really strong today.
“Our goalie, Jill (Heilig) played an amazing game. Everybody knew we needed to do whatever it took to not let them score, and that’s exactly what we did.
“It’s definitely stressful, and you don’t want to be the one to mess it up, but it’s a lot of fun. Especially being a defender, some games you don’t get much action, but today you saw the ball a lot, you play your best and you hope your best is good enough.”
As for the Titans’ pulling off a major upset in back-to-back seasons, Toner isn’t all that surprised.
“We preach the same thing everybody else does – we’ve played a bunch of teams with very good talent,” the Titans’ coach said. “You just have to play as a team, concentrate on defense and try to keep the other team off the board as long as possible, and you just need to have an opportunity – when you have that opportunity, you have to take it seriously, it might not come along much,” Toner said. “It was a great game. It could have gone either way. We just played bend but don’t break defense.”
The Colonials held an advantage in shots (11-6) and corners (8-4).
“We tried to take away something that they’re good at – their corners,” Toner said. “We knew we weren’t going to stop them from getting them – their corners are excellent, and they’re excellent at drawing corners, so we wanted to try and take them away.
“We’ve been playing pretty good corner defense, we tried a couple of different sets, and we’ve been able to shut some teams down. I’m proud of us for that.”
Central Bucks South (11-6-2, 6-4-2 SOL) will travel to No. 4 Owen J Roberts for Friday’s quarterfinal contest. Plymouth Whitemarsh closed out another successful season with a 17-2 record (14-0 SOL American).
Central Bucks South 0-1 1
Plymouth Whitemarsh 0-0 0
#1-8 SOUDERTON 5, #1-9 NESHAMINY 2
Courtney Kenah found herself with the ball at the top of the circle and no space to shoot, so she decided to do something about it. The result – a highlight reel goal.
“Our jaws just dropped – we’re like ‘Oh wow,’” senior Jess Schmidt said of a rocket across goal that found the cage before anyone had a chance to react.
“That was definitely one of the top three shots of my life, without a doubt,” Kenah said. “I really didn’t have an angle at first, so I just dribbled around the top of the circle, and I just ripped the shot.
“We didn’t have enough shots yet. We needed shots, so I just went for it, and I got lucky. It was a really nice shot.”
Kenah’s goal – the first of three in a stellar outing for the University of Penn commit – not only knotted the score 2-2 at halftime but also ignited a 4-0 Indian tear to close out a game that was much closer than the final score suggests.
“Every time you score a goal, it definitely gets you going, and any time you score a goal like that – it gets you going even more,” Kenah said.
Kenah set up the go-ahead goal when – with 17:47 remaining in regulation – she fired a shot from the top of the circle on a corner that was deflected into the cage by Jenna Hunsicker.
“We talked at halftime and we said – we need to have the momentum coming into the second half because we seemed to only want to score when we were down,” senior Jess Schmidt said after the Indians twice rallied from a one-goal deficit in the first half. “We were like – we have to come out strong, we have to be the ones to score first.”
If the Indians needed momentum, they certainly got it when – 38 seconds later – Kenah followed a Randi Hess shot that was turned away by goalie Maddie Tiemann, capping a bang-bang sequence.
“I’ve got to give credit to Randi on that one,” Kenah said. “That was all her, and I just came up behind her and finished it off – off the rebound.”
The Indians controlled play until the Redskins drew a corner with 9:17 remaining. They came up empty, and the Indians drew three straight corners. The Redskins staged a late charge. A shot missed just wide, and Grace DeThomas delivered a defensive save on the goal line as the Indians’ defense held.
“I think we all stayed very calm,” senior defender Caitlin Lennon said. “We’ve been working well together, so we know where everybody is on the field.
“Staying calm and knowing we can do it – we’ve come back in the second half from way worse, so I think we just knew – we got this.”
“I think we trusted each other, and that was a big part of it,” said Schmidt, who also plays defense. “Number four (Peyton Ritchey) is a super great player on their team, and we definitely had to double team her, triple team her, keep her off the ball. I think just marking on defense was a big thing, and I think momentum too.
“They’d score, we’d score, they’d score, we’d score. We had to keep their momentum contained. They’re a super good team and they definitely had a lot of offensive power, for sure.”
Kenah scored a late goal with an assist from Anna Gwiazdzinski for the 5-2 final.
“They’re a good team,” Neshaminy coach Jamie Pinto said. “They had their opportunities, and they ended up capitalizing on them. We had a breakdown for a minute, and they scored on it, but we had our opportunities too.
“We came out strong, and that’s how we played the whole season. We even finished the game strong. They ended up scoring with a couple of minutes left, but I don’t think the score really shows how we played.”
The two teams spent the first half exchanging goals. Peyton Ritchey put the Redskins on the scoreboard two minutes into the game. Seven minutes later, Gwiazdzinski scored the equalizer on the rebound of a Kenah shot. A goal by Jamie Pennington midway through the half put the Redskins back on top, but again the Indians answered – this time with Kenah’s laser shot that sparked a 4-0 tear.
“We had to come back twice in the first half,” Souderton coach Sue Casciato said. “The second half I felt like we controlled the ball a little more.
“Our defense stepped up and shut number four (Ritchey) down and did a nice job doubling the ball. I just think we played with a little more composure in the second half. It was a nice team win.”
When it was over, the Indians celebrated advancing into the quarterfinals after back-to-back first round exits in each of the last two years.
“It’s so exciting,” Lennon said. “We’ve never been this far. We all are bonding so well as a team, and it’s so exciting because we’re all having so much fun with this.”
“This is awesome – we’ve lost the first game for the past two years,” Kenah said. “We just wanted to come out and show that is different this year, and we’re going to try and keep winning.”
Souderton (16-2, 10-2 SOL) will travel to top-seeded Central Bucks East for Friday’s quarterfinal game. It will be the third meeting between the two teams. The Patriots won both regular season games by identical 1-0 scores.
The Redskins closed out the season with a 16-4 record and a perfect 12-0 mark in the SOL National.
“I couldn’t be more proud of how our girls played,” Pinto said. “I don’t think everybody gave them the credit they deserved when they started, but they came out hard every game, and they worked together. It didn’t matter who we were playing.
“This game obviously didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but they fought hard all season long.
Neshaminy 2-0 2
Souderton 2-3 5
#1-2 PERKIOMEN VALLEY 7, #1-18 COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 2
The Vikings seized early control of Wednesday’s contest, opening up a 2-1 lead that was interrupted when Bridget Doherty found the cage. PV took a 3-1 lead into halftime. Katelyn Cocco scored the only Golden Hawks’ goal of the second half.
Council Rock South closed out its season with a 10-8-2 record (9-2-1 SOL).
Council Rock South 1-1 2
Perkiomen Valley 3-4 7
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