Neshaminy, CB East & CB West advanced to Tuesday’s District 1 4A semifinals. Pennridge & Abington will be in playbacks for a state berth. CB East/Abington photos provided courtesy of John Gleeson. Pennridge/CB West photos courtesy of Tracy Valko. Check back for a gallery of photos. All photo galleries for GIRLS’ SOCCER can be viewed by clicking HERE.
District 1 4A quarterfinals
No. 5 Neshaminy 1, No. 4 Lower Merion 0 (OT)
After rampaging through their first two matches of the district tournament, the Redskins ran into a challenge on Saturday.
An early morning start, a good opponent and a change of venue and field conditions meant there were some adjustments to make. To Neshaminy’s credit, it figured things out as it went but also refused to give the Aces the benefit of home field advantage.
“Lower Merion pressed a lot and the play from both sides made it a physical battle. Lower Merion was organized in their game plan, and it took us some time in the first half to adjust to the field for sure,” Neshaminy coach Josh Van Reed said. “There definitely seemed like there wasn’t a lot of passing space, and at times it seemed the ball was bouncing around. As the game progressed with each minute we settled more and more.”
Neshaminy has been playing on grass all week, so flipping to Lower Merion’s turf was the first adjustment, but the team’s effort was as strong as it had been against Ridley or Garnet Valley earlier in the week.
“Everyone was working hard for each other today. I think we held the ball well and were finding each other’s feet well and doing good combos,” senior captain Mercedez Paino said. “We just couldn’t finish but we did great finding the back of the net at the end.”
At halftime, the team focused mainly on adjustments, which Van Reed said included asking the defense to look past the first pass more as well as collectively getting the ball wide and advancing as a group. The talk translated into more possession, cleaner touches and some better passing.
The issue that remained was finishing, some of which was due to the play of the Aces.
“Hats off Kevin Ries and his team, they worked so hard today and each time we were about to finish a ball they seemed to touch it just enough to spoil the goal,” Van Reed said. “We knew that as the game progressed 0-0 that we did not want to give away any free kicks or corners, which they have scored from many times during the year.”
Senior co-captain Carly Fox added the size of the pitch was another adjustment but felt her team created some good opportunities on corners and free kicks.
Even with one of their top players out for the season due to injury, Lower Merion still has a formidable attacking unit. Neshaminy’s defense more than held its own, picking up its first playoff shutout and allowing the ‘Skins attack to push forward with regularity.
“Our defense did not let runs get through and worked the ball out of the back well,” Fox said “Whenever Lower Merion had a free kick in our half we got the header to clear away from our own box.”
As the second half went on, Neshaminy’s control over the game only heightened. They just couldn’t score despite Van Reed’s belief one was coming late in regulation simply from the volume of chances.
“At full time when we talked, I just reminded them to keep checking in for each other, make the ball do the work, it’s coming,” Van Reed said.
Sometimes, a low scoring game can be misleading and Saturday fit that bill as Neshaminy owned the run of play without the multitude of goals to show for it.
“I felt like the game went well and the only real difficulty was the transition from grass to turf, but everyone worked hard and we started getting more opportunities once we got used to the turf,” senior co-captain and defender Alexis Ocasio said. “We set a goal in the beginning of overtime to score a goal in the first five minutes to help push ourselves to get scoring opportunities.”
After 80-plus minutes of effort, the awaited goal finally arrived through the same passing that the team has trusted all fall. Carly Hock-Smith started the sequence at right back, playing to Kylie Maxwell, who turned to the center of the field and took off.
“Our striker, Brynn Taylor, was checking in when Kylie played her the ball, and Brynn produced a nice one touch ball to Ally Ortman who happened to be on the right side up top,” Van Reed said. “Ally also hits a one-time pass, this time through and behind the defense in the path of Kylie who had continued her run from midfield. When Kylie collected it, she was alone and had just enough space and time to pick a corner and win the game.”
Maxwell deposited her sixth goal in just three playoff games, sending Neshaminy on to the semifinals to cap a long but successful week.
“As the game went on, we didn’t panic, and we kept playing soccer how we always do. We knew that a goal would eventually come,” Fox said.
Neshaminy (19-0-2, 14-0-2 SOL), which secured a spot in the PIAA 4A tournament, will face top-seeded Conestoga in the semifinals Tuesday.
NESHAMINY 0 0 1 – 1
LOWER MERION 0 0 0 – 0
Goals: N – Kylie Maxwell
No. 14 Central Bucks East 5, No. 6 Abington 2
All gas, no brakes.
Camryn Williams could have given up on the play. Gwyn Krystkiewicz could have slowed or halted her run once she saw Williams recover and start toward goal.
Neither did and because they didn’t, Central Bucks East kept all the pressure on an Abington team trying to fight its way back into Saturday’s district quarterfinal. There’s been something different with this Patriots team over the last week, and it’s due to a no stopping mentality that’s pushed them into the final four.
“It’s unbelievable how the switch has changed for us,” Krystkiewicz said. “As soon as we started the postseason, everyone was mentally checked in like ‘we’re going to do this and we’re going to do it right’ and I think everybody is on their A-game.”
Krystkiewicz certainly brought her A-game, netting a hat trick for East to set the pace in a high-pressure game that turned into a second half goal-fest. The senior earned the spoils, being named the Patriots’ “Dog of the Game,” bringing with it a gold bulldog head and a replica dog mask made infamous by the 2018 Eagles in their Super Bowl run.
For a second straight game, the East midfield stepped up. Senior Elliot Forney scored a pair of goals and the duo of holding mids Mikayla Gray and Sofia Mignon filled their usual job of breaking up plays and winning the ball.
Abington started short-handed, with senior midfielder Carley Slavin hobbled with an injury she picked up in the last round. However, once East took a 2-0 lead in the first half, Slavin subbed in and played most of the rest of the game.
On the first day of the season, East and the Ghosts played a back-and-forth 5-4 game that the Patriots won, so the hosts weren’t surprised when the Patriots went at them off the tap.
“They’re a really good team and they put a lot of pressure on us,” Ghosts senior Maura Day said. “Coming out without Carley was really hard for us. We needed to calm down, obviously they were good and putting the pressure on us but we needed to keep our heads and not forget how to play.”
With one of their best ball-winning players at first out, then limited, Abington had a hard time moving the ball in the first half and the task was only made more difficult trying to get through the middle of the field with East’s central trio supplying plenty of energy and hustle.
“We preach getting the second ball every time and KM and Sof do such a great job winning the first ball which allows us to then win the next one,” Forney said of playing next to Gray and Mignon. “Once we win that second ball, we’re able to turn and find people out wide. Once we get going in the middle, the whole team ends up getting going and that’s what happened today.”
Not to be lost in the effort was the play of the Patriots’ back line. Fullbacks Grace Craig and Chantal Van Dongeren battled with Abington’s outside forwards and the center back duo of Brooke Roumy and Sophie Schorn earned praise from coaches and teammates for not only their play Saturday, but overall work this fall.
Neither is a central defender by trade but they’ve put in a lot of effort this season to improve and shore up a unit that was a question mark in August but has been playing quite well of late.
“The first time we played Abington, it was a learning experience,” Williams said. “Our center defenders aren’t center defenders, so they had to adapt and learn to play with each other, so it was really good to see them have that kind of game.”
Krystkiewicz broke a scoreless tie midway through the first half with a pair of goals in a short window. The first came off a ball won by Mignon in the midfield and played forward, where Krystkiewicz was able to control it, spin off a defender on the turn and shelved her chip shot under the crossbar for a fantastic finish.
Minutes later, a free kick offered Forney the opportunity to drop a ball right into the mix of players at the edge of the six. Williams came off the back side, settled the ball then pulled up as Krystkiewicz came in and punched home her second.
“We’ve had this motto all season but it’s really showing now in the postseason of keeping our foot on the gas pedal,” Krystkiewicz said. “Before every game, we say it and I seriously think that we’re all going and doing it. Nobody is stepping on the brakes and now we get to keep going.”
At this point a year ago, the Patriots dropped their quarterfinal and had to play their way all the way back to secure a state playoff bid. Knowing the stress that a consolation game can bring, East stressed that same pedal-down mentality going out for the second half.
They had a 2-0 lead, but they weren’t interested in playing to protect it.
“In games like this, you’re not going to see an opponent completely stop,” Williams said. “Especially now in districts, it’s a completely different battle, everyone wants to go to states. It was really big for us.”
It didn’t take long for that all-in approach to pay off. A foul in the box presented a penalty kick, which Forney buried for a 3-0 lead just four minutes into the second half.
Abington has been pretty resilient all season and the Ghosts were able to get moving a little more in the second half. They won a corner with 27 minutes left and Day put a spark in her team, curling her kick into the goal and through the keeper’s hands for an Olimpico goal.
“Jake always says to us if someone’s going to beat us, it’s going to have to be a spectacular goal and that corner was,” Forney said. “After that, we regroup, there’s nothing we can do about that, reset and play our game. If we’re not giving up set pieces and not giving up corners, that’s how they’re going to score so we just tried to not do that.”
About 10 minutes later, it was Williams battling to keep the ball while being hounded by a defender, going to goal and ripping a ball across that Krystkiewicz met in stride to hammer home for her hat trick.
Forney noted the regular season is a grind, and while this first week of districts saw three matches in five days, there’s a team-wide engagement that’s led to more focused play.
“It’s a confidence thing,” Williams said. “The fact we were able to get this kind of win over Abington was big for us. We go into the next game with pressure, but we don’t have that sense of we have to win or we’re done.
“We have a really good group, we’re really family oriented. Even in the stands, our parents, they’re the start of it. They drive us everywhere, they get us places and at least for me, I build it off my parents. Every game, my mom says ‘I want you to get to states,’ and I say ‘I want to get to states,’ so I build it off of that.”
Abington cut it to 4-2 when a handball granted the Ghosts a penalty kick and Day converted from the spot for her second goal of the game and 28th of the season.
“It wasn’t over until the whistle so we just tried to keep going,” Day said. “We didn’t want to stop playing. We gave it our all, it was definitely a hard game. We just said we had a good run for districts but now it’s time to get into states and it’s a new season.”
Williams’ work rate led to one more goal in the final minutes that sealed the deal and gave her a part in three scores. The senior forward kept after a ball heading for the endline, managing to keep the play alive then hit the ball back to Forney who hit it perfectly to the far post for the final tally.
East (15-6, 10-6 SOL) will face a familiar foe in the semifinals, getting a rubber match with archrival CB West after the Bucks advanced past Pennridge in a shootout. East and West split during the season, winning on each other’s fields and while both are assured a spot in the PIAA tournament, there’s a lot on the line and Krystkiewicz wants her team to play like it.
“We learned how every game matters, even in the season when it just feels like ‘oh it’s just another game,’ every single game matters,” Krystkiewicz said. “Even though we got the ‘in’ to states, I still think we should be fighting for our season.”
Abington (17-4, 14-2 SOL) will travel to Pennridge for a playback game. The winner will earn a state berth.
CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 2 3 – 5
ABINGTON 0 2 – 2
Goals: CBE – Gwyn Krystkiewicz 3, Elliot Forney 2; A – Maura Day 2
No. 26 Central Bucks West 0(4), No. 2 Pennridge 0(3)
For the third time this week, CB West coach Mike Moyer had the chance to address his team after advancing to the next round of the district playoffs.
This one, which took 30 extra minutes and five rounds of kicks from the penalty spot, felt a little more special than the others. It had taken a committed defensive effort and no less than a landmark performance from the one player not in the same uniform as everyone else.
“The reason we’re going to states is the girl in red,” the Bucks coach said. His players roared approval.
Jules Broskey, heavily wrapped shoulder concealed under her jersey and sporting a fresh turf burn on her left leg the same color as her uniform, mustered a smile. Mostly though, she was just exhausted after making 15 saves, enduring the usual goalkeeper knocks and bumps and making a stop in the shootout that sent West to the district semifinals.
“I know how good this team is and it means so much to play against them,” Broskey said. “They are so good, it makes all of us a better player from playing against them all the time, so I know every time I come up here, I have to bring it.”
The last time the Bucks faced the Rams, Pennridge won 3-0, but it was a comment after the game that seemed to register. Walking off the field, one of the match officials wished the Bucks well in the playoffs.
Broskey, at the front of the line as usual, could only respond “I don’t know if we’re even going to make the playoffs.”
Two weeks ago, none of them thought they’d be here and the Bucks aren’t hiding it.
“No,” Broskey and fellow captains Courtney Moylan, Ava Longo and Kate Weyer said, almost in unison and with the same emphasis when asked if they had expected to have gotten this far.
“We had hope, but we didn’t think the hopes were very high,” Moylan said.
And now?
“It was unbelievable. What an unbelievable feeling for not just myself and the team, the program, the parents – this is why we wanted to get in. This is why it was important for us to make sure we were in the top 28 because it’s a new season,” Moyer said. 
“These bus rides we keep taking just bring us closer and closer, and we know we’re going to continue to get on buses and go places, and we love it. We love going and being the underdog and ruining everyone’s home field advantage they have.
“We’re extremely happy to be going to states, but at this point, why not us? Why not us to win the district? We know what’s ahead of us. We have to go play the two best teams in our conference to get there, and we played one of them today, and we got (Central Bucks) East on Tuesday. It’s going to be a heck of a challenge.”
Minus one breakdown late in regulation against Hatboro-Horsham, the Bucks’ defense has been fantastic this postseason. It wasn’t bad in the regular season by any means, but getting to the playoffs has put an emphasis on that area of strength and West has leaned on its back line and keeper this last week.
It was never more needed than Saturday against a Pennridge team that was putting shots on goal from just about every angle.
“We know every game could be our last and we put everything out on the field,” Longo said. “We were 10-8 during the season. We have no pressure, we weren’t expected to win so we just gave it our all.”
The trick on Saturday was getting Weyer back in familiar surroundings. The junior started the season at fullback but moved into the midfield early in the campaign with West desperately needing some offensive punch.
Against Pennridge, it was Weyer next to Longo and Moylan in the middle of a back five with contributions from Taylor Madden, Ava Brunner and Janelle Blokker on the flanks.
“It’s been something new, it was something I’d never really experienced,” Weyer said. “I’ve played defense since I was like five. It’s been a really fun opportunity playing with all the different players and contributing in so many different areas but I always do love playing defense.”
The formation didn’t lead to much offense, although West did get a couple dangerous runs off counters or long clears that included a shot by Ashley Lott in the closing seconds of the first half that drew a save from Seretha DeMoss. What it did was prevent Pennridge from getting past that last line and into the six-yard box where the Rams are so effective.
“When we play the five in the back, Court tells us to pretend she’s not there, so it doesn’t have to get to her, but we always know she’s going to be our safe spot in the back,” Longo said. “That lets us contain them and not let them through.”
“They have so much speed, I kept reminding the center backs and outside backs to give depth,” Moylan said. “They’re really good at playing that through ball and sometimes even I get caught up playing too high so knowing we had that depth in the back and I was there to cover their backs really helped.”
West had to play without its aerial ace in Alexis Castro, the midfielder sidelined with an injury, so the Bucks knew they were already giving some ground in the middle. Sophomore Eva Wierzbowski helped make up for some of it by shadowing Pennridge’s Liv Grenda after the junior’s technical puppetry in tight space was on full display on Thursday’s game winner against CR North.
“We’re extremely happy, we’re extremely grateful for this opportunity. We’re just going to go and keep playing our style. At some point, you’ve got to defend us, and you’ve got to break our back line. We’re going to bend, but we’re going to try not to break. Again, I’m just super happy, super proud of this team,” Moyer said. “We don’t really have a lot of Division 1 or Division 2 soccer players. We’re a really small school. We play with heart, we have a culture, and we’re not going to back down from anybody.
“We’re never going to back down from a fight. The resiliency of this team and just going out there and not worrying about who we’re playing, just making sure we’re giving effort. That’s what we continue to do. Now we live to see another day.”
Broskey wasn’t trying to win any awards for prettiest game, but she definitely got some points for creativity on some of her 15 saves. It was a credit both to her for making this work, like closed-fisted punch away of a shot and another leaping full-reach snare of a rising Casey Malone effort, and to Pennridge for forcing them out of her in the first place.
The senior went up, she went low, and she dove both ways to block shots. While her defense did a pretty good job of keeping the close-range stuff to a minimum, the Rams still came in from the
sides and had their opportunities.
“It’s anything I can do to keep it out of the net,” Broskey said. “I know they’re always going to be there for the second shot too, so I have to get up right away and I’ll do anything to get the ball out of the net.”
After 30 extra minutes of tension, it was up to an alternating series of five kicks from a spot 12 yards out to determine which team would move on.
For a keeper, it’s an extremely tough place to be. The shooter has all the advantage but when given the option of when she would step between the posts, Broskey stated her case and even turned the coaches’ decision over.
“My coach actually wanted us to shoot second but I went up to him and said ‘No, I have this team’s back, I’m going in second,'” Broskey said. “I wanted to take all the pressure off them and put it on me. I don’t want the pressure on my teammates.”
Weyer stepped up first as the leadoff shooter for West. She buried her effort to give the Bucks a lead.
“I was nervous, but I’m comfortable taking a PK and I have been for a while,” Weyer said. “I just needed to stay composed, take a deep breath and know it was ok. I can do it and I know I can.”
Moyer had plenty of faith in Broskey, who rewarded it when she stonewalled Pennridge’s third PK and let out a roar that’s not usually in her demeanor.
“We were a little banged up – we were missing our centerpiece in the middle of the field today, AC (Alexis Castro), out with an injury, and you know what – we rallied around it. I really do think I have the best goalkeeper in the state, and she proved today that it is hard to score on us,” Moyer said. “I knew when we got to penalty kicks – I thought we’d have the advantage just because of Jules. When she saved the third one, I thought that was going to be it.”
Pennridge’s freshman in goal, Seretha DeMoss, answered when she stuffed West’s fourth kick to make it a 3-3 score going to the final round of the five shooters.
“Unfortunately, we missed our fourth, we made our fifth, and I have to give Kenz (Mackenzie Gausch) a ton of credit. She had to step up there – you could hear a needle drop in the stadium, and she buried it,” Moyer said. “That set the stage for their fifth shooter. You know what – we had some luck on our side, but there have been plenty of games where the luck has been the other way.”
Pennridge’s final kick rose and caught the crossbar, ending the shootout and sending Broskey sprinting off her line to join the growing hug of Bucks around midfield.
“It’s been eight years since we last made it past the second round,” Broskey said. “We’re doing it for the program and each step we take, we don’t feel any pressure because no team has made it this far in eight years.”
This is new ground for the girls’ soccer team but not exactly new territory for the Bucks. In 2019, it was the boys’ soccer team under Stefan Syzgiel that slipped into districts as the No. 23 seed and ended up advancing all the way to the state title match.
Moyer, whose son Cooper succeeded Szygiel as head coach of the boys’ team this fall, received a text from Szygiel congratulating him on the win. When the brackets came out, the former West coach was among the first to foresee something special coming.
“He said, ‘We coach West kids for a reason, and if anybody can do it, why not you?’,” Moyer said. “This is what West kids are all about. He was an alumni, I’m an alumni. We’re just going to keep doing our thing.”
The significance of the run isn’t lost on the players either. While the postseason has been a fixture in Moyer’s five-year tenure, the Bucks are only in this year because the brackets expanded by four teams.
It doesn’t diminish what they’ve done.
“Being a 26 seed and making it this far is something to be proud of,” Longo said. “We’re the underdogs, we’re not expected to win.”
Really, it’s a group of West kids doing what West kids do.
“Hard work beats talent,” Weyer said. “This whole run, I feel like we’ve been an example of that.”
As if this trip didn’t have enough twists and turns already, West’s next opponent is only its biggest rival in Central Bucks East. The Patriots and Bucks split their season series, each team winning on the other’s field and spoiling a big night with West claiming the first win under East’s stadium lights and the Patriots snapping West’s Kick for Pink game unbeaten streak in the return leg.
Plus, there’s the not-so-small matter of last year. In the second round of districts, East and West battled through a scoreless overtime before ending in a shootout that all but ended with the sun setting on them as they were taking the final kicks.
Sure, East-West III will send one of them on to play for a district title but for a Bucks team that’s already accomplished more than anyone – including themselves – expected, they’re going to live it up.
“Mike reminds us of that every game, we go in just having fun,” Moylan said. “We know any game could be our last, but we have to still enjoy that game while it’s going on and when we enjoy it, we play so much better. We’re not in our own heads, we let everything go on the field.”
Pennridge (18-2, 15-1 SOL) will host Abington in a playback game Tuesday.
CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 0 0 0 0 – 0 (4)
PENNRIDGE 0 0 0 0 – 0 (3)
About the Author
