Pennridge defeated Neshaminy 2-0 to advance to Saturday’s PIAA 4A state title game for the second time in three years. (Photos provided courtesy of Althea Tomlinson/Pennridge soccer)
PIAA 4A semifinal
#1-5 Pennridge 2, #1-1 Neshaminy 0
They didn’t come this far just to come this far.
Picking herself up off the turf, all Joey Tomlinson felt was elation. She didn’t really care that she’d been taken down trying to run down a ball and ended up face-first on the ground for her efforts. What the lone senior on Pennridge’s roster did care about were the final seconds ticking off the clock sending her and her teammates to a second state title match in the last three years.
The Rams hadn’t come to Wednesday’s semifinal match just to enjoy the experience, and now, they won’t be going to Cumberland Valley on Saturday just to say they got to the state final.
“I’m at a loss for words right now,” Tomlinson said. “I’m just taking in the moment. It doesn’t feel real.”
Of course, Neshaminy didn’t come into Wednesday night content just to be there either. The Redskins were the only team to beat Pennridge this season, edging the Rams 2-1 on Sept. 20 and harbored their own dreams of lifting a state championship trophy with an unbeaten record.
The SOL’s top two teams met with only one able to continue on in a match befitting their standing and level of play this fall. Within the match at-large, it was the game within the game, a sort of chess match between the respective sides, that decided the outcome.
“It really is where can we win battles? Where can we penetrate? Where will we have the most success? Being able to utilize players in different ways has really opened up some different things for us,” Rams coach Audrey Anderson said. “It’s exciting that at this point of the season, we’re not who we were even looking back four games ago.”
As much as soccer can be a game of structure, with teams opening in a set formation and trying to keep a semblance of their shape throughout a match, it’s also a game of movement. Whether it’s the movement of the ball itself, players moving off the ball or – as was the case Wednesday – the movement of pieces around the proverbial chess board, it’s rare for a contest to stay in a static state.
Pennridge started one way, then adapted once it saw where Neshaminy was looking to win its battles and find its success. The ‘Skins have been dynamic and creative around the goal all season but found their margins especially thin on Wednesday and just couldn’t seem to get into that one sliver of opportunity they needed to imprint on the match.
“We had very few chances and we needed to get one of those, we needed to keep it at a one-goal game,” Neshaminy coach Josh Van Reed said. “We’re throwing numbers forward, things are unbalanced, it was tough just getting up the field, not to mention getting balls in behind their defense.
“It was a hard-fought game, a lot of physical play, a lot of good soccer, sometimes you lose, especially to a good team that’s able to see that kind of game out.”
Casey Malone didn’t factor into the scoring the way she did in the quarterfinals, but the junior fullback may have played an even better match on Wednesday than she did last round. Malone spent the game keeping tabs on Neshaminy’s explosive sophomore forward Kylie Maxwell, limiting the skillful striker’s chances and also still getting involved moving the ball forward.
Around the field, there were plenty of other examples of singular or smaller battles taking place within the overall landscape. In the middle, Neshaminy’s steadfast holding mid Abby Collins dueled with Pennridge’s Liv Grenda as a key clash in the larger midfield battle.
Pennridge already had one lineup change before the opening tap. With center back Lauren Murphy out with an injury, Hannah Primwhere again stepped into her spot and held things down next to Anna Croyle. On top of that, the Rams opted to have Lindsey Balmer start at the other fullback spot and Hailey Primwhere at forward, but soon returned Balmer up top and had Meredith Blannett take her spot in the back.
“We thought we did a good job of matching players up,” Anderson said. “As the game progressed, we were able to get other players in. I wasn’t sure what their speed was going to be so I started Lindsey in the back, and then Meredith is a smart player, a really great defender, and she came in and won a lot of battles.”
Similar to the resource management in a chess game, Pennridge not only tried to take advantage of its pieces, but also rotated plenty on the front line in order to keep fresh legs on the field to pressure and pursue the ball.
“We played our game,” Tomlinson said. “We didn’t fall into playing the way they wanted to play, we possessed the ball, we pressured and worked together.”
The spoils of the season for Neshaminy – an outright SOL Patriot title and third straight overall, 23 wins, the program’s first District 1 title since 2016 – will stand on their own, by any measure an extremely successful season. Van Reed acknowledged the difficulty of losing at the point in the season, not only breaking up an unbeaten season but leaving the team one win short of the state
final.
“At the beginning of the year, you have expectations and know we’re going to go out and probably win a lot of games, but they really started picking the game up and getting better and better each week,” Van Reed said. “As they got rolling, we knew this was a team that could do something really special. As we kept going on, we have a lot of very, very good players and a lot of big moment players that put a lot of work in at training and to get this far, 23 wins, that’s our only loss of the season.
“If you’re going to lose, it does stink to lose this game, but hopefully a lot of the younger girls, the underclassmen, they’re hungry, they learned what it takes to get here and that’s a big credit to our upperclassmen.”
Neshaminy’s pieces on the board were really good all year too. Kylie and Taylor Maxwell are sophomores, as is Collins while freshman Bri Garyah came on strong late in the season and junior Angelina Daino had a breakout year after battling through injuries.
It was the team’s 10 seniors, whether they played key roles like captains Mercedez Paino, Carly Fox and Alexis Ocasio or contributed in other ways, that were the pathfinders this season.
“Every single one of them has been so instrumental in putting in work and making sure everybody is accountable,” Van Reed said. “I can’t say enough for the entire senior class. Every single one of them was special and integral, they’ve done so much for the program.
“You’re sad that it’s over, this game is always hard to lose, but I am just so proud of all of them and what they accomplished.”
It was Pennridge’s second PIAA semifinal win in the past three seasons, but the dichotomy between the games showed in the Rams’ approach. Two years ago, Grenda, Croyle and Craig were freshmen when Grenda’s wonder strike topped Parkland 4-3 in an overtime thriller played under the veil of a COVID-19 altered season.
Wednesday, the Rams never trailed, and the freshmen of 2020 are now juniors playing with a senior’s mentality of not wasting any opportunity. The fact that for two years, they’ve heard talk that their state wasn’t valid or came with an asterisk because of the circumstances has only fueled the “not just happy to be here” drive this state run has become.
“We’re looking not just to prove them wrong, but prove to ourselves we could make it here,” Grenda said. “We work hard, we put in the effort. Now, we’re going back, and it feels amazing.”
For three years, Croyle has been a stalwart in the Rams’ lineup, an all-league defender who earlier this season committed to Syracuse and even managed to put in a few goals along the way. Wednesday, the junior picked the perfect night for her first multi-goal game, scoring both of Pennridge’s goals by sticking with the play off a set piece.
Croyle adopted her own take on the team mantra Wednesday, seeking to make the most of her openings to get into the offensive third.
“Our offense did an amazing job pressuring and drawing fouls, and in the box, everyone was aggressive, which opened up some gaps and I was in the right place at the right time I guess,” Croyle said. “When I get to go forward, I want to do everything I can to get it in the back of the net for my team and again, they did all the hard work so credit goes to them and I was lucky to be there.”
Pennridge had been threatening in the early stages of the game but lacked that real, quality chance to score through the opening 20 minutes. With their speed and tenacity at forward, Tomlinson, Balmer and Tori Angelo not only get after the ball but draw fouls as a way to set up chances.
A foul would lead to the Rams’ first goal, spotting a free kick about 40 yards out that Malone drove into the box with Grenda going in and getting a foot to it, drawing the keeper out. Grenda’s touch 
was blocked for a save but not covered, allowing Croyle to knock in the rebound with 17:57 left in the half.
It would be another set piece on the other side of halftime that netted Croyle a second goal on a second try. Pennridge hadn’t capitalized on any of its five first half corners, but five minutes into the second half, its sixth would be different.
Balmer hit the service, leading to a scramble of bodies in front and Croyle seeming to kick the ball in and over the line. However, no whistle came and when the ball was batted back into play, Croyle was able to recover quick enough to hit the ball back in, this time finding all net.
“It showed if we put our minds to it, we can do it,” Croyle said. “Knowing Neshaminy beat us earlier this year gave us some motivation to get back when it truly, really matters and it just proved that when we want it, we can do it.”
Anderson has worked to instill a drive in the program to outwork other teams and pressure other teams into making unfavorable plays that benefit the Rams. It’s what propels Tomlinson after a ball in the final seconds or the juniors locked in on playing for each other.
“At this point in the season, it comes down to who is going to do more than the other team,” Anderson said. “Are we willing to do more than the players on the other team? Case in point: in the first half, Ava Kiwak getting to a ball with her head, it’s down toward the ground, she could have taken a foot to the face, but she did it.
“Those are the little moments that can change the course of the game and that’s this junior class. They’re playing maybe with a little chip on their shoulder because when we won the state championship in 2020, there was the asterisk, they were only there because they had to win 16 games or whatever and it left a bad taste in our mouths, mine especially, because these girls put a lot of work in.”
The ending was different than two years ago and there was no miracle goal to win it but it didn’t make the moment any less rewarding for the Rams.
“I think with like 30 seconds left, Sophie and I looked at each other and we had tears in our eyes,” Grenda said.
“I said ‘Liv, you better get over here and hug me when this timer goes down.’ I don’t know, it’s just hard to describe this feeling right now,” Craig said. “For me, seeing Joey get to play one more game with us and it to be the last possible game, it’s probably the best feeling I can have for myself and the team.”
Pennridge (23-2, 15-1 SOL) will face a tough opponent in Central Dauphin on Saturday, but it earned its place in the state title match and isn’t going there just to enjoy the moment.
“We always say we didn’t come this far just to come this far,” Croyle said. “If we’ve come this far and have this kind of opportunity, we want to take advantage of it.
“We’ve done the work to get there, now we want to win.”
PENNRIDGE 1 1 – 2
NESHAMINY 0 0 – 0
Goals; P – Anna Croyle 2
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