Pennridge advanced to Saturday’s PIAA 4A quarterfinal round with a resounding win in Tuesday’s opener. CB East & CR South saw their successful seasons come to an end. Pennridge/Mechanicsburg photos provided courtesy of Tracy Valko. Check back for a gallery of photos: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/f405978483
PIAA 4A opening round
(1-1) Pennridge 6, (3-3) Mechanicsburg 0
Anna Croyle wanted a reminder.
It wasn’t that the Pennridge senior captain lacked motivation or had forgotten what was at stake Tuesday night, it was more wanting that extra little kick beforehand. The last game she and her fellow seniors would ever play at Helman Field was going to be a state playoff game, so Croyle went into the archives and found the film from her freshman year when the Rams outlasted Parkland in an all-time PIAA semifinal.
Tuesday didn’t match the dramatics of that game in 2020, but the result felt just as good as Pennridge started its climb toward a state title in emphatic fashion.
“I watched that game this morning actually, we didn’t have school and I was so bored waiting for this game,” Croyle said. “I remember after that game we all did our ‘song of the year’ on the field, so it was a lot of fun. I was just thinking of a good state game to watch and that one came to mind.”
Croyle, who has started every game of her career with the Rams, made sure her last appearance on Helman Field would end the way she wanted it to. The Syracuse recruit and All-American Game selection scored twice in the first half, both on far post headers off pinpoint corner kicks by Sophie Craig.
Those would prove to be just the first salvo in what became a full broadside by the Rams’ battery. The District 1 champions clearly hadn’t ramped down their pressure from the weekend, putting 20 shots and 11 corner kicks on target Tuesday night, with a handful more shot attempts either going over, wide of or into the outside panels of the net.
Four of the six goals were scored by seniors and five featured an assist by a senior. As the team’s top facilitator this fall, Craig, almost ironically, had the lone unassisted goal on a wicked free kick with 3:32 left for the final margin.
“It’s great to see this class have this much success, because they are a fun group,” Rams coach Audrey Anderson said. “They have believed in this program. They believe it means something to play here, I feel they believe it matters if you play here.
“The kids, the community, I turned around and saw all the people in the stands and thought ‘it’s a Tuesday night, look at all these people.’ Our community really does come out and support these girls and I think that motivates them.”
One of Anderson’s youth club teams at Deep Run have named themselves the Rams just so they can mimic the “1-2-3-Rams” chant the high school team uses to break its huddles. As soon as the game ended on Tuesday, the players were swarmed by the legion of young players in the stands, several of them wearing shirts covered in players’ autographs.
Croyle used to be one of them. In eighth grade, she was invited up to work out with the varsity team and held her own, a torch passing the co-captain hasn’t taken lightly.
“Even before we came to the high school, literally since we were five years old, we’ve been together,” Croyle said. “I love high school soccer because you’re playing with your friends and for your community, so going through these four years bonding as a team with them has really helped.”
The seniors’ motivations are clear, win a state title, and they haven’t tried to hide it all season. When the players off the bench like freshman Gabriella Howley or junior Caitlyn Peace, who made her return Tuesday after missing about a month, are playing with that same drive, it’s a different kind of indicator.
“We take a lot of pride in that, but a lot of that should go to Aud because it’s how she builds the program,” Croyle said. “She’s the one inviting the little girls, the one pushing us to go to their games, and I know when we see them in the stands, it really motivates us. We were once them, we wanted to be the high schoolers, so we want to set a good example of what our program is about.”
Croyle’s one of the best players in the state, if not the country, but instead of lauding up her two goals, she effusively praised Craig not only for her corners on Tuesday, but all season. It’s also a sign that she’s not one to settle, her proficiency off set pieces this fall born out of what the senior saw as a shortcoming last season.
“There were a lot of times I felt I should have scored or just missed it,” said Croyle, who had at least three other headers come close. “I worked a lot on it, but Sophie’s corner kicks have been amazing. You could not place them more perfectly, it’s all her, I’m just there to get my head on it.”
The Wildcat’s defensive plan afforded Liv Grenda more space than she’d probably seen in the last month, but instead of ripping shots with aplomb, the senior still tried to link passes and set teammates up. Fittingly, she did by assisting on Hailey Primwhere’s goal early in the second half that burst open a Mechanicsburg hull already taking on water.
Lauren Lebo, the Wildcats’ sophomore keeper, was outstanding against the barrage with 14 saves but even she had her limits. There was nothing she could have done to stop the goal Peace scored midway through the second half.
“I had a chip on my shoulder, coming back in, I just wanted to have no drop off fro
m where I’d left off,” Peace said. “Tori had a great ball, my only thought was ‘I’ve practiced this a bunch of times, just put it in the back of the net.’ It’s second nature to me.”
Angelo hit a wonderful long ball from deep in the midfield that got over the defense and timed up perfectly with the run Peace made. The junior settled the ball off a bounce then punished it with a rocket of a shot to extend the lead to 4-0.
Howley pushed the advantage to five with eight minutes left, the freshman crashing the goal and knocking in a rebound after senior Lindsey Balmer scalded a free kick on target to force a parry by Lebo.
“It shows how much faith we have in each other and that we want to set each other up for greatness,” Croyle said.
They already have a state title and two district titles to their names, four straight SOL division titles and as of Tuesday, a perfect home record in night games over the last four years. They still feel there’s more to accomplish, but the Rams’ 2024 senior class had the best ending possible on their home field.
“They like that this is their home and they’re playing with the friends they grew up with and the memories they have,” Anderson said. “I’m thinking back to when they were in elementary school, how different they looked and what teams they were on. It is a fun group and a lot of good memories with them.”
They’re hoping for a few more in the next week and a half. To get there first means going through a familiar opponent from a week prior.
Pennridge will face Downingtown East, the Cougars a 4-0 winner over District 2 champ Delaware Valley on Tuesday, in Saturday’s quarterfinal. Yes, the Rams downed Downingtown East 6-0 in the District 1 semifinals on Oct. 31.
No, they aren’t even thinking that has any precursor on how Round 2 will play out.
“We’re going to work hard and focus on our mentality, not ‘oh we just beat them by this much,’ we know it’s going to be a good game no matter what,” Croyle said. “We want to end on top, we don’t want to end our season with a loss, so I expect that will motivate us a lot.”
PENNRIDGE 2 4 – 6
MECHANICSBURG 0 0 – 0
Goals: P – Anna Croyle 2, Hailey Primwhere, Caitlyn Peace, Gabriella Howley, Sophie Craig
(3-1) Central Dauphin 2, (1-6) Central Bucks East 1
The third time’s supposed to be the charm, until it isn’t.
Despite a valiant effort by the Patriots, their 2023 season ended the same as 2021 and 2022, with a first round PIAA 4A tournament loss to the District 3 power Rams. It’d take a really good statistician to figure the odds on the Patriots drawing the same first round opponent three straight years with East having a different seeding slot on the bracket each time, but sometimes things just shake out that way.
What wouldn’t take an inordinate amount of number-crunching to measure was East’s effort, not only on Tuesday night, but the entire season.
“Obviously we’ve got our history with this team and have a ton of respect for what they’ve done,” East coach Jake Nesteruk said. “We went into this one knowing that we’d have to make adjustments, but if we did them well, we had a full belief that we could knock them off.”
Seniors Sofia Mignon and Sophie Schorn poured four years’ worth of work into their final performance in an East uniform. They, and the rest of the Patriots’ senior class, formed the backbone of a team that had some big shoes, roles and personalities to refill and did so with flying colors.
“It hurts to lose this one and we are all feeling it now, but we as a staff are insanely proud of this group,” Nesteruk said. “We knew we’d be good, but I’ll be the first to admit that I was surprised with what we did this year. It’s all the girls.”
Defensive midfielders have one of the toughest roles around, and they rarely get the props they deserve for it. Mignon, off to NJIT next year, did it as well as anyone in the SOL by protecting her backline, giving the young players in front of her confidence to be aggressive and asserting herself more as a scorer.
Behind her, Schorn, Katie Bullard and Grace Craig formed the heart of a stout backline and held their ground until Chantal Van Dongeren could return from injury to join them in a senior-laden group.
“It’s the senior leadership. We as coaches just try to stay out of the way and empower them as much as we can,” Nesteruk said. “Our senior leadership maintained the standard we’ve created here, emptied the tank, and left the jersey in a better spot.
Central Dauphin’s goal differential this season is almost comical, the Rams having conceded a grand total of two times all fall. After 27 minutes on Tuesday, that number had been upped by one thanks to East freshman Mia Forney.
“Credit to our girls, the first half we put together was massive,” Nesteruk said. “For the first 20, it felt like we were on the front foot with Central Dauphin catching us on the counter attack here and there, and to get that goal that Mia put away was a huge confidence boost.”
Unfortunately, that boost wouldn’t make it to the half. Despite a stunning play by Schorn to block a ball on the goal line to maintain the lead, the Rams would get a moment of brilliance from their standout player to steal a tie at the break.
“Between Jessie Bernabe, Sofia Mignon, and Ava Mignon, I thought we handled Kayden Williams really well, unfortunately for us, she picked up a ball outside of the 18 and just clipped a well hit shot that tucked off the crossbar and in,” Nesteruk said.
Williams, a junior who has more than 200 career points, scored with five seconds left in the first half to make it a 1-1 game.
CD seized on its own momentum break and put East on the defensive for much of the second half. With Mae Leedy and Arralyn Patterson behind them, the seniors in the back continued to hold the line.
“Kiera Sleicher was huge for us in pressing the game higher up and our backline – Chantal, Grace, Katie, Sophie – just never gave away anything dangerous and our keepers did what they’ve done all year,” Nesteruk said.
Finally, the Rams broke through with 10 minutes left on what Nesteruk described as a well-taken goal, the ball hitting the top part of the net on the right post.
“The final 10 minutes we broke our shape and went chasing the game. The intensity we brought to close this game out created a handful of good opportunities with almost all 11 of our girls inside of their attacking half,” Nesteruk said. “We asked our girls to believe and to back it up with their best performances of the season and for the most part we got them.”
Van Dongeren, Schorn, Bullard, Craig, Sofia Mignon, Julia Santanello, Lauren Curry and Olivia Samkavitz took ownership of the team this year and their last performance magnified what they meant to the Patriots this year.
“They found their voice, they led by example, and the rest of the program totally bought in,” Nesteruk said. “It hurts, but each day gets a little easier, and for the rest of our returning kids, we will take some time away from each other and do what we can to get ourselves ready for next fall.”
CB East concludes its season with a 16-5-2 record.
CENTRAL DAUPHIN 1 1 – 2
CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 1 0 – 1
Goals: CBE – Mia Forney
(11-1) Parkland 2, (1-4) Council Rock South 0
Golden Hawks coach Nick Heim wouldn’t have minded a few more spins of the odometer with this group.
CR South’s winding road through the postseason came to an end Tuesday at the hands of the District 11 champion. From their start as the No. 21 seed in the District 1 tournament, the Hawks played six straight road games to conclude their season, truly earning both halves of the “road warrior” moniker.
“This senior class took us on a magical run,” Heim said. “From third in the (SOL Patriot) league and 21 seed in districts to making it to the final 16 of states was one of the most fun runs I’ve been a part of.”
Parkland, which had seen its season end at the hands of an SOL team each of the last three years, scored once on either side of halftime to advance its season.
“The girls continued to show tremendous grit. I thought we played pretty well,” Heim said. “We controlled play for long stretches and had dangerous opportunities, just couldn’t find the back of the net.”
Heim, who also led the Golden Hawks to the PIAA tournament in 2019, noted the impact this group had extended far beyond their record or any playoff run.
“Most importantly, the way they represent our school is second to none,” Heim said. “Just today at in-service, more South teachers came up to me to speak highly of the kids in our program than ever have before.”
The team’s seniors – Cam Blatz, Gabby Bachmann, Jocelyn Badessa, Lily Bross, Cailey Doyle, Gianna Johnson, Abby Eozengarten, Jenna Waterman, Taylor Wohl and Zoe Brossman – filled different roles in their four years. They also undoubtedly left the program stronger for having come through it.
“They often say you don’t own your jersey, you’re just a caretaker of it, and it’s on you to leave it in a better place than you found it. It couldn’t be more true of this group,” Heim said. “Incredibly proud of them and lucky to have been along for their journey.”
CR South concludes the 2023 season with a 12-7-3 record.
PARKLAND 1 1 – 2
COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 0 0 – 0
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