Souderton and Pennridge will do battle in Saturday’s PIAA 4A title game at HersheyPark Stadium. Check back for game coverage.
It’s a script no one could have written.
Two neighboring teams with decidedly different goals when the season began will be playing on the biggest stage when Pennridge and Souderton meet at HersheyPark Stadium in the PIAA 4A title game on Saturday (4 p.m.).
For the Rams, it’s the culmination of a goal that was at the top of their list since the dog days of summer and perhaps even long before that.
“This was a goal from the very beginning,” Pennridge coach Audrey Anderson said. “We sat on the turf during preseason and talked about what we wanted to accomplish this season.
“Losing (to Quakertown) in the second round of districts last year was a big driving force. We had unfinished business. We weren’t supposed to go out that way, but we did and we have to learn from it and move on.
“I’m a competitor. I want to win every game, but let’s put things in perspective – you don’t have to win your conference or the district to win a state title, so we tried to make sure we kept that perspective. We don’t have to win every game, but we have to win the games that matter.”
Playing for a state championship was not a topic of conversation for an Indian squad that finished tied for third place with North Penn behind SOL Continental Conference champion Pennridge and Central Bucks West.
“It was something we talked about, but it was more of a hypothetical situation,” Souderton senior Campbell Power said. “The past few years we haven’t gotten very far in playoffs, so our goal this year was definitely getting to the district final and then from there it was just kind of building up our momentum and our energy. I think that’s what got us so far – just our hard work.”
“At the beginning of the year, coach Lindsy (Jones) wrote stages of how we were going to get through the season on the board,” senior Sara Readinger said. “The state championship was a line at the end of the board.
“It was there, but we were focusing more on the games before it instead of focusing on the end result.”
Souderton, the eighth seed in District One, attained its goal of reaching the district title game where the Indians fell to second-seeded Conestoga 2-1 in overtime. Pennridge finished third in districts after falling to Conestoga 2-1 in a semifinal contest. It marked the beginning of an unlikely journey in states that saw the Rams survive the minefield that was the top half of the PIAA 4A bracket while the Indians – in the bottom half of the bracket – went west and sent both the District 7 champion and runner-up home for the season.
“I don’t know exactly what it is, but I definitely think there’s something going for us this season,” Power said. “I’m not complaining at all because it’s a great year senior year, and it’s just a great season in general.”
Saturday’s meeting is the third between the neighboring rivals. Not a whole lot separated them in the first two. The Rams edged the Indians 1-0 on Sept. 17, and on Oct. 11, the neighboring rivals battled to a 0-0 tie.
It is the sixth straight year the SOL has been represented in the state title game. Neshaminy was there twice, winning the state title with a 2-1 overtime win over Spring-Ford in 2013 and falling to Norwin 1-0 last year. The three Central Bucks schools took turns representing the SOL Continental Conference from 2014-16 with CB West defeating Canon McMillian 2-1 in overtime to win the title in 2014. CB East fell to Upper St. Clair 2-1 in 2015 and Central Bucks South fell to Canon McMillian 1-0 in OT in 2016.
In 2012’s state title game, Peters Township edged Cumberland Valley 1-0, and a year earlier, Pennridge made the trip to Hershey but fell to Peters Township 1-0. Anderson, then an assistant, filled in for coach Jorge Rodriguez, who got married the preceding day and could not attend.
Souderton’s last win over Pennridge came on Sept. 18, 2015, when the Indians won 1-0. Later that year, Pennridge won the rematch 3-0 and has not lost to the Indians in the six meetings since, although the two teams did battle to a pair of ties.
On Saturday, Souderton and Pennridge will square off in the state title game.
“I was sitting next to Sara (Readinger) on the bus after Tuesday’s win, and I said, ‘What just happened? We’re playing Pennridge in the state title,’” Souderton senior Sam Harwick said. “Everyone is so excited.
“We’ve joked about that situation just because that’s such a big competition for us,” Power said. “Now that it’s actually here – I don’t think it’s going to hit me until we’re in Hershey.”
Unfinished business for Rams
Unfinished business.
That’s been something close to a rallying cry for Pennridge since Oct. 26, 2017, when the Rams – the number one seed in the district – fell to 17th-seeded Quakertown in a second round District 1 4A game in penalty kicks after neither team scored during regulation and two 15-minute overtime periods.
“Definitely after losing to Quakertown last year, we knew we had unfinished business, and this was the year to get it done,” senior Mary Kate Levush said.
The Rams’ senior goalkeeper would be the first to admit that there were plenty of doubters.
“A lot of people say, ‘Oh, Pennridge isn’t going to be good this season,’ or ‘They lost so many girls last season, they’re going to struggle,’” Levush said. “I just love the fact that we proved everybody wrong.”
“We’re always, for some reason, the underdogs,” senior Holly Harbeck said. “Everyone is like, ‘Oh, they’re not going to be good this year,’ and we just proved them wrong.”
The Rams rolled to their third consecutive SOL Continental Conference title, and according to senior Molly Groff, got the idea they might be onto something special during the second go-round in conference play.
“You can’t really tell at the beginning of the season, but we were beating teams again, and it’s hard to beat teams two times in a row,” Groff said. “We were all on the same page.”
The Rams fell to Conestoga in a district semifinal game, but that was only a temporary setback.
“That definitely fueled our hunger going into states because that was our first loss in a while against Conestoga, but we still had a bid for the state tournament, and we knew going in that we just had to go all-out,” Levush said. “For our senior class, this was our last shot, and we wanted to go out the best we could.”
“That was hard,” senior Molly Groff said of falling in the district title game. “But we never lost sight of our goal, and that was Hershey.
“I think that pushed us even harder because that was our first loss in a while, and we said, ‘Okay, there are some teams out there that can beat us, but we just need to work for it.’”
And work for it they did. Coach Audrey Anderson recalls her team’s determination after falling behind 2-0 to District 11 champion Parkland in a state quarterfinal game. The Trojans brought an 18-game winning streak into that game and had allowed just five goals in those 18 wins, never more than one.
The Rams scored a pair of second-half goals and went on to win in penalty kids.
“We were losing to Parkland 2-1 at the time, and I saw Sarah Williams – just the determination on her face as she was dribbling the ball out of our back,” Anderson said. “She so badly wanted that game, and I think the players around her respected that and everyone played so much harder. Everyone knows what our ultimate goal is.”
A spot in the state championship game has annually been on the wish list of a program that is a perennial district power. What made it happen for this year’s squad?
“I think we all wanted the exact same thing,” Groff said. “Our coach asked us at the beginning of the season – ‘What is our main goal this year?’
“We were like, ‘We want to go to Hershey.’ We have wanted that since day one. We were all on the same page, we all get along, and we connect.”
It’s the camaraderie they share, according to the players, that brings everything together.
“I feel like we just work so well with each other,” Levush said. “All of us grew up playing with each other at Deep Run, and that definitely helps.
“We all just love each other, and that really helps going out on the field and being able to play as a unit. We play for each other, which is huge.”
“We don’t play individually,” Harbeck said. “We work as a team, and we all want the same thing. We just worked so hard for this.
“Our set thing was to get to Hershey. We didn’t care about winning the conference, we didn’t care about districts. We wanted Hershey.”
Providing the nucelus of this year’s squad is a senior class that includes Levush, Harbeck, Molly Groff, Ashley Groeber, Kat Estep, Abby Groff, Nicolette Harrison and Sarah Williams.
“This senior group is such a great group – they just like each other so much,” Anderson said. “They’re all really, really nice, and I hate to say that because they’re soccer players, but they’re nice kids.
“They all get along and they play for each other. I said to them early on, ‘You want these underclassmen to play for you. Let them see how much this means to you,’ and they all want it so badly.
“The senior group, the junior group – they were here two years ago when we lost in the quarterfinals. They saw that we could do it. That was a goal. When they go out and play, they play so hard that it’s hard to not respect that, it’s hard to not want to play with that player. The other girls see how hard they work, and they don’t want to let them down.”
On Saturday, the Rams will take the long-awaited trip to Hershey.
“The whole entire postseason I’ve had nerves, but they’ve been good nerves,” Levush said. “I just had a good feeling inside that we’re going to be the team that gets it done.”
“It feels absolutely amazing,” Molly Groff said. “I can’t even put it into words, and we’re playing Souderton, a team from our own conference.
“I think that speaks volumes about how hard our conference is and how competitive we are.”
It’s all in the family for the Indians
“Family”
It’s not just a one-word cheer that Souderton uses before breaking its huddle.
“We always cheer family, and it’s because we mean it,” senior Campbell Power said. “I think it’s the closest we have ever been in my four years being here at least.”
It’s easy to talk a good game when everything is going your way, but the Indians – in the midst of their unprecedented success – have had setbacks. Senior Sam Harwick, a mainstay in the team’s defense, went down with a knee injury in the Indians’ first district game against Harriton.
On Thursday, two days before the Indians play for a state title, she underwent surgery to repair a torn ACL and meniscus.
“It’s been really hard, but honestly, it’s been kind of nice that we’re getting this far because I’m having surgery and the reality hasn’t sunk in because I’m focused on the team right now,” Harwick said in an interview Wednesday. “I’m just focused on the next game.
“I think a big part of it is the family aspect. The girls don’t make me feel like I’m not part of the team anymore. I still feel like I’m part of the team.”
Harwick has been more than just a cheerleader on the sidelines.
“I usually sit next to Sam on the bus, and we’re talking about the game, we’re talking strategies and different plays,” senior Sara Readinger said.
“I think it’s important for everyone to just keep motivating each other,” Harwick said. “Me motivating the girls, some of the juniors that are playing instead of me, and the girls motivate me and say, ‘Sam, you’re going to do great in surgery. You got it.’”
“Sam is a great example of how we keep the family dynamic going,” Power said. “Rachel (Croll) has a concussion, and she can’t come on the bus. She’s the first person we’re texting after game. It’s the first thing we want to do – we want to let the girls that aren’t there know that we won and we’re thinking about them.
“Allie Trick, who hasn’t been in a game this season, is at almost every game. She’s on the bus ride singing with us. Kristin (Loh) got hurt, and she’s on the bus singing with us. Kristin is easily the loudest person on the sidelines. The injuries affected the starting lineup and who was playing, but it hasn’t affected us.”
That family atmosphere didn’t just happen. It was a point of emphasis for first-year coach Lindsy Jones, who previously coached the jayvee team.
“It was always there,” Jones said. “I felt that was important from the beginning.
“When I played high school (soccer), there was a very family feel.”
And her Newport High School team in Bellevue, Washington, rode that family feel to a third place finish in the state in 2000.
“Having that experience and success, I really wanted to create that this year,” Jones said. “It took everybody to make it happen. You have to buy in.”
And buy in the players did.
“Our coach has really emphasized the family aspect, and I think all of us have taken that and run with it,” Harwick said. “It’s come easy to us. Our team has such a good dynamic – we’re all best friends.”
“We all have the same energy coming into games,” Readinger said. “We’re all on the same page.
“At the end of the season, sometimes you get tired and you want the season to end. It has not been like that at all. We’re all super excited to go into every game. No one is falling off in their role on the team.”
Roles have – out of necessity – changed on a squad that has taken some hits to injuries. They Indians also overcame a stretch of four ties in seven games midway through the season.
“It was more of a joke and a motivational type of situation,” Power said. “We were like, ‘We cannot have overtime again. We cannot be doing this to ourselves.’”
“No one was upset necessarily,” Readinger said. “We were all joking about it.
“We all knew we had the potential to put a lot of goals in the net. We knew we had a strong defense, and we weren’t allowing any goals. We were like, ‘We have to put the pieces together. We need to work on it at practice and find that.’”
The Indians did put the pieces together, and their resilience was never more apparent than in their state semifinal win over Peters Township in a game they trailed until Averie Doughty scored with 11 seconds remaining in regulation. Power scored the game-winner in overtime.
“As the game went on, we were kind of realizing – this is it, and it could be our last game, but no one stopped,” Readinger said. “Even if we’re not having the best game, everyone is going as hard as they can.”
“It’s almost a refusal to lose,” Power said. “We keep saying, ‘We’re at this point. We can’t lose now.’”
“That goes back to our team dynamic where no one wants the season to end,” Harwick said. “We have such a good dynamic. We don’t want it to be our last game.”
At the heart and soul of the team are 11 seniors – Harwick, Readinger, Power, Trick, Loh, Kailee Harwick, Miranda Kullman, Kayla Chamberlain, Katie McCollum, Erin O’Keefe and Lindsey Pazdziorko. Some play a lot, some not so much, but all are equally important.
“Even if they don’t play, they’re just as important as the girls on the field,” Power said.
“They’re working just as hard at practice,” Readinger said. “Everyone is excited, no one is mad about playing time.
“Everyone is motivated for each other. Even if an underclassman comes into the game that doesn’t usually play, everyone wants them to play good.”
“Our two strikers switch starting,” Harwick said. “They’re always supporting each other, they’re rooting for each other, and they’re always there for each other, which I think is important.”
Jones has been with this year’s senior class for four years.
“I coached them on jayvee freshman year,” she said. “I knew they were going to be awesome senior year. They’re full of energy, lots of talent across the board – offensively, defensively and goalkeeper. We’re going to have a lot of holes to fill next year.”
But the year isn’t over yet. On Saturday, the Indians will write the final chapter to a storybook season when they take on Pennridge in the state title game.
“We’re meant to be there,” Jones said. “I hope we can build on that. I don’t know what we’re supposed to learn from that experience or gain from it, but somehow we were supposed to be here.”
#1-2 SOUDERTON vs. #1-3 PENNRIDGE (Saturdya, Nov. 17, 4 p.m., HersheyPark Stadium)
Souderton
- 16-3-6 overall
- 5-2-5 SOL Continental Conference (tied for third place)
- Defense has been the calling card for an Indians’ squad that has 16 shutouts. Their back line is led by senior Kailee Harwick, senior Miranda Kullman and junior Darby Kramer plus senior keeper Lindsey Pazdziorkio, who has allowed just 12 goals all season.
- Midfield paced by senior duo Campbell Power and Sara Readinger. Both are skilled in winning the ball but also providing attacking threats and goals.
- Forward unit anchored by sophomore Averie Doughty, sophomore Taylor Yoder, senior Erin O'Keefe and sophomore Hannah Alderfer.
How they got here: In Tuesday’s state semifinal, Souderton defeated District 7 runner-up Peters Township 2-1 in overtime. Sophomore Averie Doughty scored the tying goal with 11 seconds remaining in regulation, and senior Campbell Power scored the game-winner in overtime.
In a quarterfinal contest, Souderton defeated District 7 champion Seneca Valley 4-3 in penalty kicks after the two teams battled to a 1-1 tie after regulation and two 15-minute overtime periods. Averie Doughty scored the Indians’ lone goal in regulation.
In an opening round game, Souderton defeated District 11 runner-up Easton 2-0. Sophomore Hannah Alderfer scored both goals.
Pennridge
- 21-3-1 overall
- 9-2-1 SOL Continental Conference champion (third straight)
- Third seed entering the District 1 4A Tournament
- Returned nine of 11 starters from last year’s successful squad.
- Pennridge won the first regular season meeting against Souderton 1-0, and the two teams settled for a scoreless tie in the second.
- Strong and deep midfield unit led by seniors Ashley Groeber and Nicolette Harrison and juniors Chance Hendricks and Maddie Anderson can control flow of game in both directions. Defensively sound and offensively capable group.
- Senior keeper Mary Kate Levush directs speedy back line featuring Sarah Williams, Molly Groff, Maddie Angelo, Holly Harbeck and Lauren McIntyre.
- Forward unit led by Abby Groff and Lindsey DeHaven with Leah Malone and McIntyre filling in as needed.
How they got here: In Tuesday’s state semifinal, Pennridge defeated District III third place team Ephrata 1-0. Lauren McIntyre (Abby Groff assist) scored the game-winner late in the first half.
In a quarterfinal contest against District 11 champion Parkland, Pennridge rallied from an early 2-0 deficit to knot the score 2-2, going on to win 4-2 in penalty kicks when 110 minutes could not determine a winner. Ashley Groeber converted a penalty kick, and Lauren McIntyre scored the equalizer in regulation.
In an opening round game, Pennridge rolled to an 8-0 win over District 12 champion Central. Leah Malone and Liv Lowery each had a pair of goals while Lauren McIntylre, Abby Groff, Chance Hendricks and Brielle Tasher each added single goals.
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