By Alex Frazier
The Suburban One League went 1-for-2 in the first round of states.
Central Bucks East, the third place team from District One, defeated District 11 champion Stroudsburg 2-0 to make it to the quarterfinals for the third year in a row. Meanwhile, Souderton’s season came to an end at Hersheypark Stadium in a 2-0 loss to District Three champion Central Dauphin.
East will play District 12 champion Father Judge, a 2-1 winner over Downingtown West, Saturday at a time and place to be determined.
East coach Mike Gorni knew what kind of team he would be facing. He had seen Stroudsburg upset Parkland in the District 11 championship game.
“We didn’t underestimate them,” he said. “They were a big team, physical in spots and with some very good goalkeeping.”
East’s strong defense didn’t allow a shot in the scoreless first half. The Patriots had the better part of play but couldn’t convert.
East scored both goals in the first 10 minutes of the second half— you guessed it—on re-starts.
The first came off the foot of Ryan Apt, who drilled a corner kick by Ben Auteri into the back of the net.
“The ball came across and it was a blast,” said Gorni.
In the 10th minute, Apt took Matt MacPherson’s long throw and found Evan Franco making a run at the far post. Franko drilled the ball from about five yards out.
“We kept them at bay,” said Gorni. “They had a couple of shots. We had some good looks but couldn’t score.”
East keeper Shane Donovan made two saves.
“The biggest thing for us is we didn’t underestimate Stroudsburg,” said Gorni. “We matched up well with them, we defended very well and we got some goals. We came to play tonight. We played one of our better games of the season tonight. That’s for sure.”
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Souderton’s Achilles’ heel all year has been scoring, and it hurt the Indians once again. The fact that their two best forwards Alec Jachwak and Christian Benner (injured quad) were banged up didn’t help matters, even though Alec Muir did a good job of moving up from defender to play forward.
“We were very limited up top for sure,” said coach Tom Quintois.
Central Dauphin scored the first goal just before halftime. Souderton - the fourth place team out of District One - picked up momentum in the second half, but couldn’t convert the chances it had.
With Souderton pressing to score, the Panthers added an insurance goal on a counterattack late in the second half.
“We had our chances to get back in the game, and we didn’t score the ball,” said Quintois.
The coach was quick to complement the play of sophomore keeper Dave Giannini, who came up with 18 saves.
“He was unbelievable,” said Quintois. “A lot of them were point blank. A lot of them were real dangerous. He came up big for us. He kept us in the game.”
After winning only three games last year, Souderton finished it’s season at 12-8-4 and claimed the Continental Conference title.
It was a shame the Indians’ season had to end with three straight losses.
“Everybody’s good right now,” said Quintois. “The teams we lost to are all good teams. We showed ourselves well. I’m extremely proud of this senior class. These guys battled through adversity the past two years. They played their hearts out tonight.
“Although it’s difficult, the silver lining for us is we really improved as a team. We got better every game. We just didn’t have enough.”
The Indians will lose 13 seniors from this year’s team, but Quintois is optimistic about the future.
“We’re young in some very key places,” he said. “Giannini’s a sophomore and he’s the real thing. Trevor (Bishop) and Gary (Guldin) and Christian (Benner) are all back and they’re very good players, and we return a bunch of kids from the jayvee team that are going to be good players. We had a great jayvee season. We have some kids in the pipeline that are coming up. The next couple of years, we’re going to be good.”
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