To view photos of the Neshaminy/Central Bucks East game, visit the photo gallery at the following link: http://photos.suburbanonesports.com/
By Alex Frazier
It was like a sucker punch to the stomach.
Who would have expected it?
Thursday afternoon William Tennent and Pennridge advanced to the District One AAA quarterfinals by defeating teams they had not only lost to during the regular season but which were also seeded far above them in the district tournament.
After losing to Pennsbury twice during the regular season by 1-0 and 2-0 scores, 17th seeded Tennent knocked off the No. 2-ranked team in the state and No. 1 in Southeastern Pennsylvania, 1-0.
“You never want to play somebody a third time,” said coach Dave Jones, “especially when you’ve played them in your league. We know each other too well.”
In the bottom half of the district bracket, No. 19 Pennridge and No. 3 Council Rock North played to a 1-1 deadlock though 110 minutes before going to penalty kicks, which the Rams won 3-2 to eliminate the Indians from the post-season. Like Tennent, the Rams had also lost to their opponent during the regular season, 2-1, in the third game of the year.
The first 15 minutes of the Pennsbury-Tennent game were evenly played, but the tide started to turn midway through the first half when Tennent’s Dan Eckhardt and the Falcons’ Jimmy Ockford went up for a header.
“He came up and threw an elbow in my face,” said Eckhardt. “I didn’t even really feel it. I don’t know if he hit me in the face. He might have hit me in the back, but from the angle the ref saw it, I guess he hit me in the head. He knocked me completely to my back. I look up and the ref is giving him a red card.”
“Now they had to play a man down, which gave us an even better chance of winning. We got more hyped about the game and put more intensity and pressure on them. It opened up the middle of the field for more possessions.”
Jones praised Eckhardt’s play in the center midfield.
“He played really, really well in the midfield and controlled the pace of the game,” he said.
Eckhardt said the key to the game was disrupting the Pennsbury offense, which was generated from keeper Drew Hutchins and defender Brian Powers.
“We kept pressure on the goalie and made him punt instead of being able to put the ball down and taking his time to clear it out,” explained Eckhardt. “We tried to keep possession more and send it to the corners.”
Tennent’s Bob Note took advantage of the man advantage off a throw-in when the ball bounced in front of Hutchins (three saves) and he headed it into the goal.
“It was a good hustle goal,” said Jones.
Ironically, Note was out sick for the second game against Pennsbury.
Toward the end of the game, the Falcons pushed up and applied a lot of pressure to the Tennent defense. But keeper Calvin Young (six saves) and defenders Jim Raccitti, Jared Miller, Zach Bush and Terence Meehan kept Eddie Adams, Corte Rumph and the rest of the Falcon attackers at bay.
“They did a good job holding them off and being real tough back there,” said Jones.
When the final whistle blew, there was jubilation.
“The bench sprinted out to the field and were all over each other yelling and screaming,” said Jones. “They were really looking forward to this game. They wanted to get to this game and show how good we are, that we could beat those guys.”
For Eckhardt and his teammates the victory was redemption.
“I feel like we got gyped in our seeding,” he said. “We should have gotten higher. Our only losses were to Pennsbury and North, which got the first and third seed, so I don’t know how we ended up 17th. We knew we had to come out strong and keep up the pressure to beat them. We thought that since they had a bye they weren’t going to be ready for the intensity we had.”
And that intensity even greater after a big win over Downingtown East in the first round.
“It gave us more momentum for this game,” said Eckhardt. “We came in with a big amount of confidence.”
No. 17 William Tennent will take on No. 8 Central Bucks East Saturday at 1 p.m. at War Memorial Field.
•••
Pennridge’s Ryan Bailey is no stranger to penalty kicks.
But until Thursday afternoon, he had never stopped three in one game.
But it was his incredible performance that lifted the Rams over Council Rock North after the two teams tied 1-1 after regulation and two 15-minute overtime periods.
“I’ve never seen a goalie play as well as him,” said Pennridge coach Peter Valimont.
“I was kicking myself. I felt I was going to get the other two also,” said Bailey. “I realized if we didn’t win, the season was over. It was a good chance for me to step up.”
Dan Caya put Pennridge up 1-0 in the first half. The Indians knotted the score on Erik Mazurkiewicz’ s goal with 16 minutes left in regulation.
Rock scored on its first penalty kick, while the Rams missed theirs.
Rock missed its second, but Caya didn’t to tie it up. Andrew Gross and Jake Rapsinski both made theirs and Bailey saved Rock’s second, fourth and fifth PKs.
“We knew we could play with them, contend with them,” said Valimont.
The two teams met previously in the third game of the year. The Rams led 1-0 with 18 minutes left and North took advantage of two Pennridge fouls to win 2-1.
Bailey missed that game because he broke his wrist in the previous game against Lower Merion. He didn’t return until the final five games of the season.
He’s still playing with a bandaged wrist. Obviously it isn’t hampering him.“I make sure it’s loose enough that it doesn’t restrict movement,” he said.
Pennridge and Souderton will renew their neighborhood rivalry Saturday at Souderton at a time to be determined.
“I’m really excited,” said Bailey. “I’m looking forward to playing Saturday.”
Unionville 4, Cheltenham 0
It took just 10 minutes.
But in that short period of time, Cheltenham was devastated. Unionville scored one goal on a rebound off the crossbar in the first half and then exploded for three straight in the first 10 minutes of the second.
“They just have the horses,” said Cheltenham coach Nick Zegestowsky. “They’re a formidable team.”
The coach praised the play of junior midfielder Marty Freedman.
“He had his best game of the season,” said Zegestowsky. “I’m hoping that translates to next year. He played really well against a really good player in Murphy for Unionville.”
After losing in the first round of the playoffs last year as the 27th seed, the Panthers have shown progress this year.
They finished their season at 12-7-1.
“It was a great season for us,” said Zegestowsky. “It was going to be a difficult task for us regardless of who we would have played because of our low seed. Hopefully next year, we’ll make it to the great eight.”
Central Bucks East 2, Neshaminy 1 OT
The No. 24 Redskins gave East all it could handle. Ricky Domico broke a scoreless deadlock 17 minutes into the second period. East coach Mike Gorni moved Dan Christiansen forward and the move paid off when he scored with three minutes left in regulation.
“We peppered but had a lot of hard luck,” said Gorni.
With 1:30 left in the first overtime, Steve Adams converted Ben Auteri’s corner kick for the victory.
“It came across the box and a lot of bodies got around it, but Steve Adams buried it for the game winner,” said Gorni. “He was very composed. The ball bounced around a couple of bodies and inside the six, and he just smashed one by everybody into the empty net.”East outshot Neshaminy by a slim 13-12 margin. Redskin keeper Mike Klimowicz made seven saves.
Neshaminy finished its season at 9-8-3.
Strath Haven 1, Central Bucks West 0
It was a tough loss for the Bucks in a game that could have gone either way.
“We played very hard,” said coach Steve Detweiler. “They finished one of theirs and we hit the crossbar and missed two balls wide by inches. The bottom line is they finished their chance and we couldn’t finish ours.”
The Panthers’ Dennis Donchor scored in the 47th minute
“To contain a player like Dennis who has 16 goals in 10 games, that speaks very highly of what we were able to do,” said Detweiler. “I’m proud of them.”
West keeper Ray Downs made seven saves.
The Bucks finished their season at 10-9-1.
“To make it this far in the playoffs, you have to consider this a good year,” said Detweiler. “We had at least a 10-win season and that’s great. All things considered that’s a good year for these boys. It’s a great step for this program.”
Souderton 1, Bayard Rustin 0
Souderton epitomizes the old cliché, “Defense wins championships.”
The Indians have scored just two goals in the tournament, but are playing in the quarterfinals Saturday against archrival Pennridge because the Indians have yet to yield a goal.
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