By Alex Frazier
Central Bucks South claimed the seventh and last playoff spot for the PIAA State Championships with a 1-0 win over Strath Haven at Conestoga.
After an evenly matched first half, coach Joe Bocklet told his charges at the intermission that they needed to pick up the pace in the second half.
To facilitate that, he went often to his bench rotating his midfield and forward lines.
The strategy paid off with 14 minutes left in the second half. Ashley Saylor, who had an outstanding game, dropped a pass back to sweeper Cara Armstrong. She served the ball up the left sideline. A defender attacked the ball but didn’t anticipate the skip, which Molly Grove did, scooting behind the defender and collecting the ball. She dribbled in and fired the ball into the right side of the goal.
“We wore them into the ground,” said Bocklet. “The second half was ours.”
For the Titans, it will be their third trip to states.
They will take on either the District Six champion or the District Nine champion Tuesday at a site and time to be determined.
By virtue of finishing seventh, South goes into the bottom western bracket and thus avoids another “District One Tournament” with the other six teams in the eastern top half.
“I love playing new teams,” said Bocklet. “It was the one thing I enjoyed about moving to the fall.”
However, it does have one drawback—more travel.
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