Living the dream.
That’s exactly what a Central Bucks East soccer team bound for Saturday’s state championship game is doing these days, and no one wants this dream to end.
“It’s almost surreal,” senior Michael Gleason said. “I almost feel like someone is joking with us.
“I’m just trying to enjoy it while it’s here because I know it will be over in a couple of days, but it’s something we’ll talk about forever, definitely.”
The Patriots made history on Tuesday night when – thanks to their 2-1 win over Central Dauphin – they earned a spot in Saturday’s PIAA Class AAA title game against Hempfield.
“It’s honestly one of the best feelings of my life,” senior Mac Farber said. “I can’t really tell you anything better.
“To be the first team in East history – to take that all in – it’s just incredible. All year we have worked our butts off, and I think we deserve to be here.”
“This has been an unreal experience,” senior Lee Sanquist said. “We just have a fantastic group of guys on our team, and it’s been fantastic to go this far.
“No team in East history has made the state semifinals before, and us - out of all teams, we did it.”
The Patriots did it because they peaked at the right time, and they did it because this group of athletes is a team in the truest sense of the word.
“We work so hard for each other,” Farber said. “I think that’s really defined our team.
“We don’t have a standout player, we don’t have any individuals. We’re all just solid players who fight for each other game in and game out.”
“We love playing for each other,” senior Kenny Haug said. “You want to win it for the guy next to you, and you’re doing this for everyone around you and your school too.”
The results have been nothing short of remarkable.
The Continental Conference champion Patriots – who finished third in District One – have outscored their opponents 8-1 so far in the state tournament, and although Sandquist has accounted for half of those goals, this playoff run has been the consummate team effort.
“The key to our success is our unity,” Gleason said. “All of us have been playing together since a young age.
“None of us are really top level soccer players per se, but we care about each other, we play for each other, and I think that’s a testament to our season.”
If it sounds like the players are echoing a familiar theme, they are, and this is not just lip service.
“We just work hard as a team for each other,” Sandquist said. “I bust my butt for all of my teammates. It’s 100 percent team. Everyone tries hard for each other.”
“We’re like a family,” senior Kris Davis said. “To be able to do this with some of your best friends – it’s just a great experience, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
“A lot of us have been playing together since middle school and even before that, and we have really come along over the years and developed great friendships and great bonds that will last forever.”
For all their talk about camaraderie, the players acknowledge there is another very important piece to this puzzle – coach Mike Gorni.
“We’ve been to states four years straight, and the only constant with all four of those teams has been him as coach,” Gleason said. “He really keeps us together, he doesn’t give up.
“Before every game we have a scouting report on the other team, and we know more than any team ever knows about us, and I think that’s definitely a key because we go in knowing what to look for and some of their plays, so he deserves massive credit.”
In state tournament play, the Patriots have earned wins over Coughlin (1-0), Lower Merion (2-0) and Central Dauphin (2-1).
“It’s kind of taken on a momentum of its own at this point,” Gorni said. “If you look at just the last four years – two years we were very star and superstar laden. Last year, obviously we had a very good team but again no real superstars but a team that did very well together.
“For this group to sustain this level of play for an entire season and getting better as the playoffs came, which is much easier said than done, has been terrific. In the playoffs, you need to be good, and you need to have a bit of good fortune, and we’ve had both.”
There undoubtedly weren’t many who would have penciled the Patriots into the state title game during a late September stretch that saw them go 0-2-2 in four league games. They responded to that by winning nine of their next 10 games.
“There was a time in the middle of the season where we struggled a little bit,” senior Shane Donovan said. “But we clicked at the right time, and we’ve been playing great at the end of the season.
“I think it’s just that we all play hard for each other together. We’re a real team. Everyone knows their roles, and we do them well.”
The Patriots are not in this alone. The soccer team has captured the imagination of the entire school community and has its own student cheering section, the ‘Sons of Gorni’ – a spinoff of the Philadelphia Union’s ‘Sons of Ben.’
“Our fans have been unbelievable,” Farber said. “To come out the past couple of games and just see a sea of red in the stands and just to play in front of that – they’re so motivating. It’s great stuff.”
“They’re key,” Gleason said. “Sometimes on the road during the season we would get off to a slow start. With them there, we come out pumped up right away.”
“We have the best fans in the state by far,” Davis added. “They’re rowdy, they’re rabid, and they let you know what’s going on in the game.”
The players have become celebrities of sort at school.
“As a soccer player, I would never have thought walking through school I would hear, ‘Great game last night’ and stuff like that,” Farber said. “I can see that if you’re a football kid but never as a soccer player.
“It’s incredible. It’s unbelievable.”
“It’s fun,” added Davis. “Everyone is congratulating you, everyone is talking about the game. It’s kind of like being a celebrity.”
The Patriots’ magical postseason run has one last stop, and that stop is in Hershey on Saturday when East will face a Hempfield squad that has not allowed a goal in the state playoffs.
“They have 12 players who play for the Classics Academy program in the Lancaster area which is one of the strongest clubs in Pennsylvania, and they’re terrific,” Gorni said. “So you have a high school team that has a great number of players who play in an outstanding club situation year round, but we have been the underdog for literally five of the last seven years. We kind of like that role.”
Just one more upset separates East from a coveted state crown.
“We’re not done yet,” Davis said. “We still have a game on Saturday and need to take care of business, but looking back on the season – no one really thought we would get this far. We’ve just grown as a team throughout the year and gotten better each day.
“It’s been truly a special experience.”
“At certain points, it hits you,” Haug said. “You get waves of it – ‘I’m in the state final,’ but it comes and it goes, but when it’s there, it’s an amazing feeling.
“We have never experienced this feeling before. You normally don’t have this many people rooting for you, and eclipsing what we did the past couple of years is giant too. Words can’t even describe it.”
The Patriots will face Hempfield at HersheyPark Stadium on Saturday at 5 p.m.
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