Wissahickon’s Kropnick puts on clinic in victory

WEST NORRITON – The Norristown boys soccer team took on visiting league foe Wissahickon in a Suburban One League American Conference match on Thursday afternoon.

The Trojans would secure a 4-0 win at the hand of the Eagles, but the story line came at the end of the first half when Norristown’s Ethan Sylvester was shown a red and head coach Jared Elias was ejected from the premises after a second yellow card.

For Wissahickon, goal dynamo Cole Kropnick captured all four goals, slotting in two from the penalty mark, as the Trojans (13-2, 10-2) continue to chase Plymouth Whitemarsh a game back for the lead of the SOL American standings.

Wissahickon didn’t waste much time getting a head start on the Eagles (3-10-2, 1-9-2) when Kropnick ran free behind the defense and had his sights set on the bottom corner of the goal mount in the fourth minute.

The striker had a chance to double up his sheet in the ninth minute when the Trojans were awarded a PK after a defender brought down Wissahickon’s Max Carchedi in the box.

Kropnick stepped up to take the penalty and beat Norristown goalie Will Baltrus to make the score 2-0 with plenty of time left in the frame.

In the 18th minute Coach Elias was shown his first yellow card for arguing with the officiating, as it seemed the tactician wasn’t pleased by the way some of the calls were going against his team.

About 10 minutes later Wissahickon connected on some sharp one-two passing from players Alec Schwartz and Ryan Becker, who found a streaking Kropnick down the left flank for his third goal of the game.

The game got chaotic around the 33rd minute, however, when Wissahickon was given another penalty kick and the ref pulled out a red card from his back pocket, Eagle defender Sylvester the culprit for lashing out on the call.

From there, the official pulled Elias aside to discuss the booking before going for another pocket, this time his front, and Elias was tossed for being booked a second time.

After being shown the card Elias immediately ordered his squad to make its way towards the bench, as the Eagles didn’t have an assistant coach present and the idea of forfeiting was inevitable.

The referees then suspended the game as Norristown AD Tony Palladino met with the crew to discuss the options on how to resume play and it was determined that JV coach Bob Menefee, who was coaching a field over, would take charge in lieu of the circumstances.

“No, that was a first,’ the first-year junior varsity coach said of the ejection. “It happens.’

When play was finally resumed and order was restored, Kropnick tallied once more on the penalty.

“It was a shame,’ Wissahickon head coach Stuart Malcolm said of the situation. “But we did what we said we were going to come to do which was come and play the game.

“The guys did a nice job moving the ball and got some good opportunities and put the goals away that we needed to.’

Elias was at a loss for words and didn’t comment on what had transpired in the first half.

For Menefee, the coach was thrown into the fire when called upon by his boss to lead the Eagles in the remaining seven minutes of the first half and a second half that saw the Eagles hold the Trojans scoreless.

“They knew they were down a man, but they did a good job,’ Menefee said. “They held them from the time I got over here. They stepped their game up a little bit — it’s a shame they couldn’t do that in the first half.’