Archbishop Wood rallies to beat Lansdale Catholic

SOUTHAMPTON — It was only fitting that on Archbishop Wood’s senior day — their last regular season game — that the drama was provided by senior.

Midfielder Matt McWilliams scored two goals on Monday evening under the lights at Veteran’s Field against Landsdale Catholic, and they were arguably the two most important goals in the Vikings’ 5-3 win over the Crusaders.

In the 37th minute, with the Vikings trailing 2-0 on two goals in one minute from Landsdale Catholic, McWilliams ran hard to track down a ball that the Crusaders’ goalie Vincent Scialla thought he could win the battle for.

McWilliams got their first, evading Scialla and finding a wide open net to give the Vikings some momentum going into the half. The goal came less than two minutes after the Crusaders had extended their lead.

If something works, why change it?

On almost an exact replica of McWilliams’ first goal, he netted his second of the game late in the second half. Once again, Landsdale Catholic had just scored, and once again Scialla tried to beat McWilliams to the ball. It did not work the first time, and it did not work the second time. The goal put the Vikings up for good, as they tacked on a fifth goal with under a minute left to play in the game.

“He has been scoring a lot for us the last few weeks,’ said Vikings’ head coach Joe Krantz. “He probably has six or seven goals. He is playing outstanding.’

McWilliams may have quite a few goals to his name this season, but these to were special.

“It felt great (to score twice on senior night), in our last regular season game.’ McWilliams said. “I had to go out with a bang.’

McWilliams was not the only two goal scorer for the Vikings.

Junior Nick Sonsini netted the second and third goals for Archbishop Wood, both of them early in the second half to first tie the game at two, and then give the Vikings a 3-2 lead.

Also like McWilliams, both of Sonsini’s goals were nearly identical. Twice in the matter of three minutes Sonsini skipped a low, bounding shot along the wet grass to the far post from the left side for a goal.

That marked three straight goals scored by the Vikings to come back to take the lead.

“They come back,’ Krantz said. “We don’t feel that we are ever out of a game.’

“We had a pretty good talk at half time,’ McWilliams added. “[Coach] told us that we needed to put them away.’

That they did.

The win for Archbishop Wood moves them to 14-2-2, while Landsdale Catholic falls to 12-5-2 with the loss.