Bishop McDevitt rallies past Abington Friends in 2nd half

CHELTENHAM >> Abington Friends’ early control of Tuesday’s non-league contest against Bishop McDevitt culminated with a Will Durbin goal in the eighth minute to give the Kangaroos a 1-0 lead.

It was McDevitt, however, which responded to the one-goal deficit by playing a simple ball-control offense and capitalizing on opportunities to pull out a 2-1 win.

“I told them at halftime and before the game too, we’ve got to win all the head balls,” McDevitt coach AJ Heintz said. “The goal they score, we punted it out, we didn’t win the ball, the kid took it, dibbled through everybody and scored. If we had won the head ball, it wouldn’t have happened. After that it clicked in their head again ‘we need to win the head balls.’”

Abington Friends coach Julian Ward warned his team at halftime that if it did not pick up the intensity and move the ball it was at risk of getting beat. As the ball movement of the ‘Roos suffered so too did their offense, as they did not generate the quality of chances that could have been there.

“I could feel the game opening up,” Ward said of his halftime warning. “McDevitt has a couple of young players that can move the ball and they’re aggressive and they know what it takes to put the ball in the back of the net.”

As the second half hit, AFS tried to use its advantage in speed, size and athleticism to out duel the Lancers. As a result the ‘Roos carried the ball too much through the midfield, causing them to loose shape.

“I rarely saw us pass the ball with three consecutive passes,” Ward said. “These little details helps guys get better. I just didn’t see it. Plays (were) breaking down over and over, lots of turnovers, lack of discipline, lack of shape, guys don’t know how to play their positions but its building point and were still figuring out where to put guys and luckily it’s a non-league game.”

Not helping Abington Friends’ case to get a go-ahead or tying goal was the play of McDevitt keeper Shane Harter. The first-year keeper only made five stops but four of them were a high degree of difficulty.

“He’s a hockey goalie,” Heintz said of the junior keeper. “That was his first time playing in a real live game, not a scrimmage or summer or indoor and I thought he made some fantastic reaction saves.”

As for the Lancers offensively, sophomore midfielder Matt Duddy created the plays need for the Lancers to win. He scored McDevitt’s first goal on a one-time shot off a nice feed from Andrew Pham and assisted on the game winner by Daniel Fiorella.

The road will get tougher for both the ‘Roos and Lancers. As they head toward league play, both teams can learn plenty from Tuesday’s match.