Neshaminy shuts out Hatboro-Horsham in District 1-4A 2nd round
HORSHAM >> Neshaminy’s back line has matured into a force, and it authored a 1-0 shutout victory over Hatboro-Horsham Thursday night in the second round of the District 1-4A Playoffs.
“I think the thing that has been most important has been experience,” Skins senior defender Alex Daeche said. “Last year, we had a really young team. Our back line is basically the same this year. We just have a lot of experience from last year and it’s all the same defense.
“I think everyone on the team plays at a high level outside of high school. And I think that really helps. And we’re such a bonding team that everyone wants to work for each other.”
The victory advances the 11th-seeded Skins to Saturday’s quarterfinals, to take on either Boyertown or Pennsbury. The sixth-seeded Hatters (16-3) saw a tremendous season come to a close.
“They were really fast,” Daeche said of the challenge of shutting down a potent Hatter lineup. “Overall, they’re a very good team with solid players.
“Being this close (to states) is a great feeling. Everyone on this team is really close. We have ‘brothers’ on the back of our shirts. We all believe in that mentality. This is probably one of my favorite teams I’ve ever played for.”
With Neshaminy’s defense controlling things, all the Skins needed was to pop one goal in, and that came early in the second half.
Freshman Jonathan Lopez knocked in a rebound off a header that hit the crossbar, and it was 1-0 Neshaminy with about 34 minutes to play.
The Hatters turned up the heat late, but couldn’t quite get the equalizer.
“We knew that (Neshaminy) was good on set pieces and that’s what they scored on,” Hatters coach Kyle McGrath said. “And we knew if they scored, they were gonna defend because they’re very good defensively. We threw numbers forward but just couldn’t get to the end of a ball in the box, and credit to them for keeping us off the scoreboard.
“We knew it was gonna be a tight game. It’s district playoffs so there’s no blowouts anymore, so we knew it was gonna come down to who wanted the ball more in the 18-yard boxes, and unfortunately for us tonight, we didn’t really connect on our corner kicks and our restarts.”
The Hatters recovered from an 0-2 start to the season to win 16 straight leading into Thursday’s clash.
“This group’s been awesome to coach,” McGrath said. “We knew this was gonna be a tough matchup but these guys have worked hard all year. I told the guys to keep their heads up. We won (the SOL American) and we came together as a family.”
Neshaminy 1, Hatboro-Horsham 0
#11 Neshaminy 0 1 – 1
#6 Hat-Horsham 0 0 – 0
Second Half
N-Jonathan Lopez, 34:04.
