Central Bucks South edges Pennridge on Popma’s PK, secures outright SOL Colonial title
WARRINGTON >> Central Bucks South spoiled Pennridge’s chance at the Suburban One League Colonial Division boys soccer title and by Wednesday night’s end it was the Titans who had secured the outright crown.
Thjis Popma converted a penalty in the 15th minute after a handball and CB South’s defense stymied the Rams the rest of the way in a tight, tough battle as the host Titans held on for a 1-0 victory.
“I knew it was going to be physical going into the game, it was possibly for a (division),” South senior Sean Rieber said. “So we worked everything for this (division), just got to see how (Central Bucks) East does.”
At the start of the day, East and South were tied for second place at 31 points – two behind Pennridge – before the Patriots ended up playing North Penn to a 2-2 draw.
The Titans’ win put them at 35 points, one better than the Rams and two ahead of the Patriots. With both Pennridge and East playing the final regular-season contests Wednesday, the result was South alone as SOL Colonial champion.
“It took a lot,” said Rieber of topping the Rams. “These are the guys that we lost pretty bad to, 3-0, so we really wanted this one. Made a lot of adjustments, they have great players like Jared Hess and Shane Velez so we really locked them down tonight.”
If East had won, CB South (12-4-1, 11-3-1 division) still had one more division game – at Central Bucks West 7 p.m. Friday – to secure the outright title but that matchup with the Bucks is now a chance to boost the Titans’ District 1-4A seeding.
South, which is unbeaten in its last four (3-0-1), was one below Pennridge in 10th but moved up to ninth. The Rams dropped two spots to 11th.
“I think it’s really just putting our whole team together, just getting it over the line every single game to get wins and push us up higher in the rankings,” Popma said. “I feel that will benefit us even more going into the playoffs and hopefully we can reach a final or who knows, maybe a state championship.”
For Pennridge (13-5-0, 11-5-0), which lost its second straight – having fallen to CB West 2-1 in double overtime Monday – having a SOL Colonial title snatched from its grasp was another unfortunate addition to the Rams’ recent late-season heartbreak.
“To have a PK called against us the way that that was called against us, when our guy’s jumping for the ball, getting pushed from behind and into it – it’s a tough, tough play and call to swallow in that type of a game,” Rams coach Pete Valimont said. “But that was the call and they finished it.
“So they had a couple other good chances but we had an amazing out of pressure, especially at the end with five forwards giving everything we got. Just hit balls wide. Sometimes that goal becomes as tiny as a basketball hoop to try to get it in.”
Two seasons ago in the District 1-4A final, Pennridge had a double-overtime PK goal disallowed and eventually lost to Neshaminy in a shootout. Last year, the Rams finished second to North Penn in the division then had the Knights end their season with a 3-2 loss in the District 1-4A fifth-place game.
“The senior class got smoked by North Penn when they won the state championship (in 2019), when we played at La Salle for a home game for them,” Valimont said. “The next year we won the district and then to have that somehow, some way taken from us. Then last year we lost to North Penn in the playback and now we’re first place basically up until the last regular season game and just unfortunately didn’t have some things go our way.”
Valimont is confident the Rams can rebound from the disappointing finish and be ready for the district playoffs – the 28-team 4A field beginning play Tuesday with sixth advancing to the PIAA tournament.
“It’s not the time that you want to be going the way we’ve gone with a couple of back-to-back losses but our seniors are resilient enough, our coaching staff is good enough,” Valimont said. “And having to have somebody come to us the first game at home at The Helm will be a great start to the playoff in the second chapter of the season.”
CB South’s penalty kick came after a goalie cleared the ball away from the net and to the right side of the box. As a player from each side fought for control as the ball dropped between them, a whistle came with the call being a handball on the Rams.
“We got lucky on it, I’ll admit to it,” Rieber said. “But we definitely needed it.”
Popma stepped up to the spot and knocked a shot into the lower right corner and the keeper dove the opposite way and South had a 1-0 lead at 25:40 in the opening half.
“I used to practice PKs all the time back when I was younger,” Popma said. “Nothing really goes through my mind, I just want to place it in a corner and score, that’s about it.”
After surrendering three goals – two by Jared Hess – in their shutout loss at Pennridge Sept. 12, the Titans’ held firm to make sure Popma’s tally stood up, keeping the Rams off the scoreboard for just the second time this season.
‘I feel like we really had a gameplan going through the game, we had specific players for specific players to mark so they couldn’t really do anything,” Popma said. “I feel like we really just locked down their offense and they really weren’t able to do anything off of it.”
South created a few chances in the second half but could not increase its lead. A corner kick dropped to Andrew Medl in the middle of the box but his shot went high. A long-range shot from Luke Fromal was saved while a Colin O’Hara header off a free kick was denied with O’Hara’s try at the rebound blocked.
In the game’s 70th minute, Pennridge sent a corner into a crowd in the box with the ball headed wide right of the net.
The Rams’ Patrick Fannon delivered a free kick from the right flank into the box where Thomas McKinney slid a pass to Luca Angello for a shot outside of the right post.
Fannon and Velez made late runs at the defense but the Rams could not find a way to crack the South defense.
“Hats off to coach Kyle (Pettican), they did a great job stuffing us at the right time and making it difficult,” Valimont said. “It’s no secret we put Shane everywhere we can and he did a fantastic job and he still got some chances.
“And look, we just couldn’t find the net or when we did find the net, it wasn’t challenging enough or we didn’t follow on rebounds.”
