Upper Dublin erases early deficit, pulls away to beat North Penn in District 1-4A first round

UPPER DUBLIN >> It was obviously not ideal for the Upper Dublin boys soccer team to go down a goal in the 10th minute of its District 1-4A first-round contest with North Penn Tuesday night.

But the early deficit was no reason for the sixth-seeded Cardinals to panic.

“At first it was a concern obviously cause we just got scored on but I felt like we could still get a goal,” UD senior Zachary Gallagher said. “There’s still so much time left, 70 minutes in the game. So I felt like our team was good enough to get another, to at least tie it up. To force an overtime or even win.”

Tommy Clayton pulled Upper Dublin even with 16:49 remaining in the first half while Campbell Heckler’s strike just 5:01 later had the hosts leading the No. 27 Knights at the break. Two more goals in the second half allowed the Cardinals to pull away and reach the second round with a 4-1 victory.

“We just kept the pressure up, started playing our game, moving the ball around,” Gallagher said. “We saw the sun was in the goalie’s eye so we just started taking shots so that’s how one slipped in and then a second one. The goalie was having trouble seeing, so Coach was telling us to shoot long balls and that’s what we did, and we scored.”

Gallagher found the back of the net to make it 3-1 while Upper Dublin finished with four different goal scorers after Reilly McLaughlin’s tally with 10:22 as the Cardinals earned their first district win since 2020 and move on to host No. 11 Pennridge – a 1-0 winner over No. 22 Wissahickon – Thursday for a spot in the quarterfinals.

“We’re just confident,” Gallagher said. “We’re just going to go play our game, go in – we’re playing at home again so that’s a good addition. We’re just going to be confident, play our game and hopefully it works out.”

North Penn, which bounced back from a tough start to the season to grab the second-to-last seed in the 28-team tournament, went up 1-0 on a well-executed play on a corner with senior Brian Scott heading in a Nate Kim cross at 30:48 in the opening half.

But the lead only lasted until the 24th minute as a low shot from Clayton got past the keeper. Heckler made it 2-1 Cards at 11:48 by putting a ball into the far left side of the net.

“Their midfield is just really good,” said Scott of Upper Dublin. “We have five, six starting sophomores and they played their hearts out, we all played our hearts out but you know undersized in the midfield, small – they’re a hell of a team. It’s hard on our defense but at the end of the day they were a better team.”

The Knights (7-10-2) could not claim a district victory for a fifth consecutive season but it was hard to see them even having a chance to do so when they sat 3-7-1 after back-to-back losses.

North Penn however, responded with four straight wins to get back to .500 at 7-7-1. Losses to Souderton and Central Bucks South followed but a 2-2 tie with Central Bucks East in the season finale helped secure a place in the playoffs.

“I’m so proud of these guys,” Scott said. “I’m so proud of myself, I’m so proud of my captains Matt Willis, Nate Kim. I’m so proud of my keeper Troy Nine. We battled so hard and even though we lost 4-1 I don’t think I could be happier.

Scott’s goal came as the Knights played a corner to the right flank for an incoming Kim, who put a cross in the perfect spot in the 18-yard box for Scott to run onto it and knock it over the keeper and into the top of the goal.

“We haven’t connected on that once, that play specifically and it was the perfect time to connect,” Scott said. “Couldn’t keep the lead but it was a great play. I’m very happy that happened.”

Upper Dublin’s equalizer came after a run down the right side by Elias Abebe, who found Clayton in the middle of the field for his strike at 11:48.

“We like our outsides back making those outside runs,” Gallagher said. “So that we play those diagonal balls in and then they can either get a head on it or put the ball back into the middle so that we can get a foot on it. That’s our whole game plan.”

Five minutes and a second later, Heckler recorded the Cardinals’ second goal, his shot from the right side going inside the far left post.

“We knew we had it at that point,” Gallagher said. “We don’t get scored on twice so we just had to keep our composure, keep putting them away.”

Gallagher gave UD the 3-1 edge after a throw-in got into the box, the senior striker volleying a shot into the net’s left side at 25:28 in the second half.

“It was a long throw, I knew I had Miles (Bondi) in front of me, I knew he could flick it on to me so I was just kind of sitting behind him and waiting for my chance and it just came,” Gallagher said. “He flicked it out to me, I just put my foot up and got a nice little tap in.”

The Cardinals made it 4-1 after another throw-in with McLaughlin scoring on a header in the 70th minute