Pennridge scores twice in 2nd half, tops Upper Dublin in District 1-4A second round
UPPER DUBLIN >> Pete Valimont was certain Thomas McKinney was due to put a ball in the back of the net.
“We’ve been joking with him at practice that it’s coming, it’s coming,” the Pennridge boys soccer coach said. “I mean, you should see him with the set pieces in practice and how he buries ‘em. He’s just been off, just a little bit here and there, side of his head, top of his head.”
Early in the second half Thursday night, the Rams senior defender found the opportune time to record his second goal of the season – rising up to head in a corner kick from Troy Thanel to break the scoreless tie with Upper Dublin in their District 1-4A second round matchup.
“At first I wasn’t expecting it to come to me, it kind of just floated,” McKinney said. “And it was just perfect contact and I put power behind it, put it on net.”
Pennridge found success on another corner in the 68th minute, Luca Angello doubling the 11th-seeded Rams advantage as they went on to earn a 2-0 victory to knock off the host No. 6 Cardinals.
“We’re just going back and forth the whole game so I think when we get those corners we kind of know that this is going to be a big chance and that we need to capitalize,” McKinney said. “And that’s what we did.”
Pennridge’s regular season ended with bitter disappointment as the Suburban One League Colonial Division title slipped away with a 1-0 loss at Central Bucks South last Wednesday. But the Rams regrouped, edged Wissahickon 1-0 in the opening round Monday then reached the district quarterfinals for a third consecutive year by shutting out Upper Dublin.
“We were all really down but Coach is always just like flush it, doesn’t matter anymore,” McKinney said. “We’re going, we’re in playoffs, that’s where all of our focus has to be and nothing less.”
With District 1 qualifying six teams for the PIAA Tournament, the Rams (15-5-0) now have two opportunities to earn a state bid that has eluded them the past two seasons. Their first comes Saturday as it visits No. 3 Downingtown East at 11 a.m. East won its second-round contest with No. 14 Harriton 1-0.
In 2020’s COVID-19 shortened campaign, Pennridge lost in the district final to Neshaminy in a shootout while last year the Rams fell to North Penn in the fifth-place game.
“That was my biggest fear, the fact that we put so much emphasis on that, especially me with this being my last season, the last time we ever won was when I was a junior back in ’98,” said Valimont of finishing in the division. “So we were a game away from getting it. But to get them to refocus, goldfish that down the toilet and just get ready for the next game.
“Wissahickon was tough and scary, we got through it. We had a really good game plan for tonight and now we’re going to play two games regardless.”
Upper Dublin, which was looking to reach the district quarters for the second time in three seasons – losing to Pennridge 1-0 in the 2020 round of eight – ends its season at 15-3-2.
“The boys played out of their minds and they’re a big, athletic team – we’re not that big, they just beat us in the air a bunch of times in the box,” UD senior forward Chris McMeel said. “They just wanted it more and they deserved to win this game.”
The Cardinals tested the Rams defense and goalkeeper CJ Dimmick in the 18-yard box and put a few threatening shots on net but after beating North Penn 4-1 in the first round UD was shut out for just the third time in 2022.
“Their kid said in the article the other day when they won they run their outside back super high up, they look for diagonal balls, they don’t really build,” Valimont said. “Our conference, our league guys are building from the back and pinging it through the middle and everything, tiki taka. Our kids tonight, they probably turned it over 90 percent of the time when they couldn’t get it past the 50. They were just hitting balls into us.
“Now, some of those turned into chances cause we didn’t clear and everything, but at the end of the day that’s exactly what we wanted to happen and it did.”
McKinney put the Rams up 1-0 in the game’s 57 minute. Thanel’s corner kick sailed to the far left post with McKinney out-leaping a defender to get a head on the ball to send it over the keeper and into the net.
“You kind of just have to think that you got to score it,” McKinney said. “You think nothing less. If it doesn’t happen it doesn’t happen but we knew what we want to do on our set pieces and that’s what we did.”
Pennridge increased its lead with 12:06 left in regulation on a corner from Quinn Annan. After the ball knocked around the box, Angello volleyed a shot towards the right post with the ball bouncing over the goal line to make it 2-0.
“Just a scrum ball inside,” Valimont said. “We put the ball where it needed to be by Quinn Annan and then we just finished it. We did a fantastic job getting on that. And once you get that then you can park the bus, then you can let them try to limit their mistakes. They had a ton of chances, we just saw it through.”
In the opening half, McMeel got a step behind the defense but his shot went directly at Dimmick. The Cards put a free kick from 26 yards out on goal but Christian Broome’s effort was right to Dimmick.
“It felt like we deserved one at least,” McMeel said. “We had plenty of chances in the first half and we came in the second half with high hopes and just kind of got shot down after they scored that first goal. Energy was still there but that second goal kind of had us.”
Pennridge had a first-half free kick just outside the top of the 18-yard box but a low shot by Shane Velez went wide left.
