CB East handles rival CB West, earns spot in District 1-4A title game
BUCKINGHAM >> The shirts said it all.
Gwyn Krystkiewicz had hers on a few minutes after the match ended, as did a few other teammates. Cam Williams wore hers for warm-ups, a not-so-subtle statement as No 14 Central Bucks East prepared to face rival No. 26 Central Bucks West for a third time, this one sending the winner to the District 1-4A championship match on Saturday.
The shirt? It had a simple three word quote from Phillies star Bryce Harper.
“We ain’t losing.”
East answered an early West goal and controlled things in the second half as the Patriots topped the Bucks 4-1 Tuesday night to earn a spot in the district final opposite No. 5 Neshaminy.
“We love the Phillies and it kind of represents what we’re doing,” Krystiewicz, who scored the game-winner, said. “There’s a few of us that have them, we went and got them yesterday.”
Back at the tail end of August, West had stunned East in the first game played under the lights at 1st Lt. Colby J Umbrell Field. East had evened the score at the beginning of October but just 27 seconds into Tuesday’s district semifinal, the Bucks had just the kind of start they wanted trying to make it two wins in two tries on East’s home turf.
A foul spotted West a free kick that senior Courtney Moylan blasted into the box. A collision took out a couple players as the ball found freshman Mackenzie Gausch, who headed it backwards into the goal for a shock 1-0 lead.
“That goal, it’s not the type of goal you want to give up, we know they’re dangerous off set pieces and we said that before the game,” East midfielder Elliot Forney said. “We also knew 1-0 with 20 seconds gone, it was basically a fresh start and if we just got one, we could get ourselves back into the game. When we got the first one, we settled in and didn’t think too much about anything before that.”
The Bucks knew replicating the feat they pulled on Saturday by holding No. 2 Pennridge scoreless for 80 minutes plus two overtimes before advancing on kicks would be extremely tough to manage. Even scoring early, West knew it would be pressed by a Patriots offense that’s been clicking this postseason and now sits at a 14-4 aggregate on goals after four rounds.
With midfielder Alexis Castro, their best ball-winner on the ground and in the air, again out with an injury, West was hit again when Moylan had to exit the game with 31 minutes left in the second half. Putting the cornerstone of their defense on the sideline while down a goal only invited more aggression from the Patriots and West faced an increasingly uphill climb.
“They found their groove,” Bucks midfielder/defender Kate Weyer said. “They’re a good team, I applaud them a lot, they definitely have some really good players but they work well together too. They’re smart, they use their strengths and they found our gaps and our weaknesses.”
Forney, a co-captain and the team’s attacking central midfielder, was outstanding throughout the game. She’s one of the players who got in on the “We ain’t losing” shirt bandwagon and the senior put the mantra into practice with her game-tying goal in the first half.
The Patriots had been inching toward something with each push up the field after going down a goal. On a ball into the box, Forney came down between two defenders, powered through two attempts to dislodge the ball then crashed a left-footed shot into the roof of the goal with about 15 minute to halftime.
“I think we knew we could score goals on them, but that first one proved it,” Forney said. “I’m big, I can just run through it and if I got any sliver of the goal I was going to hit it on frame and it would be a tough save for Jules (Broskey). I just had hope that I could score.”
Even Krystkiewicz, who scored the go-ahead goal that forced West to chase the game the entire second half, agreed the opening goal was the most important the Patriots bagged on Tuesday.
“I felt a sigh of relief on the first goal,” Kyrstkiewicz said. “It was the same as 0-0, and we felt back to normal.”
East took the lead early in the second half off one of the eight corner kicks the team drew during the course of the match. Krystkiewicz managed to slip in front of the goal, unmarked, and knocked a free header in with 31:49 to go on a goal that came off some quick thinking on the field.
“Cam and I were going to take the short corner but someone came up so Cam said to go in and I looked at Cam and pointed to my head like ‘hit my head,'” Krystkiewicz said. “I went in, there was nobody on me and I took my chance.”
Williams, who earned the assist on the corner, added some insurance on a goal midway through the second half that saw the senior chase down a through ball by Mikayla Gray and beat Broskey to the 50/50 ball by a half-step, clipping the keeper but still tucking the shot just inside the post for a 3-1 egde.
The Patriots had given up a two-goal lead in their loss to West earlier this season so they knew not to let up at that point. Jessie Bernabe all but sealed the deal after a pseudo game of pinball in the box, the ball bouncing off a couple players before falling to her and even her first shot being blocked right back to her feet where the junior was able to roll it in.
East will play in its first district final since winning the 2015 Class 3A championship. Neshaminy bested the Patriots in the regular season and having knocked off top-seeded Conestoga in the other semifinal, will come in with plenty of confidence but East is believing in what their shirts say.
“We knew at the beginning of the season we had what it took but we started out slow and had more ups and downs than last year,” Forney said. “We knew if we got hot at the right time, we could do something pretty good and go far. We all believed it and now we’re doing it.”
CB East 4, CB West 1
CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 1 3 – 4
CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 1 0 – 1
Goals: CBE – Elliot Forney, Gwyn Krystkiewicz, Cam Williams, Jessie Bernabe; CBW – Mackenzie Gausch
(2) Pennridge 3, (6) Abington 0 >> The Rams are going to states.
Pennridge used an early goal by Liv Grenda to take the lead over the Ghosts in their playback game Tuesday, creating an advantage they wouldn’t relinquish. Joey Tomlinson and Riley Williams scored in the second half to add some insurance while the defense held Abington scoreless for just the second time all season.
The loss ends a highly successful season for the Ghosts, who captured an SOL Liberty title with a high-scoring offense and advanced to the district quarterfinals for the second time in three seasons.
Pennridge will host No. 8 Owen J Roberts, a 4-1 winner over No. 4 Lower Merion, in the fifth-place game on Friday. Both teams have secured a spot in states and met earlier this fall, with the Rams claiming a 3-0 win.
It’s the fifth straight season Pennridge has advanced to the state tournament.
Pennridge 3, Abington 0
PENNRIDGE 1 2 – 3
ABINGTON 0 0 – 0
Goals: P – Liv Grenda, Joey Tomlinson, Riley Williams
