LOWER GWYNEDD — Wissahickon boys soccer’s Dylan Horwitz got his head onto a ball sent into the 18-yard box by Chanwoo Kim, directed it past a diving goalkeeper and into the bottom right corner of the net to open the scoring in Thursday’s afternoon matchup with visiting Cheltenham.
“I think I just got a good flick on my head,” Horwitz said. “It was more powerful than I thought. For winning the headballs, you can get lucky, get a good break and that’s what happened and got us up.”
A little more than three minutes later, the Trojans senior forward again put himself in the right place at the right time in the box to double his side’s advantage, knocking in a cross from Charlie Stehlik with 10:27 remaining in the first half.
“It’s exactly what we’ve been practicing,” Horwitz said. “Taking it down the line and getting the good cross in, trying to get it low on our foot. It got my knee — it went in. That’s all you got to do.”
Horwitz’s brace plus a penalty kick conversion by Ryan Dowdy after the break helped Wissahickon hold off a tough battle from the Panthers, who got two goals in the second half from Keegan Peet but could not find a late equalizer as Wissahickon claimed a 3-2 victory in the SOL crossover.
“We’ve been looking to get on a good winning streak,” Horwitz said. “A lot of times we’ve been winning and losing so getting these three wins in a row, it’s been huge against a good team today so we just got to keep it up and stay above .500.”
Peet pulled Cheltenham (6-4-0, 4-4-0 SOL Freedom) to within 2-1 at 28:49 left in regulation, the senior getting a ball on the right side and sending a shot into the opposite corner.
“I wasn’t thinking in the moment, it was trying to get a shot off because that’s something I’ve been working on lately, just getting the shot off,” Peet said. “And I didn’t put as much power on it as I hoped but bottom-left corner, placed it.
Wissahickon (5-4-0, 4-4-0 SOL Liberty), however, pushed the margin back to two just 2:29 later as a penalty kick was given after as the outcoming Panthers keeper challenged Jayden Kim’s run into the box. Dowdy stepped up to take the PK and directed a shot right and into the net for a 3-1 lead at 26:20.
“They’re a very good team, we knew that going into it,” Horwitz said. “And the fact that we were up the whole game, that’s going to make a very good team even more mad and that felt like they should be in this. Like I said, we can’t let our minds get lost and we just got to stay in it.”
Peet had the Panthers back within a goal with his second strike of the half at 20:51. Getting down the right side, Peet sent a ball into the box that he eventually recollected then proceeded to worked over to the box’s left and placed a shot in.
“I was trying to hit Chamar (Blanchard) on the left side cause he was wide open, it’s my bad but bounced right to me,” Peet said. “So I’m going to use that. I’m going to pounce on that and finish it after.”
Looking for the tying goal, the Panthers came close on a ball sent past the keeper on the left post and across the front of the goal but it rolled wide of the far post. Cheltenham continued to put pressure on the Trojans defense but could not find a third tally and dropped their second straight.
“It’s just frustrating because everyone on this team, we know we’re a good team, we know what it takes to win,” Peet said. “The past two weeks we’ve been on the wrong side of a couple of these same games and we just know we can win so everyone’s really frustrated but we’re going to use this to bounce back on Tuesday.
“And if it’s going to do anything it’s going to fuel us to work harder because we just know we should be winning and we’re just coming up unlucky I think.”
Cheltenham has already matched its win total from the last two seasons combined — it won four games in 2021 and two last year. The Panthers started this season with four straight wins before splitting a four-games-in-five-days stretch last week. Cheltenham fell 3-2 to Abington in overtime Tuesday.
“It’s a real brotherhood this year,” Peet said. “Whereas most of the time with high school you got freshmen, you got sophomores, juniors, seniors, this year we’re all pretty similar in age but even the younger kids, even the underclassmen we all just love each other. It’s like a brotherhood this year.”
Both teams have SOL crossover contest at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday — Wissahickon looks for a fourth straight win visiting New Hope-Solebury while Cheltenham hosts Upper Dublin.
Horwitz gave the Trojans a 1-0 lead at 13:47, getting up for a header on a ball from Chanwoo Kim and getting enough on it for the ball to find its way into the lower right corner.
“This year, I know that’s what (Wissahickon coach Stuart Malcolm) likes and needs us to do,” Horwitz said. “So I’ve learned how to get better at that and I’ve seen the success through that.”
Horwitz made it 2-0 for the hosts, getting a piece of Stehlik’s cross to send the ball into the left side of the net at 10:27.
“I got Charlie Stehlik on the outside, I know where he’s going to give a good cross every time,” Horwitz said. “He’s going to win that run so you know just got to be there, crashing at the right time. That’s what we’ve been practicing so getting any body part on that and getting it on target is what I wanted to do.”
