By Neil Geoghegan
ngeoghegan@21st-centurymedia.com
@NeilMGeoghegan on Twitter
WESTTOWN >> With West Chester Henderson having topped all of the contenders, and holding a firm grip on the Ches-Mont regular season crown, the rest of the league’s upper echelon of boys’ soccer teams are now vying for postseason position.
Two of those met up Thursday evening, and West Chester Rustin exited with a key 2-0 shutout win over visiting Downingtown West. Now 8-2 in the league and 11-3-1 overall, the Golden Knights are honing in on a top-eight seed for the upcoming District 1 4A Tournament, which potentially comes with two postseason home games.
“Our goal is to host two home playoff games,” said senior defender Scottie Ely.
“I think we are in a good spot where we can lock up the seventh seed,” added Rustin head coach Ryan Castle. “That’s the goal. You host a first round game, and if you win that, you host again.”
The Knights entered the day seventh in the district power rankings, and close out the regular season at Avon Grove, at home versus Oxford, and a non-league road game at Haverford.
“We knew this was going to be a battle,” Castle said. “(West) is a good team. But I thought our guys put together a complete 80 minutes.”
The Whippets fall to 9-5 overall (7-4 in the Ches-Mont) and tumble from 11th to 13th in the power rankings. The top 16 seeds (out of 28 total) earn a first round home game.
“(Rustin) works hard, and out of all the Ches-Mont teams they play most similar to us,” West head coach Joe Sales said. “They move the ball well through the midfield, and they did that tonight. We didn’t cover the field as well as we should have.
“We also gave up too many stupid fouls that allowed (Rustin) to get some good free kicks.”
It was a competitive defensive battle from the start. But the momentum turned Rustin’s way when a shot by Cole Turner was punched away by Whippets’ keeper Jason Nolan Dobry. It bounced off the crossbar, however, and senior Ben Lewis was on hand to deposit it into the net at the 13:06 mark.
“Part of our pregame talk was to be there and don’t react but anticipate,” Castle said. “It was cool to see the guys buy in, and we get a goal there.”
Nolan Dobry was subbing for starting goaltender, Braden Dowds, who suffered a broken nose earlier in the week.
“Our backup keeper made a great save, tipped it off the bar, and (Rustin) got the rebound,” Sales added. “It was tough to give up that goal because it changed the complexion of the game.”
The Whippets managed just one shot on goal in the opening 52-plus-minutes, and finished with four total. And the Rustin defense allowed just one corner kick.
“This is our ninth clean sheet this season,” Castle pointed out. “We’ve given up 13 goals in 15 games, and five of them came against Downingtown East.
“It’s a good group (of defenders). They are locked in, they communicate and they work hard.”
Clinging to a precarious 1-0 lead, the Knights finally got an insurance goal with 4:18 to go, cashing in on their second corner kick of the evening. Ely headed in the fourth goal of his senior season.
“I didn’t know if I should come in and the coaches were waving me on,” he explained. “I was still running in when Danny (McGonagle) started winding up. I ended up getting a little piece of my head on it and it went in.”
In eight home games this season, Rustin has allowed just a single goal. Afterwards, Ely mentioned the rest of the team’s defensive unit: Nick Peters, Quincy Donnelly, Ryan Ross and Lucas Band.
“We have each other’s backs. We’ve worked hard locking forwards and wingers down,” he said. “(West) has some good attackers and we did a good job. We battled and we covered for each other.”
The Whippets have a road game at Holy Ghost Prep, and will play host to Radnor and Avon Grove to close out the regular season.
“We didn’t do a good job of moving the ball across the field,” Sales said. “Instead, we tried to play in small spaces and we couldn’t get out.
“It seems like my guys were a little slow in the first half. I thought they definitely showed a lot more heart in the second half. The best spell of our game was in the last two minutes.”
West Chester Rustin 2, Downingtown West 0
Downingtown West 0 0 — 0
W.C. Rustin 1 1 — 2
W.C. Rustin goals: Lewis, Ely.
Goalie saves: Nolan Dobry (DW) 4; Chappell (WCR) 4.
