By Neil Geoghegan
ngeoghegan@21st-centurymedia.com
@NeilMGeoghegan on Twitter
LONDON GROVE >> For just the second time in his high school soccer career, Jack Pelkowski celebrated a game-winning overtime goal by whipping off his jersey.
It first happened about a year ago in a late regular season contest against Haverford. And it happened again Tuesday for the West Chester Rustin senior, when his goal gave the visiting Golden Knights a 2-1 overtime victory at Avon Grove.
“To be able to put that ball in the net felt incredible,” he said. “That’s why my shirt came off. It was a fun moment.”
It also provided a big sigh of relief for Rustin (9-2 in the Ches-Mont, 13-3-1 overall), who dominated every statistical category but had a hard time shaking the stubborn Red Devils, who also had a lot of motivation in the second to last outing of the regular season for both.
“If you’ve been around as long as I have, you see games like this,” said Knights’ head coach Ryan Castle. “We hit the post seven or eight times. But we’re happy to see the boys creating chances.”
Currently No. 7 in the District 1 4A Power Rankings, Rustin will host Oxford to close out the regular season. And as long as the team stays in the top eight, it could mean a couple home games for the upcoming district playoffs.
For Avon Grove (5-6, 8-9), the postseason picture is murkier. The Devils have dropped three straight, and must be in the top 28 to earn a district berth. They are currently No. 24.
“We have a very tough Downingtown West team left,” said Avon Grove head coach Joe Herman. “We are trying to help the guys focus on doing the things that will put them in a position to have a chance.
“We need to keep our heads up and keep battling. All we can ask as coaches is that they work hard for each other.”
The Devils did that on Tuesday. Trailing 1-0 and time running out, Avon Grove sophomore Joey Turturo notched the equalizer with just 2:27 remaining in regulation, off a centering pass from teammate Joey Herman.
“Tony (Marcelo-Zavala) played a ball off to Joey (Herman), and he played it in to Turturo, and that’s his first goal of the season,” Joe Herman reported.
“We’ve been working on trying to get our midfielders to commit to attacking. And Joey is one of those midfielders.”
It sent the game to overtime. But just 3:36 into the first 10-minute session, Pelkowski beat two defenders to a loose ball and his shot beat Devils’ goaltender Jackson Mills, who wound up making 20 saves. And then off came Pelkowski’s jersey.
“I worked on my speed last summer,” Pelkowski said. “I knew I was going to get to that ball. I saw that the keeper wasn’t coming out, one defender didn’t cut it off, and volleys on my right is something I work on.”
In the offseason, Castle and his staff moved Pelkowski to striker and it has been a fruitful move for all involved. Pelkowski has now scored 13 goals this season.
“Credit to Jack in the overtime. We always tell him to keep working and you will get your reward,” Castle said.
“He’s done fantastic. It was a move (to striker) we wanted to make in the summer, and credit to him – he accepted it and embraced it.”
The first goal of the match came about five minutes into the second half when senior defender Scottie Ely was awarded a penalty kick, and he buried it into the lower left corner. For the evening, Rustin had a sizable edge in both shots on goal (22-6) and corner kicks (6-1).
And a bunch of prime scoring chances came with it. In one 12-minute-plus stretch of the second half, the Knights worked for four golden opportunities: one by Cole Turner hit off the near post, another by Brody Dunn hit the crossbar, and two others got past Mills but were saved by defenders Gabe Campese and Isaac Armstrong, respectively.
“We knew (Avon Grove) was hungry,” Pelkowski said. “They needed this win. A lot of teams are looking to knock us off.
“(Avon Grove’s goalie) stood on his head tonight. We can’t control that. We just have to keep working and find those easy tap-in goals instead of half-chances and long shots. It would be nice to make it easier on ourselves.”
The Knights had the better of the scoring chances in the first half as well, but it was 0-0 at the half. There was a dangerous scrum in front of the Devils’ goal in the opening minutes, and Turner hit the near post on a free kick about seven minutes in, but no goals. And early in the second half, Pelkowski also had a blast that bounced off the far post.
“To be honest, I probably should have had a hat trick in the first half,” Pelkowski said. “Finishing just wasn’t there tonight. Sometimes that happens.
“But we had each other’s back and we were able to get it done in OT. It shouldn’t have come down to that, but this is a tough environment to play in.”
For the Devils, it was noteworthy that they allowed just one PK goal in 80 minutes of regulation.
“We stuck together,” Herman said. “And the thing I liked was they everybody had everybody else’s back.
“(Rustin) is a very good team. They create chances all over the place. Our goal was to try to keep them out as best as we could. I thought our boys did a nice job.”
It was also a valuable learning lesson for Rustin.
“I thought we limited their scoring chances for the majority of the game, but credit to Avon Grove,” Castle said. “They needed this game, they came out strong and they worked hard. They continued to push and believe and we went to sleep a little bit there with two minutes to go. It was a good lesson for districts. That can’t happen – you have to have 80 minutes of concentration.”
West Chester Rustin 2, Avon Grove 1 (OT)
W.C. Rustin 0 1 1 — 2
Avon Grove 0 1 0 — 1
W.C. Rustin goals: Ely, Pelkowski.
Avon Grove goal: Turturo.
Goalie saves: Chappell (WCR) 5; Mills (AG) 20.
