DOYLESTOWN — The Dock Mennonite roster includes a litany of standouts, including six seniors. But in the district title game, it was a freshman who seized the early spotlight.
With 23:54 left in the first half, ninth-grader Ashley Brown opened the scoring on a breakaway, and the top-ranked Dock Pioneers went on to a dominant, 3-0 victory over the rival Faith Christian Lions on Wednesday night at Central Bucks West High School, capturing their second straight District 1-1A championship.
“I saw the ball come in, and when I took that touch, I knew I had to go and take the opportunity that I had,” Brown said. “I just tried to hit it far post, and when it went in, I just felt ecstatic. I never felt something like that before.
“It feels amazing for us to be district champions,” she said. “It’s something I’m glad I’m getting to feel.”
Senior Ashley Lapp and junior Caitlin May added the other two goals before halftime for the Pioneers (18-1-2), who move on to the state playoffs and will host a first-round game Tuesday.
“The girls have worked so hard for this,” Dock coach Stacey Vaitis-Dubost said. “Since the first week of preseason, this was our goal. I’m so proud of them. They’ve had a great season and accomplished so much, and we’re not done yet.
“We wanted to ignore the outside noise and just focus on how we play,” Vaitis-Dubost said. “The girls were ready, 100-percent intensity was there for every single player on the field and even the girls on the sideline. The positivity was there. They just brought it.
“I trust my girls and their ability, and I know what they’re capable of,” she said. “They deserved this.”
In a pair of September matches, Dock beat the Lions 5-0 — its first win of the year — and then tied them 1-1.
The Pioneers’ only loss was to Lower Moreland, 3-2, way back on Sept. 1, after tying Springfield (Delco) to open the season.
“I kept telling the girls, we should be playing our best soccer from the middle and end of October and on, and they’ve been doing just that,” Vaitis-Dubost said.
For No. 2 Faith Christian, which beat the Pioneers in the district final two years ago and lost to them last year, there were tears on Wednesday night. Unlike in Class-1A boys’ soccer, in which the top two finishers from District 1 advance to the PIAA playoffs, only the district winner advances for the girls.
“Getting down early, we knew what we had to do to win, but we just didn’t do it,” Faith Christian coach Rachel Rivera said. “We know who we’re playing for as a team, we know why we’re playing, and we need to keep that the focus. We’re playing for each other, playing for Christ, playing for the gifts He gave each and every one of our girls, and playing for our school that we represent.
“Our girls dug deep, they have a lot of heart,” Rivera said. “We have a lot of seniors on the team that played their hearts out, and underclassmen as well who stepped up and gave it all they had.”
The Pioneers made some formation adjustments early in the season to maximize their personnel, and they have been rolling ever since.
“The girls this year have been absolutely amazing,” Vaitis-Dubost said. “They’re so genuine and so kind to each other, so positive. We’ve never had a team like this. They’re like a family. They’re there for each other, on and off the field. They support each other, and if somebody makes a mistake, they’re there to back them up. They brought their ‘A’ game.”
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Email Christiaan DeFranco at cdefranco@thereporteronline.com. Follow him on X at @the_defranc, or visit ChrisDeFranco.com.
