EAST ROCKHILL >> Upper Dublin’s motto this season is “touch the fence.”
That mindset was required Thursday night at the end of a District 1-3A playback game against Pennridge with a spot in the state playoffs on the line.
The Cardinals needed to “touch the fence” when they re-grouped from losing a three-goal lead in the fourth quarter. They needed to “touch the fence” when defender Dom Paone and goalie Parish Albright hustled to earn possession on a shot that went out of bounds. They needed to “touch the fence” while killing a penalty in the final minutes of a tie game.
“We work really hard in practice,” Upper Dublin senior Al Eby said. “We have a phrase ‘touch the fence.’ It’s a full-field sprint that we start practice with and do whenever we mess up in practice. When it gets to the fourth quarter, you need to touch the fence, you need to dig deep. That’s exactly what our defense did. Backs against the wall, they dug deep and touched the fence and did our thing, played Upper Dublin lacrosse.”
After regulation ended with the two Suburban One League division champions knotted up at seven, Upper Dublin’s Will Hoffman won the faceoff in the extra session. The ninth-seeded Cardinals got their offense set up and sophomore Matt Shohen was able to beat his man, find space and score to lift his side to an 8-7 overtime win over No. 5 Pennridge at Helman Field.
“I just hit the inside roll and I shot it,” Shohen said. “Two seconds later there was a bunch of people on top of me. It felt great. I really think we deserved to win this game. It was a full team effort and I think we played great.”
The win secures Upper Dublin’s spot in the state playoffs for the first time since 2018. The SOL American champs will face No. 7 Spring-Ford to determine who enters states as District 1’s No. 5 seed and No. 6 seed.
“Our goal was just to be the best we could be,” Eby said. “We didn’t really have states in mind. We had – go out there and compete every single day. We made a really hard schedule. We played the top teams in the area, in the nation, really. Our goal is just go out there and compete every day.”
Upper Dublin (16-5) needed the late-game heroics due to Pennridge’s strong fourth quarter. The SOL National champs, who fell behind 4-0 in the first quarter, entered the fourth trailing by three, 7-4. Matt Kriney scored a pair of goals to start the final frame and Matt Seiler scored his fourth goal of the game to tie things up, 7-7, with 6:36 to play.
Both goalies – Upper Dublin’s Albright and Pennridge’s Tyler Vandermark – came up big in the fourth quarter to keep the game tied at seven. Vandermark made three saves in a 30-second stretch that ended with the Rams (16-5) gaining possession with less than a minute remaining.
Pennridge called two timeouts in the final minute – one when they secured the ball at 53.8 seconds and another in the offensive end at 31.6 seconds – but turned it over when a pass sailed out of bounds with 19.2 to go.
The Cardinals built a 4-0 lead in the first quarter with four different players scoring. Eby got things started before Cam Osborne, Shohen and Nate Brown added goals to give their side some breathing room.
Seiler responded with two goals in the second quarter to send the game to halftime with Upper Dublin ahead, 4-2.
Ryan Carickhoff and Seiler scored for Pennridge in the third quarter while Kyle Spirt, Eby and Ben Guagliardo found the back of the net for UD to make it 7-4 through 36 minutes.
Upper Dublin 8, Pennridge 7 (OT)
Upper Dublin 4 0 3 0 1 – 8
Pennridge 0 2 2 3 – 7
Goals: UD: Al Eby 2, Cam Osborne, Matt Shohen 2, Nate Brown, Kyle Spirt, Ben Guagliardo. PR: Matt Seiler 4, Ryan Carickhoff, Matt Kriney 2.
Saves: UD: Parish Albright 12. PR: Tyler Vandermark 15.
