North Penn edges Plymouth Whitemarsh to reach District 1 2nd round

TOWAMENCIN >> Two pivotal scores by Jake Diamond were sandwiched around a four-goal effort by Reece Udinski, and North Penn refused to give up the ball in the final minutes, locking down a 9-8 victory over Plymouth-Whitemarsh in a District 1 first-round playoff contest Tuesday night.

“It feels great to be moving on,” said Diamond, whose team will play the winner of the Garnet Valley-Pennridge clash on Thursday. “Just to be able to keep playing at this time in the season — no one on our team has ever experienced that, so it’s a crazy feeling.”

Diamond scored to give the Knights a 9-8 lead with 2 minutes and 51 seconds left. He then won the ensuing face-off, and North Penn expertly worked the ball around in the PW end, ensuring a trip to the second round.

The 11th-seeded Knights rallied from a 5-4 deficit at the half and also a 7-5 hole in the third quarter, with Udinski’s four goals the driving force.

After Nick Keim powered one in to bring the Knights within 7-6, Udinski’s fourth goal of the night evened things up at seven. Udinski then set up Keim on a nifty pass in front, giving North Penn an 8-7 advantage with 9:22 left.

PW’s Jake Kelly fired a shot in down low, hitting the back of the net to make it a tie game once again, with 6:57 to play.

Diamond’s goal climaxed things for the Knights, and the rival Colonials never got a chance to answer, thanks to another clutch face-off by Diamond.

“Jake is such an iron man. He really is,” North Penn coach Rick Smith said. “He is non-stop and he puts the team on his shoulders. He does everything for us. He plays offense. He plays defense. He takes the face-offs. And when Jake is on, our team is on.”

After trailing by one at the half, Udinski came right out and completed a hat trick, then added another goal in the fourth.

“These guys like these spotlight games,” Smith said. “Once again, Reece came through in the clutch. And I think for everyone all-around, everyone as an entire team, it feels good.”

Momentum and the lead swung back and forth in a tightly-contested first half.

The No. 22 Colonials began the contest by controlling the ball for several minutes before North Penn intercepted a pass and raced upfield. Diamond – despite being slashed – rifled in a shot for the Knights as he was falling to the ground, putting NP up 1-0.

North Penn doubled its lead with 3:49 to go in the opening quarter when Matt Dickson scored, making it 2-0. The Colonials then got their attack going, as Zach Zygmunt, who had a big first half for PW, set up Alex Savarese, slicing the deficit to 2-1 at the end of the first quarter.

Zygmunt got the visitors going again, feeding it to Jake Kelly for a score, tying the contest at two apiece. North Penn countered with the play of Udinski up top, as the junior put in two unassisted goals, giving the Knights a 4-2 lead midway through the second quarter.

PW would do all of the scoring the rest of the half.

Zygmunt scored to bring PW within one, Savarese converted off a pass from Kenny Diamond, and then Austin Betterly finished on a feed from Zygmunt, pushing the Colonials into the lead for the first time, 5-4 at the break.

PW, showing vast improvement from its opening-day loss to the Knights, would push ahead by two in the third, but North Penn was able to rally.

“The first time we played them kind of set the tone for our season,” Colonials coach Bryan Gregg said. “It was, by far, the worst game we played all year. We have a very young team, especially our defense, so it was a learning experience.

“And we grew leaps and bounds from that time. Going from a 17-8 loss to a 9-8 battle to the very end was a drastically different result. North Penn is an excellent team. They have some really strong, solid players that made a difference at the end.”