McDevitt gets first win in PCL, defeats O’Hara
Even though both McDevitt and Cardinal O’Hara entered Tuesday’s game with 0-7 records in the Philadelphia Catholic League, slim playoff hopes were still possible for the winner. It took a little for McDevitt to take control but once it did it never looked back as it crushed O’Hara 4-0.
“It was a poor performance,’ O’Hara coach Sean Pearson said.
After playing a brutal schedule early in the season with the likes of tough Catholic League opponents Father Judge, St Joes Prep, Archbishop Wood and Lansdale Catholic just to name a few, the lumps the Lancers have taken have proved to battle test them.
“We saw last game against Wood that there were times we could move the ball against them,’ McDevitt coach AJ Heintz said. “That’s the top team in our league going into today, so if we can do that against the number one team we can do that against the number two team, number three team, all the way down.’
In soccer it’s not uncommon to see a team easily control possession and eventually win the game, it doesn’t however mean that possession gets converted into goals. McDevitt was able to cash its possession into goals as it scored in a variety of ways.
“The boys were ready to play,’ Heintz said. “They got the first one they started believing, they got the second one, the third one, the fourth one. They played for their seniors. They knew today was do-or-die.’
Arguably the nicest goal of the day came in the 50th minute as the ball bounced towards the O’Hara keeper, who was charging the ball, midfielder Dan Uhrlich tipped the ball over the keeper’s head as Dan Fiorella headed in his second goal of the game.
The midfield combo of Ehrlich, Fiorella, Joe Duddy and Jake Cantwell were solid all game for the Lancers, which was nothing new as they have served as the backbone of the team all year.
“They played great,’ Heintz said. “There were a couple of times where they started getting away from the game.’
McDevitt also got its best defensive game of the year, anchored by sophomore David Rivera and keeper Alex Wilson as the junior earned the blank sheet notching the first Catholic League win for the Lancers in four years.
“That’s the best defense I’ve seen our team play in two years,’ Heintz said. “Kudos to (the whole defense), they kept the shutout. That was our goal.’
McDevitt has to win three of its four remaining games to make it into the playoff picture while its far from guaranteed the Lancers will win the three necessary, one thing is for sure, they have already played harder games to date.
